The Bible is the most tactless book in existence. It flatters no
one and draws the picture as it really is. Was there ever such a
plain, unvarnished story of man’s failure and wickedness as is
contained in the Word of God? It is the greatest condemnation of the
human race, and, especially, the Jewish nation. From an ordinary
point of view we should expect that the Jews would be glad to bury
into oblivion a story which holds their race up to such
condemnation. And yet the Jewish nation has preserved the OT with
extraordinary care down the centuries. To this day the Jews
are the
jealous guardians of Scriptures which are their greatest
condemnation. There can be no possible explanation of this except
that these Scriptures form the first part of God’s revelation to
man, and that God's protecting hand is held over His own Word.
Let us go into some details. We begin with the story of man’s fall
in the Garden of Eden. The Bible is the only book in the world to
give us the true origin of evil. No explanation is given why God
allowed sin. An ordinary book, written by men, would have attempted
some explanation to satisfy the mind of man. But God does not offer
to explain everything. The bare facts are given. Nor are the
widespread results of the fall foreshadowed to any great extent.
Beyond the sentence of death passed upon Adam, his expulsion from
Eden and the particular and immediate way in which the fall would
affect our first parents, we have no foreshadowing of the tremendous
consequences of sin. God patiently unrolls them bit by bit down the
centuries. Of course we must not overlook the prophecy as to the
enmity between the serpent’s seed and the woman’s seed, and the work
of Christ prefigured in the coats of skin, but we need the history
of the Bible to explain why these things should be so.
Take the first family, Cain and Abel. Cain murdered Abel. The first
child that was born into this world grew up to be a murderer! Could
anything be less flattering to the human race? Next we have Lamech,
the bigamist, and then a big leap forward is made and we meet the
awful description of the antediluvian world. Could anything be more
sweeping than “every imagination of the thoughts of his” (man’s)
“heart only evil continually” (Gen. 6: 5)? Then we have the flood. A
whole world, except eight persons, refused the warning of coming
judgment. Could one conceive a less complimentary picture? The new
world begins with Noah, into whose hand is put the magisterial
sword, and the first action recorded of him is planting a vineyard
and getting drunk! A great step forward is taken again, only to
bring us to the story of the tower of Babel, when men attempted a
vast imperial union which would make them independent of God. The
confounding of their language is evident to this very day.
We leave now what is general, and come to what is particular to the
Jewish nation. Israel was taken up by God as a sample, His dealing
with them serving to test the whole human race in order “that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world be under judgment to God”
(Rom. 3: 19).
God began the
Jewish nation in the call of Abraham. One verse (see Gen. 1: 1) is
given to tell of the creation of the universe, one chapter (see vs
2–31) suffices to tell us of its reconstruction in six days, but we
have more than thirteen chapters taken up with Abraham. Creation,
when compared to man is as scaffolding is to a building. In God’s
eyes man is the centre, and focal point.
A study of what God would teach in Abraham is worthy of the closest
attention. He is the head of promise. He was called the friend of
God. In him all nations of the earth were to be blessed. But what do
we find in his history? Were an uninspired penman to write down his
record we are sure he would have produced something that would have
glorified Abraham rather than God. Genesis 11 tells us of Abram
starting for Canaan at God’s bidding, and being stopped half way at
Haran by natural ties (see Acts 7: 2–4). Genesis 12 tells us how
Abram instructed Sarai, his wife, to say she was his sister. As she
was indeed
his
half–sister, this was speaking the truth to hide the truth, the
worst kind of lie. Chapter 16 tells how Abram sought in unbelief to
get the promised seed through Hagar, a sad story fraught with
unhappy consequences in Ishmael. Chapter 20 records how Abraham
again lied about his true relationship to Sarah, this time to
Abimelech, King of Gerar. Now of course there were wonderful traits
of faith in the life of Abraham—episodes of true moral greatness—but
would any uninspired writer have given the blots on his history as
well? God's word describes man as he is. All that was grand and
noble in Abraham was the product of the work of God in his soul; all
that was sinful and sad, the result of the flesh.
Take the history of Jacob, whose name means “the supplanter”.
Without going into details, how well he deserved his name: the
intriguer, the cheat, the robber of his brother's birthright, and
the man who outwitted Laban in the matter of the cattle! Still, out
of such material, God could produce an Israel, a “prince of God”
(see Gen. 32: 28). His children fare no better. We get the story of
the ravishing of Dinah and the awful punishment Simeon and Levi
meted out in consequence to the Hivites. Then in chapter 38 we get
the story of Judah’s wilful neglect of his responsibilities and his
daughter–in–law playing the harlot as a consequence. Thus rapidly
and partially we run over the Genesis record. Is it flattering to
the human race? Would an uninspired penman have put the things on
record that we find in Genesis?
