As I’ve been reading through Genesis again, I have been reminded of one inexorable truth – the Bible doesn’t pull any punches. It shares the true history of each person, not just the good things; the triumphs, the blessings, the glories and successes. The Bible also shares the sin, defeats, enormous blunders, and little mistakes. Nothing is held back. This is different than any other religious books or writings. The Bible is unique (except for the Jewish equivalent, which includes the same history I’m addressing). This no-holds-barred, no sin or failure to shameful to print, consistency attests to the truth of the Bible. Other religious writings that hide failure or sin, hide the truth. Unfortunately, they also hide lessons that can teach others how to not make those same mistakes.
I’ve read about Abram lying, saying that his wife is his sister on two separate occasions in an attempt to protect himself, failing to learn from his first mistake and then his son Isaac makes the same stupid mistake. God is astoundingly patient with his children. I also read of Lot’s daughters getting their father drunk and committing incest with him. The list goes on and on – Moses murdering an Egyptian, David committing adultery and murder by proxy, by sending Uriah into battle (on the front line) assuring his death in battle. I could site numerous examples and all were punished in one way or another, providing life lessons for us and the proceeding generations, as well as the generations to come. We just need to learn from them.
Again, for those of you that think the Bible is just old made up stories and allegory, I respectfully submit that you’re wrong. It reads like genuine history as spoken by an all knowing all powerful God, attempting to teach his children right from wrong. Humans are too full of themselves and proud to purposefully commit their sins and failures to historical record, when silence could hide their sins. All you have to do is look at a history book from 50 years ago and compare it to a history book from today and you can see how many atrocities and failures have been written out of history, or at least “whitewashed.” The written histories of most civilizations accentuate the positive and minimize anything that could make them look bad. Only the histories of other nations reveal the truth. That’s not how the Jews wrote history. Under the direction of God, they were compelled to share everything.
All the life lessons that any generation could ever need are addressed within the pages of the precious Word of God. Please take the time to read it and purposefully look at the sins and subsequent chastisements of our loving Heavenly Father. It is truly enlightening.