Overlapping Statements

By God's mercy, as we continue to study the Bible we begin to see a common thread in the way the Lord has given us His Word. When we read any text we have a normal tendency of reading from left to right in a linear fashion. We go from point A to point B to point C ect.

However, when it comes to the Bible we should keep in mind the concept of overlapping, recapping or redundancy. In other words. The Bible is not written in a linear fashion. Each word or statement has to be analyzed in the immediate context as well as in the light of the whole Bible. God can go from point A to point B to point A again and then to point C and back to B etc. The Lord can repeat a prior statement using different words. Consider the following:

Valley of dry bones: The state of the corporate body prior to the depart out:

Eze 37:9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

Recap of the above verse:

Eze 37:12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

Breathing on the slain so that they may live (believers coming out of tribulation) is the same as having their graves opened in order to come into the land of Israel.

Re 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Re 20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Re 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Revelation 20 is quite complex but the above is seen as redundant statements where God is overlapping and repeating the same thing from another angle. Those beheaded for the witness of Jesus would identify with the true believers killed during the 1st part of the tribulation. At the depart out, they live and reign with Christ a thousand years (completeness of God's plan for them). The rest of the dead, again, is a focus on those who come out of tribulation. They identify with the first resurrection and, again, live with Christ a thousand years.

Overlapping statements, I believe are more prevalent in the book of Revelation, thus making this book the most difficult one in the whole Bible. Even though I label them sometimes as redundant statements doesn't mean we can remove them from the Bible. They are there for a reason. I believe this is the Lord's way of giving us more information in helping us to undertand the Bible.