At the conclusion of most biographies I have read, I find myself saying, “This is too high for me: I cannot attain unto it.” Rather than going away encouraged, on many occasions it has produced the opposite effect. Why is this? Well, I have noticed most peoples’ enemies do not write about them. It is their admirers, friends, and loved ones, who write their biographies. If an adversary does write, you realize at once there is bias to be found in the book. But this is just as true if the former writes about them. The one emphasizes the bad; the other, the good, in the individual’s life. And both are generally blown out of proportion.
But this is not true in Bible biographies. Here we see the Author is the first to bring out anything commendable, even in the lives of those He has no respect for. On the other hand, He does not put cosmetics over the blemishes of the ones He dearly loves. There is no “sugar-coating,” even for the elect’s sake. This is one proof of inspiration. Bad men wouldn’t have written such things about themselves. Good men couldn’t have written it, for embarrassment. It’s God’s writings.
How I thank God for recording for me the lives of these saints, and not hiding their sins, faults, and short-comings. And how appreciative each of us should be of these people whose lives are laid bare, so that the entire world can read about them. How would I like for my life to be displayed in its rawest form? I have been so blessed and helped by reading the paradoxical stories of the lives of these sinning and shining saints. Only God could work these evils for their good and His glory. “Now all these things happened unto them for our ensamples: and they are written for our admonition...” (1 Cor. 10:11)
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