Bible Stories

I had a wonderful time teaching tonight. Of all the things I do, I think I love Wednesday night the best, especially after I gave up lecturing.


We sat around a table, with the Bible in our hands and talked through the stories of Genesis. Everyone had something to say, and all of it was interesting.

Most people don't know the stories of Genesis, of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Oh we think we do, but we don't. We know the sanitized version of them, the King James version, full of these and thous and men in robes strutting across the stage like Hollywood actors. We can just see Charlton Heston ad Abraham, or Gregory Peck as Isaac. We completely miss the stories.

The stories are not like Sunday School, they are earthy, crude, and gossipy. They are full of betrayal, lust, greed, jealousy, and all those things we in the church don't usually like to talk about.

They drip with vice and virtue. If they really made a movie about those stories, it would get at least a PG13 rating. Dallas and Dynasty had nothing on the Bible for intrigue, backstabbing and sheer cattiness.

The stories of the Bible work on two levels. They have all kinds o f human lessons. Virtue is rewarded and evil punished, but there are no heroes and villains. Everyone takes a turn being right, and everyone has a turn at being wrong, just like in our lives. The Bible doesn't conceal the glaring flaws of its heroes.

Even so, there's a divine level to the story as well. It's all about the continuing covenant that God made with one family. In spite of their nastiness and crudeness, God doesn't let them go. He keeps on blessing those who bless them, and cursing those who curse them.

Why? I don't know. But that's what He wants to do. His love is constant as the star, and is not rattled by human disobedience.

Tonight we studied the story of Jacob and his vives and Laban, his father in law. They almost killed each other. For twenty years they were unsteady allies, alternately cooperating and betraying each other. It's a wonder that Jacob survived with his family intact,

But the did. That's the point, I think. He didn't deserve God's blessing, but he got it anyway, simply because God chose to give it. God used Jacob and his family in spite of themselves.

Jacob gives me hope for myself. God may have a use for me yet.

Jacob's story s one big laugh in the face of those who think that they deserve God's love, those who would look at other people and think themselves better. It's also a good natured joke at the expense of those who think they are unworthy of being used by God. If God can use a jerk like Jacob, he surely can use me. And you.