One of the evidences for the "inspiration" of Scripture is surely seen in that the Bible

does not whitewash its heroes, nor present them in a light untrue to the realities of life as

we know it. The men and women who are presented to us as examples of the life of faith

are not superhuman beings exempted from the stresses, strains and failures of which we

ordinary mortals know so much, but were (as Elijah) "subject to like passions" (Greek

homoiopathees, from homoios like and pathos being affected, suffer).

Abraham, set forth for our consideration in the gallery of faith, was by no means

without blame in the light of his earthly life revealed in more detail in the O.T. For all

the fact that he went out, not knowing whither he went . . . . . sojourned in the land of

promise as in a strange country . . . . . offered up Isaac with the conviction that God

would raise him from the dead (Heb. 11: 8-10, 17-19), he nevertheless was a man who on

two occasions falsely represented the relationship he had with Sarah, thereby placing her

in danger of corruption (Gen. 12: 11-20; 20: 2-18).

Moses was disobedient before the rock in Horeb, when he struck it twice and thereby

forfeited the position of leading Israel into Canaan (Numb. 20: 8, 11, 12), and he another

example of Heb. 11: So likewise David, who descended to the very depths of sin when

he committed both adultery and murder in the affair with Bathsheba and Uriah

(IISam.11:) and yet for all that he was nevertheless, a man after God's own heart to the

One Who knows what is in man.

In the N.T., the leader and spokesman of the Twelve Apostles, Peter, a man who

was eventually to lay down his life for Christ (John 21: 18, 19), denied His Lord thrice

(John 18: 17, 25, 27) and was later (even after the Resurrection and Pentecost) "to be

blamed" in the matter of his actions at Antioch (Gal. 2: 11, 12).

Paul and Barnabas were in sharp contention over the ministry of John Mark, so much

so that they "departed asunder one from the other" (Acts 15: 36-39). The same apostle

Paul made no claim to being any different from other men in this respect, recognizing

himself as being subject to the same pressures common to all:

In the light of these things, we may perhaps draw a measure of comfort from the fact

that God does not await our perfection before He can use us; "He knoweth our frame;

He remembereth that we are dust" (Psa. 103: 14). He could well do all His work without