Did anyone else watch The Bible mini-series on History this past month? I enjoyed it. It wasn’t 100% accurate but was fairly close on some things, little worse on others. Much better than I expected.
What struck me was how real it was. You can read the Bible all day and still not have it strike you as hard as it does when seeing it. Seeing Sarah tell Abraham to go sleep with her maid. Seeing David hide from King Saul. Seeing Jesus getting nailed to the cross. Just made the Bible come to life for me.
I was struck by two other things as well.
1. How violent life was back then. That part was accurate. We tend to read “oh, he was beheaded” or “oh the city was destroyed” or “oh, Sampson killed some people” and not really think about it. To see it played out in front of you….wow. I’m sure part of it is that we teach these stories to our children so we don’t want them to dwell on the violence. But really, it was a very gruesome time in which to live. I am glad that we no longer have to deal with that in this part of the world.
2. The show didn’t show this as much as I would have liked but the Bible is full of flawed people being used by God.
We think of David as this wonderful person. But seriously. He liked one of his friend’s wives, slept with her, got her pregnant, then put his friend in the front lines of the fighting to cover up his sin. Very flawed.
Moses may have led his people out of captivity but he had an anger problem and couldn’t speak in public, hence Aaron. Flawed.
Abraham listened to his wife and slept with her maid, conceiving Ishmael. Caused many issues, even still today. Got ahead of God’s plan. Flawed.
We tend to think, “God can’t use me. I’m messed up and a nobody.” David was a shepherd turned king. He was a nobody and very messed up but still considered a man after God’s own heart. I think it is more important that God uses flawed people than those that we perceive as “good.” If God only used “good” people, what would that prove? By using flawed people to do His work, He is showing that God can use anyone. That all of His people are important and can do His work.
That means you. That means me. That means that annoying kid that talks all through church. Yes, them. (Church friends: this is an example and not based on anyone we actually know. 🙂 ) God can, and will, use you. You may not be used the same way that the Biblical hero types were used but you will be used in some way.
Wow. Scary, isn’t it? God can take you with all your flaws, all your mistakes, all of you and use you to do some of His work. Something to remember when you are tempted to be nasty back to that horrid cashier. Maybe by being polite back, you are showing her a little bit of God. Me, writing this blog, maybe it will touch someone and I have no idea. Maybe that is how God is choosing to use me.
Something to remember as you go through your day. Flaws and all, God uses average people to do His well above average work.
Did anyone else watch The Bible series? I would love to hear your opinions on it.
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