The Bible is
an un-natural and un-human book. This is because it doesn’t reflect the types
of things that we humans would write. The Bible also makes a seemingly
outlandish claim about itself - It cannot be properly understood without the assistance
of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10-16)!
Let me try to
illustrate this fact. As a Jew (before Jesus came into my life)), I loved the Book of Joshua. Why? In this book,
Israel was victorious. Of course, this made me feel good about myself, and so I
continued on to the Book of Judges
where Israel suffered one disgrace after another. That was enough for me.
An atheistic
website provides another good example of this failure to understand the Bible:
·
From
Genesis to Revelation prominent individuals abound. But are they really worthy
of respect and admiration? Was their behavior such that you would want to
awaken your children on Sunday morning to read about their exploits?
In many
respects, not! The article confidently proceeds to line up all the misdeeds about
these “prominent individuals” to prove that the Bible lacks virtuous role
models and therefore its morality is seriously deficient and unworthy as a moral
guide, let alone a divine revelation. For instance, the atheist writes that Abraham:
·
Told
his wife to lie, debauched Hagar, his maidservant, sent his maidservant and her
child into the wilderness, lied, and married his half-sister.
Although this
is all true, it fails to prove that the Bible is unworthy of serious
consideration. This atheistic interpretation confuses description with
prescription – the description of Abraham’s life with a moral prescription for
us. It fails to understand that Abraham’s life and the lives of the other
Patriarchs were never intended to be
models for moral behavior. Admittedly, they had done dastardly things.
The atheistic
author even misses the real dirt about Abraham — that he pimped his wife Sarah
on several occasions! However, this author misses far more — the grace of God
for sinners like us! The article concludes, “Anyone approaching the Bible for
goodness, decency, role models, and morality, enters at his own peril.” This,
of course, is true! However, humankind fails to grasp that Christ is the actual role model and not the wretches He stoops to save.
Even the life
of Israel’s
greatest king, David, is also blemished by serious moral failures – polygamy,
adultery, murder, and cover-up. However, even orthodox Jews will not face what
is so clearly spelled out in Scripture. When I was explaining the mercy of God
to King David, an orthodox Jew cut me off:
·
You
don’t understand! The Talmud (a collection of rabbinic commentaries) explains
that David was entirely righteous in killing the evil husband Uriah and
marrying his wife Bathsheba.
However, this
Talmudic interpretation is totally at odds with the biblical account, which
reveals that God was angry with David
over these sins. Although He forgave David, He also punished Him severely for them:
·
Then
David said to Nathan [the prophet who confronted David about his sins], "I
have sinned against the Lord."
Nathan replied, "The Lord has
taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you
have made the enemies of the Lord
show utter contempt, the son born to you will die." (2 Samuel 12:13-14)
This isn’t an
honest interpretive mistake.
The Talmud and Orthodox Judaism, consistently rationalize the very apparent
sins of their Patriarchs and heroes. Why? They are unwilling to see what is
plainly written! Why not? We humans want a religion that we can humanly understand
and one that will flatter us. We cannot understand a religion where the
founders of our faith acted in an embarrassing, undignified way. We want to
feel that we are on the winning team characterized by elite and honorable
people, not liars and pimps.
Throughout,
in the Bible, the warts of God’s people are clearly evidenced. None of Israel’s
kings get an entirely clean bill of health. They were all seriously blemished.
It makes us wonder how the writers of the Bible were able to get away with
these disclosures with their lives. It also makes us wonder what had impelled
them to write so honestly about their kings and also about the failures of Israel. Even
more surprisingly, we have to wonder what had impelled Israel to canonize such
disparaging writings.
Even more
startling, are the denunciations of Israel by the Prophets of Israel!
Often, they didn’t get away with these denunciations with their lives. However,
despite the fact that they were hated – the light is always painful – their
writings were nevertheless accepted as the Word of God. Why? I think that there
is only one way to understand this phenomenon – It was undeniable that these Prophets spoke the Word of God, however
offensive that it might have been!
There are so
many counter-human aspects of Scripture. While the Koran assures the Muslim
that he is the greatest, the Bible assures Israel that they are the least:
·
Do
not say to yourself, "The Lord
has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my
righteousness." No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations
that the Lord is going to drive
them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity
that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the
wickedness of these nations, the Lord
your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your
fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 6Understand, then, that it is not
because of your righteousness that the Lord
your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked
people. Remember this and never forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the desert.
From the day you left Egypt
until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord. (Deut. 9:4-7)
Moses never
stroked Israel’s
self-esteem, as anyone trying to gain a following would do. Instead, he
repeatedly told Israel
that they would fail to follow their God and that they would be consumed (Deut.
32:5-33). Despite these despairing messages, Israel received these insults as
the Word of God. Why? They must have been convinced
that these were God’s words! Why? His miracles attested to them!
This pattern
– it’s all about God and His mercy and not about our worthiness - is maintained
throughout the entire Bible. Jesus’ disciples were never complemented by their
Master. Instead, the only two whose faith Jesus praised were both detested
Gentiles. Meanwhile, the disciples portrayed themselves as bumbling idiots.
Why? If they wanted to influence others in favor of their Christ-centered
faith, why would they portray themselves in such a disparaging way? Who would
want to follow such ignoramuses! Evidently, for them, there was something more
important than looking good – the truth of God!
We humans
like to exalt our forefathers and, by doing so, we exalt ourselves. The Talmud and
the religions of the world are all too human in this regard. As a new
Christian, this too was my tendency.
I was deeply disturbed to read about the blemishes of Abraham and David. These
seemed to detract from my new-found religion. However, as God continued to
reveal to me my own unworthiness along with His forgiveness, I learned to
delight in the incredible love and patience He demonstrated to His Old
Testament “saints.” But my eyes had to first be opened!
This is
perhaps one of the great ironies — the more the skeptic battles against the
Faith, the more he inevitably demonstrates its veracity. Scripture can only be truly
understood through the inner working of the Spirit!
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