The Holy Bible is full of wonderful stories starting in Genesis with creation and ending in Revelation with the creation of a new Heaven and a new earth which ultimately fulfills God’s plan of salvation for humanity. In between the covers of the Bible are tales that are incredible.

For the most part, the people in the Bible are just regular people who happen to find themselves in situations that are anything but regular. Sometimes we learn about ourselves through the stories shared about these different people, but the Bible is not really about the people in the stories. The Bible from beginning to end is really God’s own story and tells us who and what God is, and how God works in and through humanity.

Sometimes things get a little confusing. Sometimes some of the details in the Bible even seem to be contradictory.

Take for example who killed Goliath. We all know from Sunday school that David killed Goliath with a single stone launched from a sling (1 Sam. 17:49). Or did he?

In 2 Sam. 21:19 (NRSV*) we see a certain Elhanan killed a Goliath in a battle with the Philistines. This man was a giant. His spear was the size of a weaver’s beam. That is much larger than I could throw or even carry around. The point is not who killed Goliath, but that God was with the Israelites and through God’s strength and power their enemies, who were larger and more powerful, were defeated.

I recently had a conversation with a person who found what seemed to be a glaring contradiction in a great story about a time when God did a mighty work in the lives of God’s own people. In the book of Joshua, Joshua and the Israelite army fight the battle of Jericho. In Joshua chapter 2, there are two spies sent out to view the land as stated in the NRSV Bible. They met a woman named Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute who had her house built into the great wall that protected the city of Jericho. The king of Jericho got word that two Israelite spies were among them. He questioned Rahab who said that sure enough they had been at her house, but were no longer there. She said they had left the city and they could be pursued and captured. She actually lied about this. She had the two men hide on her roof among the crop of flax that had recently been harvested. Because Rahab lied to the king, she saved the lives of these two menand made it possible for God’s people to be successful in battle.

In Matthew 1:5, Rahab is named among the ancestors of Jesus. She is also named in Hebrews 11:31 as a hero of faith. So how can this be? She broke one of the Ten Commandments and lied. The commandment is actually found in Exodus 20:16 and says, “Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

The thing is, she lied for these two men, not about them. To bear false witness against your neighbor indicates libel or slander, defaming or destroying the character or good name of another person when it is not true. She did lie, but she did not destroy the character of these men.

Furthermore, the commandments and all the laws were given to the Jewish people specifically to set them apart from the rest of the people, the Gentiles. Through the laws and commandments the Israelites would be different and the rest of the world would see that they were God’s chosen people through whom God’s plan of salvation would be fulfilled. Rahab was not Jewish. She was a Gentile so the commandments and laws given to the Israelites were not for her and didn’t really apply to her.

This really just goes to show us that God is bigger than our understanding and works in mysterious ways. Sometimes God can even use a liar like Rahab, like all of us actually, for we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

Now the question does remain, what were these two good Israelite men, who were on a military mission doing, at a prostitute’s house? Rehab’s house was their first and only stop in Jericho.

Well, that is a whole discussion for another time.

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*Editor’s note: Pastor Timmons said he was using NRSV. The NIV and KJV record that it was the brother of Goliath slain many years later in another battle than the one recorded in I Samuel. I Chronicles 20:5 also records Elhanan’s killing of Goliath’s brother.

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Editor’s note: Brian Timmons is the pastor of Pea Ridge and Brightwater Methodist churches. He can be contacted at 925-0167 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Church, Pages 2 on 09/21/2011