On another blog a comment was made about a church sign that says, “The Bible shows us a picture of who we really are.” It said that the picture that is showed is one of marauding, murdering, racist, and xenophobic people. And, actually, there is some truth to that evaluation.
Jonah is recorded as so disliking the foreigners to whom he was sent that he ran the other way to avoid preaching to them. David, of course, was shown as guilty of murder, as was Paul. Moses had trouble with his family because he married a dark woman. Lot’s daughters successfully seduce him. And, certainly, the people of Canaa would have considered the Israelites to be marauding barbarians at first.
But, the evaluation ignores the whole picture of what is happening. One of the better arguments for the trustworthiness of Scripture is precisely the uncompromising and honest portrait that it gives of the various people involved. The Gospels record Peter as being something of a loudmouth and, later, a traitor. Were the Gospels, and other Scriptures, written as self-serving propaganda, one would have expected that the non-flattering parts would have been excised, or simply never written.
However, the focus of Scripture is on salvation history. The interest is in showing how God was (and is) at work in various situations. And, one of the most important foci of Scripture is the idea of personal change. We are consistenly shown people, in all their sometimes disgusting sinfulness, in order that the change that God brings about in them be made manifest. Also shown are those who do not change, and the often dire end to which they come. The methods that God uses are also portrayed, as is His character and His desire for us, as well as his loving-kindness with us.
So, was the blogger correct in what Scripture shows? Yes. But, Scripture shows much more than that. It shows a God who brings change, even at the cost of his own personal glory. As it says in Philippans, “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.”
As John says, “. . . these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
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