We fabulize the Bible… I think the majority of the time when we consider the people that we read about in it, we think about them as “characters” and not real flesh and blood people, like you and I. But if you REALLY think about it and deep dive into their lives in order to understand them you have to see them in the light of reality…
Remember, the Bible IS the living Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.
Hebrews 4:12 tells us:
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Everything that the Bible contains in it, is exactly what God wanted it to have in it. Come on, do you really think that the God Who created the Heavens, and the earth could not keep in a mere book ALL He wanted to be there throughout the course of time??? (I’m rolling my eyes at you. Mic drop!)
I’ve been specifically thinking about the people of God in the Old Testament that were used as vessels because they were willing to be so… Do you think it was easy for them? Even on a personal level? Even though they had chosen by God to fulfill a calling upon their lives? Remember, these were REAL living and breathing people who had emotions, who had questions, who had feelings. Just because someone is chosen by God it does not remove the humanity from them. They STILL felt! They STILL questioned! Heck – when God revealed to Him what He wanted them to do, often their reactions were:
God, You want me to do WHAT????
In disbelief that they could fulfill His request over their lives… But here is the thing, they (as are we) are ONLY vessels. We have NO strength in and of ourselves. We have NO power in and of ourselves. Trusting in yourself is always what gets us in trouble. A vessel is ONLY a vessel, what is filled in that vessel is what we ALLOW to fill us. The times that we go “our own way” is when we make a mess of things! And SUCH was the case with MANY of them! As long as they listened intently to what God was saying and how God was directing them, things went fine! But when they went against what God was saying/directing THAT’S when the problems occurred. Let’s look at one biblical example and as we do, think of them as REAL people and not “characters” of a story.
Abraham (Abram) & Sarah (Sarai) – You can read about Abraham and Sarah in the book of Genesis beginning at Chapter 12. God called them to leave the lands where they were from so He could take them where He wanted them to go. Can you imagine how hard it was to leave everything they were familiar with??? We totally disregard when reading about them what that must have been like. TRULY stepping out by faith on God’s request to do so. How painful it must have been to say goodbye to those around them, to their home, to their way of life. Abraham was 75 years old when God told him to do this. Although 75 (at that time) was still fairly young, it was the SAME 75 that we see today! Think about that! Think about someone you know who is 75 years old, now put Abraham’s (at that time called Abram) face on that person and think about how HUGE that request was! To leave the comfort of “the familiar” and step in the unknown. Think about them for a minute, imagine them to be neighbors of yours.
SEE THEM AS THE REAL PEOPLE IN YOUR MIND THAT THEY WERE
God had said to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3:
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
They were just like you and me. Do YOU love God like Abraham loved God???? Would YOU give up YOUR way of life by trusting in the God that you profess to love if He called you to do so? Would you uproot your wife and family totally BY faith because God asked you to do it? Abraham, I’m sure felt the weight of responsibility as a man for leading his family and those that followed him because of what he heard from God. Do you think he took that responsibility lightly? It was not only his life on the line, but his loved ones as well. Can you imagine how those around him must have thought he was being foolish?
Many times, those we love most, think our faith in Christ IS foolishness! How many of you reading this post have been mocked for your faith??? Ridiculed for it? Hey – Holy Spirit has brought some of you to this post who are or would be persecuted in your country for EVEN reading these words! (God bless and keep you!) Abraham is a good example of how WE need to be in obeying whatever it is God through Holy Spirit, is telling us to go, to proceed. What would have happened if Abraham had chosen NOT to obey God’s calling on his life??? To settle for what he had and where he was at? What if he had said,
“No thank You God. I think I’ll stay RIGHT here where I am.”
But the Bible describes Abraham in Genesis 15:6 as such:
Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.
Listen, we can settle for the “mediocre” in this life OR we can press forward in the calling God has for our lives! I testify to you that in spite of all I have endured in my walk in Christ, there TRULY is NO greater joy than to walk in accordance with His calling on my life. I can TRULY attest what it says in Philippians 4:11-13:
I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. Ican do all things through Him Who strengthens me.
There are hills and valleys in our walk with Christ and I believe this is to show us that we are dependent upon God and God alone. That no matter WHAT we go through, God has promised that He will NEVER leave nor forsake us. He IS with us. He IS an ever-present help in time of trouble. The “peace that passes ALL understanding” is ONLY found in Him.
Abraham TRUSTED in God. Yet, let’s not deify him. The Bible is clear to show us examples not only of how Abraham and Sarah followed God, but how they in their humanity made mistakes along the way… WHY?
BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE CHOSEN BY GOD, THEY WERE STILL HUMAN
Take a look in Genesis 15:1
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
But time went on and as we can see in Chapter 16 and Sarah (at the time called Sarai) became older and obviously restless and decided to “help God” with His plan… When we try to “help God” by our own wisdom, we often make a mess things… I often wonder how it is that God is SO patient with us??? SO long suffering? Sarah decided to give Abraham her servant girl, Hagar to sleep with, thinking that their offspring would come from her, and in doing so – what a mess it made (and is STILL having an affect centuries later up until even now!). Take a look at Genesis 16:1-5:
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so, she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So, after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
We make SUCH a mess out of things when we take matters into our own hands… Genesis 16:16 tells us:
Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
But this was not the child that God had intended to be Abraham’s heir. If you read on for yourself, Abraham was 100 years old when God fulfilled His promise to him and Sarah (at a very old age) became pregnant, with Isaac. And it is Isaac that God intended to keep His covenant with Abraham with, remember, God had said in Genesis 17:19:
Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac, I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
But even though God’s promise was to be fulfilled through the above covenant, He in His love and mercy still blessed Ishmael. Take a look at Genesis 17:20-21:
And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.”
If you read through the book of Genesis, you will also see the times when Abraham lied to others, declaring that Sarah was “his sister” and not his wife, for fear that she would be taken from him and he would be killed. (See Genesis chapter 20).
I point these things out to you, so that as you read about the people of the Bible, you CAN see that they were people JUST like you and me – with weaknesses and faults, but they (just like you and I can be) they answered the call of God upon their lives – became vessels for God to use with their lives so that His good and perfect will could go forth through them. Not one was perfect. The ONLY perfect man that EVER lived, is Jesus.
God’s covenant with Abraham we get to see – has been fulfilled as God said it would, Abraham DID become the father of MANY nations, right down to you and I. We are SO blessed because we hold God’s Word (the Bible) in our hands and are able to see the full story – up until now… Remember, they did not have the “Bible” yet, because God USED their lives to WRITE the pages of the Bible (both the Old and the New Testament) that we have the privilege of reading. It is God’s love letter to us! But even so, YOUR life (and mine) should be LIVING TESTAMENTS (as those in the Bible were) to be used for the glory of God. What are people reading on the pages of what YOUR life is saying???? One day, when we stand before God, the pages of our lives WILL be made known to all – such as the pages of THEIR lives is being made known to those of us who choose to read it (The Bible). What will YOUR life show? Will it, as in the case of Abraham show an imperfect life, yet a life that was led BY Abraham’s love and faith in God? Or will it show a life that chose to live on your terms alone? Disregarding God’s purpose for it? Here is the thing – we get to choose and as was the case with everyone we read about in the Bible, the ramifications for those choices’ ricochets throughout the generations far beyond what we can even know (as such is the case with those we read about in the Bible). We need to prayerfully CHOOSE wisely who we will trust, ourselves OR God.
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