Posts filed under 'The Bible's Disturbing Passages'
Disturbing Passages in the Bible
Here’s a look at how to handle what we read in the Bible. Check back for more info. This sermon was originally presented by Adam Hamilton, copyright 2007.
Disturbing Passages in the Bible presented by Ben Mulford
Add comment February 7, 2008
God’s good work
This discussion comes from Eugene Peterson, who introduces the Book of Judges (site of some of the most disturbing material in the Old Testament) with these words:
“Sex and violence, rape and massacre, brutality and deceit do not seem to be congenial materials for use in developing a story of salvation. Given the Bible’s subject matter—God and salvation, living well and loving deeply—we quite naturally expect to find in its
pages leaders for us who are good, noble, honorable men and women showing us the way. So it is always something of a shock to enter the pages of the Book of Judges and find ourselves immersed in nearly unrelieved mayhem. It might not gravel our sensibilities so much if these flawed and reprobate leaders were held up as negative moral examples…But
the story is not told quite that way. There is a kind of matter-of-fact indifference in the tone of the narration, almost as if God is saying, ‘Well if this is all you’re going to give me to work with, I’ll use these men and women, just as they are, and get on with working out
the story of salvation’…God, it turns out, does not require good people in order to do good work. He can and does work with us in whatever moral and spiritual condition he finds us. God, we are learning, does some of his best work using the most unlikely people. If God found a way to significantly include those leaders (‘judges’) in what we know is on its way to becoming a glorious conclusion, he can certainly use us along with our sometimes impossible friends and neighbors.” (Peterson, “Introduction to Judges” in The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002, p. 405)
Discuss: Peterson says “God…does not require good people in order to do good work.” Do you agree? Does this excuse evil?
Add comment February 6, 2008
