Faith of the Imperfect
January 9 (Genesis 16)
It’s hard to read the Bible without projecting faces and personalities onto its characters. We might cringe when we see the ugly side of people God chooses to use as the main leads in his story, but maybe God cringes when we put a positive caricature on people who were broken in so many ways.
Take Sarah for instance, Abraham’s wife. She is listed in Hebrews 11 as a member of the Bible’s ‘Hall of Faith.’ “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.” Positive as that sounds, that faith coexisted with a whole lot of other not-so-virtuous traits.
Her and Abraham’s confusion over God’s promise of a family resulted in a sad situation with her servant, Hagar. Sarah and Abraham agreed to have a child through Hagar. But when Hagar found she was pregnant, she flaunted that fact in front of Sarah. And if you are a slave in as influential of a family as Abraham’s, you don’t look with contempt on your master. Sarah was quick to give Hagar the boot, and a harsh one at that! Only by God’s intervention did Hagar resume her place, eventually bearing Abraham a son, Ishmael.
And then there is the whole “laughing” incident, where Sarah overheard someone at the door of the tent talking to Abraham about her having a baby at 90 years old. Was that an innocent, “yeh-riiiight!” chuckle at an incredulous thought, or was it mixed with a dose of sarcastic bitterness over her inability to have a child?
After Isaac, the son of promise is born, the now-teen Ishmael in some way disrespects Sarah’s son. Sarah cuts ties with Hagar for good at that point. While sending Hagar away was brutal treatment, God allowed it to happen to insure that there would be a clear separation between the family lines. God often uses our faults to accomplish his divine purposes.
While a world of skeptics questions the Bible because its main characters are so … crummy at times, let us not try to defend their honor by claiming they were more righteous than they really were.
Having faith doesn’t mean you’ll never have questions, confusion, fear or doubts. Having faith doesn’t mean you’ll be nice to everyone all the time, never express bitterness or never treat people harshly. While God wants us to develop good character, he is able to accomplish his purposes when we embrace our human weakness.
Abraham and Sarah, and a host of other heroes in the Bible, are noted for their faith, not for their perfection. Faith and perfection – both might result in our entrance into heaven, but I can guarantee this, one of those we will never possess.
“…my power is made perfect in weakness.” II Corinthians 12:9
