One year for my birthday, my sister gave me the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, which was the motivation for the Broadway musical by the same name.  Although it was heavy reading (three pounds in paperback). I was impressed by what I learned about our founders (Adams, Burr, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Monroe, Washington and others) and their contributions.  I had always thought of them as strong leaders and knew that many were excellent and inspiring writers, but I didn’t realize the full strength of their knowledge and intellects, and how much their abilities to apply their ideas contributed to their successes.  They were well read and followed most of the advances of the age.  For example, I knew Jefferson and Franklin were interested in advanced mathematics, but I didn’t know Hamilton had noted “fluxions” (calculus) should be a part of the curriculum at the proposed military academy that eventually was realized as West Point.  The reading made me grateful they were there to start our country off right.

I also was slightly chagrined by what I learned about these great men as individuals.  All were flawed!  They could be petty, bitter and vindictive, and they sometimes made libelous statements.  Some had personal lives that would be scandalous even in the present days, and they had other moral failings.  They were hypocritical; for example, all of the Virginians in the list above made public statements against slavery, but only Washington supported any actions against it (in his will Washington provided for the freeing of his slaves after the death of his wife Martha).  A few of them were not religious (or even anti-religious), some were Deists, and most of the rest treated religion in a pro-forma manner.  They let pride get in the way of common sense.  Recall that Burr and Hamilton fought a duel in which Hamilton was killed; both allowed their pride from keeping them from finding a peaceful solution to their differences. 

This brought to mind the same is true in the Bible.  Men such as David, John, Moses, Paul, Peter, Solomon, Thomas, and others were all flawed!  This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be grateful; after all, God chose to work through them, and we should have faith that God can help us emulate their positive actions.  On the other hand, we should take their failings as warnings.  Paul makes this point in Chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians, when he uses the history of Israel as a warning: “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”  Let us learn from the good examples and take warning from the bad.

Read 1 Corinthians 10: 1-13 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Jim

Adapted from a posting of 2016