part0023

"And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake ; and my soul shall live because of thee." [Genesis 12:11-13]

An interesting and important observation in the Bible is that the godly do NOT always live very godly. II Samuel 11:1-4 says, "And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her ; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. "

In that passage, King David had seen Bathsheba bathing herself. He had lusted after her. He had wanted her. So he had sent his messengers to get her for himself even though she had been married at the time. Before that whole episode had ended, he had had her husband killed in battle so that he could try to hide their affair. He had also had a baby with her which had later died. Even more amazingly, though, after all of that is that the Bible says that David had been a man after God's own heart. Acts 13:22 says, "And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will ." His actions had been horrible and totally inexcusable. But the Lord had still established a covenant with him and had promised that his kingdom would never end. In fact during the Millennium, Jesus will sit on and reign from the throne of David.

Another occurrence in the Scriptures that shows the godly living in a very ungodly manner had happened with Abraham and his wife Sarah. Even though she had been well up in years, she seems to have been very attractive. For that reason Abraham had tried to pass her off as his sister to the Pharaoh of Egypt rather than as his wife so that Pharaoh would not kill him to get at her. Genesis 12:11-13 which was quoted above indicates that he had asked Sarah to lie for him about their relationship. Of course, he had gotten caught in his lie. But as bad as that incident had been for a man of faith, Abraham had actually TWICE tried to pass Sarah off as his sister so that he would not be killed. The second time in Genesis 20:1-2, which was also quoted above, indicates that he had told the same lie to King Abimelech of Gerar. Once again, though, he had been caught in his lie and had been asked to leave the area. It would seem that rank has its privileges with the Lord even among the so-called godly people of the world. But actually, the above situations present two even more valuable messages. The first message pertains to the reliability of the Scriptures. The second message shows the wicked sin nature of all human beings.

The first message is that being able to believe and have confidence in the Bible are very important. Critics have often maintained that uneducated or undereducated men wrote it and that they had not truly understood what they were seeing or hearing. Critics have also often suggested that the copying and translation processes were probably flawed so that the originally transmitted word of God cannot possibly be known. But an argument against those critics is that the Bible is an honest Book. It shows godly people at their best and at their worst. It also does not try to hide any of the more important facts. So when one carefully examines Abraham's whole life or David's whole life, a clear pattern of spiritual growth is very evident. They had started out in their spiritual lives with some very rough edges. But over time they had matured in the Lord and had not ended as they had started. Therefore, the second message from their lives is that even they had been sinners. Romans 3:23-26 says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God…." The Apostle Paul wrote that ALL human beings are sinners. ALL human beings are born UNSAVED and separated from God. But through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross at Calvary, every person can be SAVED . The keys to being SAVED are to seek the Lord with all of one's heart, to commit oneself to Him, to trust in Him, and to enter into a personal relationship with Him.