God’s communicating to man through his deeds and words is a marvelous example of what has been called “divine condescension”: his coming down to man’s level. We communicate with each other in symbols and signs, often through stories. How else would God speak to us–a people who make signs to communicate–if not by those very same signs?

God reveals himself through deeds and words because he has a plan of loving goodness for our salvation, and he wants us to know about that plan. The Bible is one way that God’s deeds and words, called his Revelation, are transmitted. The Old Testament is always joined together with the New Testament because God’s deeds and words in the Old explain the historical and salvific events in the New. On the Feast of the Transfiguration, for example, the readings for the Mass show that a prophet’s vision in the Old Testament explains a historical event from the New Testament.

The prophet Daniel saw in a vision:

“Thrones were set up and the Ancient of Days took his throne. His clothing was white as snow, the hair on his head like pure wool; His throne was flames of fire, with wheels of burning fire. A river of fire surged forth, flowing from where he sat; Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him, and myriads upon myriads stood before him.”

Dn 7:9-10

That vision tells us what happened during the Transfiguration described by Matthew:

“After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.”

Mt 17:1-2

Matthew’s Gospel goes on to explain that Jesus was standing in the direct presence of God. James, Peter, and John saw Jesus reflecting God’s glory.

In the Sacred Scriptures, God put down what he wanted us to know for our salvation. They include God’s rules because they are the path to heaven. More than rules, the Scriptures contain the Word of God, which is a light for our path.

If the Bible was a rulebook and nothing else, history has shown what would become of it: we would derive many more of our own rules from God’s rules and would eventually prefer the rules of men to the rules of God. That is what Jesus decried when he said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. [But] these you should have done, without neglecting the others (Mt 23:23).”

The Bible is a beautiful expression of God’s judgment and mercy and fidelity.