Searching the Scriptures

Sep 30 2022 - Eric Buresh

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “He/she can’t see the forest for the trees.” It’s an old idiom describing a person who fixates on small details so much they can’t see or understand the big picture. On the opposite side of the idiom spectrum is the saying, “The devil is in the details.” This saying has an interesting history. Historically, the more common version of the saying was “God is in the details.” A United States Navy admiral named Hyman Rickover is credited with the adjustment. His full statement, however, was “The devil is in the details, but so is salvation.” Both the original and the adjusted version make the same basic point – details matter.

I am by nature a big picture person. I love studying the huge flowing themes of Scripture and seeing how broad swaths of doctrine fit together to demonstrate the cohesive and majestic glory of God. I see God’s grand designs for history in His Word, I see His immeasurable and sovereign faithfulness to His purposes, and it stirs my heart’s affection for Him. I am by nature not a details person. I have some friends who love to do what I call “fixate” – focus on some name or little detail of a story and just sit on it and wring out any actual or even potential meaning from it. As an immature believer, my reaction to this generally was, that’s great, but let’s move on and get to something that matters. As I’ve matured, I’ve learned that both the big picture and the little details matter. It’s not an either/or scenario. Now, as I read Scripture, I love to let my heart wander through the big flowing streams of truth and, at the same time, I compel my mind to work hard to see and savor the little details.

Why? Because all Scriptures testify about Jesus if we have open eyes to see it. (John 5:39). In John 5, Jesus lists four witnesses about Himself – John the Baptist, His works, the testimony of His Father, and Scripture. See John 5:31-40. We could explore each of these in detail, but I want to focus where Jesus did in the versus that followed: “Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (45-47). 

It’s easy enough to see the big picture themes of Jesus’ words, but putting on my detail hat (so to speak) why is Jesus talking about Moses’ writings so specifically? Looking to the context, Jesus performed a miracle earlier in the story that He sovereignly designed down to the little details to show Himself to be the promised Messiah anticipated in Moses’ writings. At the beginning of John 5, Jesus heals an invalid man. The story includes two seemingly odd details. First, the invalid man was lying under one of five porches (or roofed colonnades) by the pool of Bethesda. (vs. 2) Second, the invalid man had been in that condition for thirty-eight years. (vs. 5) Now, how do these details relate to the writings of Moses? The five covered porches very well could picture the five books of the law written by Moses – the Pentateuch -- that the spiritually sick and lame Israelites sheltered under and relied upon as they wandered in the wilderness. Further, the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for thirty-eight years after refusing to enter the promised land when the faithless spies returned with a bad report at Kadesh Barnea. (Deut. 2:14) While we often refer to the 40 years of wandering, it was only 38 years of wandering after the spy debacle (with two years tacked on from before Kadesh Barnea). Such a detail would have been known to the Jews of Jesus’ time. The appearance of 38 years in both stories is too specific to be incidental. Israel wandered for 38 years, and the invalid man remained unhealed for 38 years. Then, Jesus comes and brings healing. Jesus was connecting Himself to Moses’ writings and analogizing Himself to the promised land flowing with life, milk, and honey. He was identifying Himself as the promised Messiah that brings true healing. As always, God brought about specific events and circumstances such that the Scriptures would testify about Jesus. With open spiritual eyes, those who search the Scriptures can see Him in these details. While I love to see the forest, and not just the trees, I also rejoice that “God is in the details” because He surely is. So, we praise Him in the big flowing themes of His glory in Scripture, and we praise Him in the millions of beautiful little details in Scripture that show us Jesus.