October 31

"Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable . . . that the man of God may be complete." 2 Timothy 3:16,17

From beginning to end the Bible maintains an organic unity. It is no disorderly compilation of human minds, but is bound together by the working of the Holy Spirit of God, so that what we have today is fully at one with its origins. The five books of Moses stand at the beginning of the record–and this is the significant point: all who wrote afterward built upon them; they did not write independently. Joshua builds on the foundation of the Pentateuch, and so does the author of the books of Samuel.

Though the writers are various, every book in the Old Testament builds on what went before. And when we reach the New Testament the same is true: the New uses the Old as its springboard. You cannot discard the Old Testament and retain only the New Testament; neither can you cut out the four Gospels and keep only the letters of Paul. God does not say one thing yesterday and another thing today. His Word is one. From start to finish, it lives and speaks to our need.