Lately I’ve been listening to the One Year Bible plan in my car. Can I just say, Genesis is enough to give a girl road rage. Yes, I said Genesis. I’m a little late to the game, okay? Even though I’ve read it before, it’s hitting me like a true crime podcast. Or a daytime soap opera.
The whole book is fraught with characters who are hot messes. Abraham made his wife pretend to be his sister TWICE to save his own skin. And plot twist, she really is his half-sister. Everyone’s hooking up with their wives’ servants or tricking people into bed to create heirs and to marry off older daughters with weak eyes.
Abraham’s grandson Jacob let his mommy wrap him in goat skins to fool his dad into giving him the blessing reserved for the firstborn, his hairy twin. Later on, he played all kinds of favorites with his own kids. After ten of his sons get rid of their tattletale little brother Joseph, they convince Jacob he was killed by wild animals. Before that, the sons murder an entire town of men to avenge their sister, so dropping their brother into a dry well is tame by comparison. But don’t worry, Joseph gets even with them. When they come to his palace to buy grain during a famine, he imprisons one, plants a gold cup on his baby brother, and accuses all of them of thievery.
Every bit of it is convoluted. And you know what else? God uses these messed up people to bring about redemption for the world. Through their lineage the Messiah is born. Through Joseph’s plight, his family is saved from starvation during a famine. God used broken people with disturbing backstories to tell the greatest story ever told. And He didn’t stop after Genesis. Even the disciple Matthew and the Apostle Paul were a crook and murderer used by God to change the course of history.
What a relief! God shows me over and over that I might be broken in the eyes of the world, but He has plans for me. Similarly to the Japanese art of Kintsugi—repairing broken pottery with precious metals—God repairs my shatter pieces and makes me useful as only He can. Since He does that for me over and over, I know He will do the same for you.