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. An atheistic website provided a 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 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. It 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 rationalizes the very apparent sins
of the their Patriarchs and heroes. Why? They are unwilling to see what is
plainly written! Why? We humans want a religion – a belief system – that we can
humanly understand. 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 a 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 derogatory 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!
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 was praised were both of the 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 negative 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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