It seems easy to pick apart the lives of Jacob and Abraham and other ancient men of God, pointing out all the things they did wrong. Hindsight works that way, although I hesitate to call it 20/20. We have to be careful to keep things in perspective. For the most part the patriarchs did the best they could with what they had, and I suspect they did a whole lot better than any of us would have. Whatever you might think of their polygamy or scheming or violence, remember this:
God called Abraham his friend and said that he kept God’s commands all his life.
God called Jacob an honest man and chose him as the founder of his chosen nation.
God called Moses the most humble man alive and chose him as the conduit of his salvation and his laws.
God called David a man after his own heart and said that he kept the laws of God all his life except in the one instance concerning Uriah and Bathsheba.
It is a humbling thought that the friend of God, the man who fought God himself for his blessing, the most humble man on earth, and the man after God’s own heart were all righteous beyond anything that you or I are ever likely to witness. Yet they still made mistakes. They still had to spend time on their faces, begging God’s mercy. What hope would we have were it not for the blood of Yeshua which covers us and seals the promise of a new covenant to come?
Everything that Yeshua (aka Jesus) & the Apostles taught
Come with me as I draw out the connections that are so often missed |