Next we come to Moses, a truly great figure, the law–giver, the man
who spoke face to face with God on the holy mountain. And yet after
his grand record we have the incident of this meekest of men
speaking unadvisedly with his lips, and not being allowed to enter
the Promised Land. Surely an uninspired biographer would have
suppressed such matters? How the recital of them would lower the
law–giver in the eyes of surrounding nations! And yet there is the
truth told in all its naked simplicity. Following on from this we
have the narrative unfolded in the book of Judges of a nation
continually lapsing into idolatry, yet at the same time the story of
an ever faithful God, who gave them repentance and sent them
deliverers. Take one of the great characters, Samson—a story of a
giant and a baby at the same time, a man of God and a man of lust.
Not at all flattering. Observe Eli’s sons and Samuel’s sons—how sad
a record. Look at the kingdom. Read of Saul’s jealousy of David, and
how ignominiously his life ended in spiritism and suicide. Next we
have David, the sweet psalmist of Israel but adulterer and murderer,
and then Solomon, with his plurality of wives and worship of heathen
gods, in spite of his wonderful God–given wisdom. The folly of
Solomon’s son caused the ten tribes to separate from the two, and
the beginning of the separate histories of Judah and Israel. The
chronicle of these kingdoms moved ever downwards until God allowed
first Israel to be carried away captive into a foreign land and then
Judah and Benjamin as well. Look back with a rapid bird’s–eye survey
of the history of Israel—could there be a more disgraceful history
of what man is, even when surrounded by the best environment? How it
enhances the wonderful grace, forbearance, and love of God!
In the NT things are no better. When the Lord Jesus came out in
public testimony, who were His greatest enemies? Not the common
people for they heard Him “gladly” (Mark 12: 37). Not the officers
of the chief priests, who were chided for not making the Lord their
prisoner, but replied, “Never man spoke thus, as this man [speaks]”
(John 7: 46). No, His greatest enemies were the people perceived as
being the godliest: the chief priests and rulers of the nation. His
words were the words of God but they would not have Him: “they have
both seen and hated both me and my Father” (John 15: 24). Thus came
to pass that which was written in their law: “They hated Me without
a cause” (v25). But this is not all. Look at His friends. See Peter
denying Him with oaths and curses, see all the disciples
forsaking and fleeing from Him. Wherever we look we see the same
story of failure, all culminating in Jew and Gentile banded together
in crucifying the Lord of glory. Was there ever such a crime? Was
there ever such a declaration of the evil of men’s hearts?
And when we come
to the Epistles what do we find? The wholesale condemnation of man
in Romans 3—a veritable summing-up of the whole human race.
Corinthians was written to take up matters of the gravest moral and
doctrinal delinquency. Galatians was penned to combat Judaising
teachings which were subverting Christianity. Ephesians, after the
unfolding of the very highest truth, turns round and bids believers
not to tell lies, not to steal, to put away bitterness and wrath,
and to be kind one to another. Philippians tells us of preachers
actually proclaiming the Gospel out of contention. Colossians, after
bringing out truth of the highest order, says some sharp things
about fornication, uncleanness and covetousness. And so we go on
till Revelation is reached with it’s unsparing record of the
church’s decline from her first love as seen in the Ephesian
assembly, down to Laodicea about to be spued out of Christ’s mouth,
followed by the terrible prophecies of man’s lawlessness and
rebellion.
Despite all
this, running through the whole Bible we see the hand of
God—patient, gracious and powerful—carrying out His own purposes
step by step. It does not do to dwell upon evil, but on the other
hand, we lose immensely if we fail to grasp what is recorded for our
learning. The utter failure of man to answer to God—whether in
innocence, or under law, or under judges, or under kings, or by the
supreme test of Christ coming into the world, or the witness of the
Spirit through the Church—only tends to strengthen one’s faith. It
brings into greater relief the wisdom of God in dealing with men and
producing a brand new beginning for us altogether in Christ. He
shines out as the only perfect One amidst all the imperfection. In
the light of all we have so rapidly reviewed, how full of deep significance for us are the words of
Christ to Nicodemus on the necessity of new birth (see John 3: 7)!
Was ever a book written from such a stance, unpopular and
inexplicable, as is contained in the
following words, “[the] natural man does not receive the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him; and he
cannot know [them] because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor.
2: 14)? Or again, “we preach Christ crucified, to Jews an
offence, and to nations foolishness” (1 Cor. 1: 23)? And yet the
Book lives—lives in the lives of multitudes of men and women. There
can be only one explanation: it is the inspired Word of God. The
honesty of the Book proves this.
