Imperfect People
by Brandy Webb
When you read the stories in the Bible, do some of the main characters ever appear to be like superhumans? I don’t know about you, but people like Moses, David, Elijah, Daniel, the apostles, etc., appear to be the equivalent of actual real-life superheroes. Maybe it is because that is how children’s Bible storybooks and lessons portray them. However, the truth is, they were just as human as you and me. They were imperfect people, and what is awesome when reading about most of these “greats,” God reveals their imperfections. We get to see that God can and will work with imperfect people, given since no human is ever perfect except for Christ, God has no choice but to work with imperfect people. Yet, that is the beauty of it all. God can take an ordinary human being and transform them into something extraordinary.
For example, Abraham was a man who let fear of being killed cause him to refrain from telling the whole truth twice. He was too afraid to let two rulers know that Sarah was his wife; instead, he told a half-truth and called her his sister (Genesis 12 and 20). Plus, he also tried to “help” God in regards to his promised offspring by heeding Sarah’s advice to have a child through Hagar (Genesis 16). Yet, despite all of his faults and his moments of lack in faith, he still had overwhelming faith in God. It took faith to leave his home and go, not knowing where (Hebrews 11:8; cf. Exodus 12:1-4). It took extreme faith to trust God when He asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac (Hebrews 11:17-19; cf. Exodus 22). It is because of his faith that God blessed him with an amount of descendants that were “like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore,” and through them, all the “nations of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 22:17-18).
Another example of a biblical icon that was also an imperfect person is Moses. Moses had a speech impediment to the point that he begs God to send someone else to talk to Pharaoh (Exodus 4:13). He was also afraid, which is not surprising since the last time he was in Egypt he had to flee for his life. Yet, despite all of this, with God’s help, Moses led hundreds of thousands of people out of Egypt. God worked through Moses to free people from slavery. Given, Moses does eventually fall short and is not allowed to go into the promised land. This reveals to us that we have to pay the consequences of our actions, but God still saw Moses, despite his flaws, as the most humble man on earth (Numbers 12:3).
There are many more examples I could go into from the Old Testament, but I want to point out two people from the New Testament that made a profound difference in the world. The first one is Peter. Everyone knows his biggest denial that humbled him and helped create the person he eventually becomes (Mark 14:66-72). What I appreciate about his story is the point it makes about the fact that fear and doubt can take down even the strongest people. Yet, that doesn’t mean it has to defeat you. Peter rebounded and became one of the most respected disciples of Christ. I have a feeling that his moment of weakness helped him to identify with others with their weaknesses.
The other one is Paul. Paul, as Saul, was probably one of the most righteous zealous Jews of his time. He had so much zeal that he persecuted the church (Philippians 3:6a). He even points out that when it came “to righteousness in the law, faultless” (Philippians 3:6b). To me, this sounds like he probably had the flaw of pride at one time. However, despite his pride and his persecution of God’s people, Christ still called him, and He made him become the apostle to the Gentiles, and his writings make up most of the New Testament. He became a strong emissary for Christ and took the Gospel to many places during his time.
All of these people were just everyday human beings whom God used to do mighty works. What I am realizing is that we should see ourselves in these people of old. They made mistakes just like us. What makes them stand out is when God called them to action they heeded the call. Now, some took their time getting around to heeding the call, but once they heeded God’s call, He gave them whatever was needed for them to do His work. There was nothing that made these people of old more special than us. James points this truth out in James 5:16-18. He is explaining the power of prayer and points out that “Elijah was a man just like us” (James 5:17a). His faithful prayer did cause God to stop the rain for three and a half years, and then he prayed again for God to send rain, which He did. This doesn’t mean that Elijah prayed better than you and I do. What it shows is how powerful our prayers can be.
The truth is, God is the God who likes to do the unexpected with people who are not expecting it. Who knows if God is going to use one of us to do something that makes a difference in the lives of generations after us? We have to make sure that if God calls us to action that we heed his call. We can look back to the examples of those who have gone before us. These “greats” of the Bible are there for our example, to give us encouragement and guidance. Therefore let us be like them and follow the words of Isaiah who “heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’”