It’s time to get the Bible right. Many who open the Good Book do so with expectations that can only be dashed by the actual content they find there.
The Bible is not primarily a moral tale of great heroes of the faith. While you will find some heroic actions done with great faith, even the greatest characters in the Bible, excepting One, have fatal flaws.
When we approach the Bible with the intent to “dare to be a Daniel” or to ask, “What would Jesus do?”, we miss its central message. Indeed, Jesus came to model what perfect humanity looks like, but he knew what was inside the human heart: “But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man” (John 2:24–25 ESV). Jesus knew that no one in this world could live the kind of life he lived. He came not mainly as a moral example but as a Savior.
Several years ago, someone shared an article with me written by a pastor from another mainline denomination. He accused the Old Testament of promoting polygamy, as if to say, “Look at all the examples of polygamy in the Bible!” While the author listed examples, he failed to provide citations. So, the person who shared the article with me and I opened our Bibles to find those examples and test his claims. Here’s what we found:
Polygamy does not end well in the Bible. The stories often portray the world not as it ought to be but as it really is. Even the greatest so-called heroes of the Bible committed heinous sins (2 Samuel 11). Polygamy, in the Bible, leads to jealousy, abuse, and a host of generational family dysfunctions. Israelite kings were instructed against it (Deuteronomy 17:14–17), though many succumbed to this popular practice of neighboring kingdoms. Well before David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he had already set his heart on this trajectory by going against God’s good instruction (2 Samuel 5:13).
The rockstar Bono said in an interview, “The Scriptures remain a plumb line to gauge how crooked the wall of my ego has become.” The Bible presents us with broken people whom God’s grace needs to touch and transform. After a long, duplicitous, and polygamous life, old Jacob finally humbles himself before the Lord (Genesis 32:30). The Bible offers a mirror in which we can see our fallen humanity, receive the salvation offered by the Savior, and be renewed (2 Corinthians 5:17).