We begin reading the book of Mark this week and even in these opening chapters you’ll see the quick pace he’s known for. He’s pretty direct and to the point, at least compared to the other gospel writers.
He starts off, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Yet it is so important that at this beginning, Mark immediately then quotes the book of Isaiah. So verse one says this is the beginning and verse two tell us that it actually goes back further. He begins by looking back. It’s of great importance for the reader to understand that something new has happened in the coming of Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God, in his life, death, and resurrection is unlike anything that had come before. But before he came, the prophets were pointing the way. Therefore is it also so important to hold the whole Bible in your hands, and not think that the New Testament is the start of God’s Word. The gospels mark the beginning of the turning point of history, but there is history that preceded Jesus.
So hold those two ideas together: Jesus is the beginning of something new, but the plans of God go way back. We can’t lose that link, and if we do, we miss out on how God is able to work throughout all time and how he has always had a plan that in Jesus, his Son, he would come to set things right.
Year in the Bible 