Holy Encryption

Luke 24:45 And [Jesus] opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

I realize that I altered the verse above by replacing "He" with His name.  I did that to make a point.  While it's true that Jesus spoke directly to the two on the road and indeed explained how the scriptures foretold of all the things that had happened in the past week, the very person of Jesus is what unlocks all the meaning of scripture.

We tell many new Christians to read the New Testament first for a reason.  Delving into the Old Testament without first knowing the gospel is a bad idea.  The picture of Almighty God revealed in the Old Testament is incomplete.  He hinted to it Himself many times:

Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, 'My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure, '

Isaiah 46 is only one place where He hints at the fact that the Bible is not written in what men would consider linear order.  Throughout scripture, God makes the statement that He is not limited by time.  Jesus is referred to as "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" and yet that statement doesn't appear until the very last book of the Bible (Revelation 13:8).  That's a key piece of information.

God declares time and again that the wisdom of the world is not enough for us to understand Him.  Here's a very interesting way He put it:

Isaiah 29:11 The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, " Read this, please." And he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed."

He speaks at the end of the Bible about another sealed bit of information.  This time it's a scroll in God's hand with 7 seals.  All the elders at the throne make a big fuss about the fact that there is no one worthy of opening the seals....until the Lamb that was slain shows up:

Revelation 5:8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty- four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation

Now go back to Isaiah 29:11 where it shows how men cannot read what God has written because it is "sealed".  Jump forward to Revelation 5:8 and you see that "The Lamb that was slain" is able to unseal what God has sealed.  Only Jesus can open the seal.  Only Jesus can open our understanding of what God wrote.

Here's another way of looking at it.  To seal something is to hide it.  In modern times we hide information using cryptography.  We encrypt things like documents and messages and passwords.  Every single method of encryption requires a key.  So, suppose I have a letter that I want to encrypt so nobody can read it.  I could use simple method like transposing letters.  I just write my letter but instead of using the alphabet the way a normal person would, I substitute each character for the one 5 spaces down the alphabet.  Then whenever I want someone to read it I tell them to replace each character with the one 5 spaces before it.  That 5 spaces is the "key" to unlock my letter. The document appears to be nonsense unless you read it with my 5-space-transposition cypher in mind.  All of scripture is exactly the same except Jesus is the key that unlocks it!

God encrypted the scriptures and then put the key at the end!  Quite literally, He put the beginning or prologue of the Bible (Jesus being our redeemer and the ultimate revelation of The Father) at the end!  But why?

Isaiah 29:13 Therefore the Lord said: " Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,

He did not want men to pay lip service to Him.  He did not want to empower men with heavenly knowledge and then be forgotten.  Israel was teaching God's words to each other but without any meaning or true purpose.  Jesus talked about how they obeyed the letter of the law but not the spirit.  The Bible is encrypted by God, sealed, to hide it's true wisdom from the understanding of men who would seek power but not relationship.

Always faithful, Jesus makes it very clear:

Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

While I realize that Jesus was speaking about why we have no need to seek for basic needs like food and clothing and shelter, I believe the principle holds with regard to wisdom.  We cannot seek anything for its own sake.  That's what Jesus is saying.  If we seek The Kingdom, we will seek The King.

Bill Johnson likes to say, "Jesus is perfect theology."  That boils this whole thing down so simply.  He answers every question, provides every need.  He reveals The Father so completely in the New Testament that we are able to see Jesus operating and interacting with Israel in the Old.  It was Jesus who created Adam.  It was Jesus who forged a close relationship with Abraham.  It was Jesus who David sang love songs to.  It was Jesus who Israel left standing alone on Mt. Sinai.  It was always Him and He always wanted to gather us all, Jew and Gentile, under Him like a mother hen does her chicks.