Someone posed a question recently about if you had to summarize what the Bible is about, how would you describe it.  I didn't envy the creators of the recent History Channel series: The Bible, because they had to fit the entire Bible into a little less than 10 hours.

If I had to give a rough summary of the Bible, I would say it was God's autobiography about His own greatness and how He unexpectedly took a harlot as His wife when He chose to redeem the people of Israel.  The Bible is a recap of the process of sanctification He brought His people through. It started with a promise to Abraham that He would give him many descendants and the land of Canaan to live in. Then it proceeded through years and years of Israel giving themselves to other gods and disgracing the name of God.  In our human state, we were unable to glorify God, so God promises through his prophet Ezekiel that He will restore Israel and bring them back from the neighboring nations they had been in bondage to.  He promised to take Israel's heart of stone and put in them a heart of flesh.  He also promises to send His Holy Spirit to dwell in them so that their heart would no longer be divided and would  be capable to follow His ways.  Many years pass as prophets foretell the coming of the Messiah who will deliver the people of Israel. They understand this to be a great King that will militarily deliver Israel from Roman Oppression.  Jesus comes and fulfills every prophecy regarding the Messiah that was foretold and begins a movement of love and humility that changes the world.  After he gives himself up as a sacrifice to save Israel from their sin and restore them to relationship with God the Father, the Holy Spirit is then sent.  Any person that accepts Jesus as their Savior is given the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This new disposition inside of us gives us the ability to follow God the way He originally intended. This next step in our sanctification was necessary but is still hindered by the presence of the flesh that remains within us.  This frustrates mankind but they hold tightly to the hope that one day God will return for His people.  At this time we will be resurrected and given new bodies and the flesh will be done away with and only the Spirit will remain thus completing the process of man's sanctification.  Man will then spend eternity communing with God and giving Him glory for eternity.

Ok, maybe that's a little more than a summary, but it's a LONG story!  One of my favorite representations of God's redemption of His people is the story of Hosea and Gomer.  It is a beautiful story of a man who takes a prostitute as his wife.  This wife is repeatedly unfaithful to him, yet he takes her back again and again and restores her with a love that confounds.  This picture is also painted in Derek Webb's song Wedding Dress:

If you could love me as a wife 
and for my wedding gift, your life 
Should that be all I'd ever need 
or is there more I'm looking for? 

and should I read between the lines 
and look for blessings in disguise? 
To make me handsome, rich, and wise 
Is that really what you want?

I am a whore I do confess 
But I put you on just like a wedding dress 
and I run down the aisle 
and I run down the aisle 
I'm a prodigal with no way home 
but I put you on just like a ring of gold 
and I run down the aisle to you 

So could you love this bastard child 
Though I don't trust you to provide? 
With one hand in a pot of gold 
and with the other in your side 

I am so easily satisfied 
by the call of lovers so less wild 
That I would take a little cash 
Over your very flesh and blood 

Because money cannot buy 
a husband's jealous eye 
When you have knowingly deceived his wife 

I am so humbled when I am reminded of the truth that I am very much an unfaithful whore who is "so easily satisfied by the call of lovers so less wild..."