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Chapter 16—Bible Biographies
No part of the Bible is of greater value as an educator than its
biographies. These biographies differ from all others in that they are
absolutely true to life. Only He who reads the heart, who discerns the
secret springs of motive and action, can with absolute truth delineate
character or give a faithful picture of a human life. In God’s Word
alone is found such delineation.
The Bible clearly teaches that what we do is the result of what
we are. To a great degree the experiences of life are the fruit of
our own thoughts and deeds. “A curse without cause shall not
alight.”
Proverbs 26:2
. “Hear, O earth! Behold, I will certainly bring
calamity on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts.”
Jeremiah
6:19
.
Terrible is this truth, and deeply should it be impressed. Every
deed reacts upon the doer. Human beings may recognize in the evils
that curse their lives the fruitage of their own sowing. Nevertheless,
we are not without hope.
Jacob Was Transformed
To gain the birthright that was already his by God’s promise,
Jacob resorted to fraud, and he reaped the harvest in the hatred of
Esau, his brother. Through twenty years of exile he was himself
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wronged and defrauded, and at last was forced to find safety in flight.
And he reaped a second harvest as the evils of his own character were
seen to crop out in his sons—all too true a picture of the retributions
of human life.
But God says, “I will not contend forever, nor will I always be
angry; for the spirit would fail before Me, and the souls which I have
made. For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry and struck
him; I hid and was angry, and he went on backsliding in the way of
his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will also lead
him, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners. ... Peace,
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