In studying the Bible, the book of books, we need to be clear that the Bible is not a book of doctrine. Strictly speaking, the Bible is not even a book of truths. What, then, is the Bible? The Bible is the divine revelation. The Greek word for revelation means to uncover something that has been hidden or concealed. The Bible is totally God's revelation concerning Himself, the universe, and humanity. The more I study the Bible, the more I am convinced that it is not by man but by God. There are a great many sentences in the Scriptures that could have been uttered only by God.
To understand the Bible as the divine revelation, we need a spirit of wisdom to know and a spirit of revelation to see. This was the reason Paul prayed that "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory," would give to us "a spirit of wisdom and revelation" (Eph. 1:17). This indicates that we need divine wisdom to understand the divine revelation. The natural human mind and the common human knowledge cannot apprehend the revelation of God. For this we need a spirit. Thank God that He has created us with such an organ! As Job 32:8a says, "There is a spirit in man." God has created for us a spirit particularly that we may know Him. Today we need a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know and to see the things which are covered, hidden, concealed.
We must admit that we do not know the Bible. Only the processed and consummated Triune God knows the Bible. The more we realize this, the more we will pray, "Lord, we need You. We need Your mercy and Your blessing. Lord, we need You as the Spirit and as the Word. Otherwise, we may read the Bible again and again and still not know anything."
The Bible as the divine revelation reveals God's eternal economy, which is for a particular person—Christ. Christ is God Himself from eternity, but one day He became a man. He is the complete God and a perfect man; hence, He is called the God-man. We can see God only in Christ. Apart from Christ, or outside of Christ, we cannot see God. Likewise, the real humanity is only in Christ. Apart from Him, we cannot see a true, real, and genuine man.
Christ came to do the will of the Father (John 6:38; 4:34; 5:30), to carry out God's economy. He lived on earth and tasted all aspects of human life. He then went to the cross and died an all-inclusive death. Three days later He rose in His humanity, and by resurrection He brought His humanity into divinity, making His humanity a part of the Son of God (Rom. 1:3-4). In this way He became the firstborn Son of God, regenerating us as the many sons of God (Rom. 8:29; 1 Pet. 1:3).
He as God became a man, and we as man are becoming God in life and in nature but not in His Godhead. He is the source, and we are the produce. The produce must be the same as the source. Thus, we, the children of God (John 1:12), are the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, in the person of God. As a whole, we are the Body of Christ. Christ as the Head and we as the Body form the new man (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10-11). As believers in Christ, we all are parts of this new man. This is a brief sketch of the divine revelation concerning God's economy.
Without this governing view of God's economy, we cannot understand the Bible. If we do not have such a view as we read the Bible, we will wrongly understand the Bible. This is the reason I pointed out in the messages on Joshua, Judges, and Ruth that the most important thing for us to see is God's economy. These three books are not merely books of history; they are a part of the divine revelation concerning God's economy. Furthermore, in these books are a number of types, which are pictures, portraits, showing us how we can participate in God's economy. The principle is exactly the same with the books of 1 and 2 Samuel. These books are part of the revelation concerning God's economy and contain pictures related to our participation in God's economy.