One of the things I love about the Bible is its honesty. It sets it apart from every other piece of ancient literature or religious text. The Bible doesn’t flatter its main characters or pretend they’re better than they are. In the Bible, Noah, the righteous man, is saved in the ark, but when he’s safely on land he gets drunk. Abraham is a serial liar. Jacob, the father of the children of Israel, is a crook who cheats his brother, his dad, and his uncle out of money. Moses was a murderer and lost his temper. David was an adulterer who arranged the death of the cuckolded husband.
Where you’d expect these sins to be swept under the rug, they are presented for the world to see. The Bible is surprisingly and refreshingly honest. It’s most obvious with the best known of Jesus’ twelve disciples – Peter. The apostle Peter was one of Jesus’ favourites – the first to identify him as the Christ, quick to respond, full of pluck. Yet, all four Gospels record Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus Christ on the night before he was crucified. The event is recorded in horrifying detail; reading it is like watching a slow-motion car crash.
