We’re born into a confusing world. Our lives are often filled with joy, but sometimes that’s overshadowed by pain, suffering, and disappointment. The Bible explains that our world is broken and we’re trapped in spiritual darkness because humanity has wandered into the weeds and spurned God and his purpose for us, everything he created us to be.
God’s will and purpose for creating the world is expressed in one of the most repeated phrases in the Old Testament:
“I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
You’ll find this phrase at least 30 times in the Old Testament, and six more in the New Testament. It forms the second part of what is called the new covenant, found in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Jeremiah 31:33
But God can’t be our God, and we can’t be his people in the fallen world as it currently exists. So, God is going to redeem and restore our broken world and re-create us as he always intended us to be. That’s a consistent theme through the entire Bible, and it closes the circle at the end of Revelation, where we see that God has finished building his permanent home, and ours.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
Revelation 21:3 NIV
One indicator of the genius of the Bible is that hundreds of stories and word pictures were written by many different authors from varied backgrounds. Those writers lived in different times, so they never met each other. They never had a chance to see the whole story or how their small parts fit into the big picture. In isolation, the individual books don’t convey the whole message. But taken together, they form a complete and cohesive message that addresses our most fundamental and pressing questions. And each story within the overall story adds new facets to the consistent overarching message of scripture: God is redeeming and restoring us and our broken world.