USEFULNESS

One of the interesting, and sometimes troubling things about the great “heroes” of the Bible is that none of them is particularly “good”. And the Bible seems to go out of its way to make the point:

• Adam and Eve fell flat on their faces right off the top. (Genesis 3)
• Noah got drunk and cursed one of his children. (Genesis 9:24–25)
• Abraham lied to the Pharoah, allowed his wife, Sarah, to be sexually abused, and another wife, Hagar, to be mistreated by Sarah until she fled into the desert. (Genesis 12:11–17; 16:6)
• Lot offered his daughters to be raped by a mob in Sodom. (Genesis 19:6) How bad is that?
• Jacob, whose sons are the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, was a liar and a cheat. (Genesis 27)
• These sons of Jacob plotted to murder their younger brother, sold him into slavery, and told their father he’d been killed by wild beasts. (Genesis 37:19–35)
• Moses was a murderer. (Exodus 2:11-12)
• Saul, Israel’s first king, was pretty much a complete failure. (1 Samuel)
• David, the second and greatest king of Israel, committed adultery, and murdered the woman’s husband in an attempt to cover it up. (2 Samuel 11:2-12:10)
• Solomon, David’s son and Israel’s third king, turned to the worship of idols. (1 Kings 11)

And in the New Testament things are no better:

• The Apostles were dim-witted cowards who ran away when Jesus was arrested. (Mark 14:50)
• Jesus’ own siblings were very slow to believe. (John 7:5)
• Peter was impetuous and a hypocrite. (John 18:10; Galatians 2:11-13)
• And the Apostle Paul, also known as Saul, was a persecutor of the church, complicit in the murder of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. (Acts 7:59 – 8:1)

Indeed, the Bible as a whole has little regard for the “goodness” of anyone. Everyone has turned away, writes the psalmist, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. (Psalm 53:3) The Apostle Paul repeats this in the New Testament (Romans 3:12) and Jesus declares, "No one is good — except God alone....” (Luke 18:19)

So, if it was not the goodness of the great Bible characters that made them great, what was it? It was their usefulness. God created Adam and Eve to care for the garden. He chose Noah to save the earth, Abraham to father a great people, and Moses to lead the people out of Egypt. Saul, David and Solomon were chosen to be kings over Israel and, in the New Testament, Jesus called his disciples, not to be good, but to “...go and make disciples of all nations,...”. (Matt 28:19)

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s good to be good. But not just because it’s good, but because it makes us useful, and being bad makes us less useful. And it’s possible to get so focused on not sinning, and on keeping the rules, that we forget that God has things for us to do. This was the problem Jesus had with the Pharisees. They were so intent on avoiding evil and being good that they stopped caring for God’s people, particularly the ones who were not even trying to be good. In other words, wanting to be good, they had ceased to be useful?

Many are scandalized when they see what kind of people God uses to do his will. They imagine that God should have nothing to do with people who are selfish, violent, dishonest, intemperate, impure, etc. But if God thought this way he’d have nothing to do with anyone.

Some people have valued goodness so highly that they’ve imagined that Jesus’ mother, Mary, was sinless, i.e., perfectly good. But, when the angel appeared to her, what he remarked on was not how good she was, but that she was “highly favoured”. (Luke 1:28) And her response was not “I’ve always tried to be a good girl” but "I am the Lord's servant..." Luke 1:38

The lesson here is that we must never be discouraged by our sinfulness. God can deal with our sin, and he will. The real question is, are we willing to be useful?

Next... GROWING A PEOPLE