THE BIBLE IS FULL OF TROUBLEMAKERS

Jacob was a real rascal.

He takes advantage of his hungry brother. He lies to his father.

Laban, his uncle, is no better. He tricks Jacob into trading seven years of work to gain the hand of Rachel to be his wife, and then trades her for her sister, Leah, on their wedding night, requiring Jacob to work another seven years for Rachel.

Then Leah and Rachel bicker and try to one-up each other.

Abraham lies about his wife Sarah.

David has Bathsheba’s husband killed so he can have her.

Sara laughs at God.

Peter gets rebuked by Jesus several times.

The Bible is a rogues gallery of real mess-ups.

I guess we could take this one or two ways.

One way would be to discount the Bible because it doesn’t provide us good role models.

Another is to celebrate God’s grace with sinners just like us.