The purpose of this book is to explore biblical revelation, to learn how it tries to shape these patterns. These books tend to focus on the many  commandments, laws and rules in the Bible; they focus on specific actions.But underlying these actions is something more basic, namely, the pattern. The pattern is fundamental.

The book shows how the Bible describes such patterns, on the part both of God and of the people who respond to him. The patterns do not remain the same all through the Bible: they change from one book to another, because God reveals himself to people in different ways.