When we first pick up a Bible, it can seem utterly confusing, rather like opening a jigsaw box and seeing pieces strewn everywhere!
We have to understand that the Bible is actually 66 books within one book, all dealing with different aspects of life as God reveals it. These books actually form different genres or categories:
These often form interlocking pieces, helping to understand different aspects of God’s revelation (through the Law, through history, through poetry, through letters and so on.)
Some parts of the Bible may be easier to understand than others, just as some jigsaws are easier than others (3D jigsaws are particularly difficult, for example.)
However, 2 Tim 3:16 reminds us that all Scripture is God-breathed and has a purpose in shaping our lives, teaching, rebuking, correcting and training us in righteousness. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that God’s word is ‘alive and active and sharper than any double-edged sword’, a word that is better than bread itself, a word that feeds us and sustains us (Matt 4:4) and dwells in us richly (Col 3:16) and creates faith in us (Rom 10:17) so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope. (Rom 15:4) The jigsaw pieces we took home (which had these Bible verses on) remind us of the importance of God’s word in our daily lives and how God wants to shape our piece of the jigsaw into His overall plan to make us like His Son. (Rom 8:28-29)