How The Bible is Like a Puzzle

puzzle by Martin Boose at www.freeimages.com

puzzle by Martin Boose at www.freeimages.com

When most people refer to the Bible as a puzzle they are talking about its mystery and difficulty, but I like to refer to it as a puzzle to illustrate how we come to  understand it.

When studying with seekers who have little experience with the Bible, I like to refer them to putting together a jigsaw puzzle.  Just like that jigsaw puzzle the Bible can be pretty intimidating and overwhelming to a newcomer.  It is after all, a huge book involving 66 individual books.  It has hundreds of characters, different types of genre, and many different authors.  It covers thousands of years of history and involves several different civilizations and ancient peoples.  It can feel like you will never be able to grasp this book.

I encourage them, by reminding them of a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle.  It also seems overwhelming, but you start by finding the border pieces.  You then group sections by color and similar features.  You begin to put small patches together.  At first, you cannot make out the whole picture, but you are starting to get sections.  One piece helps you find another piece.  One section compliments another section so that you now can begin to get a glimpse of the overall puzzle.  Pretty soon the whole picture is coming into focus.

So it is in the Bible!  You should just focus on learning the piece or section you are studying today.  As you learn more in future days it will all begin to fit together.  You will start to see the connections and one part will help you better understand another. The learning curve is somewhat steep at first, but the more you study, the easier it gets to understand.  So please don’t lose heart before you even get started on the greatest and most important journey you can take of learning God’s Word!

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV)

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1 comment

  1. Excellent illustration!

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