There are two ways to learn: The hard way and the easy way.
Some lessons you definitely DO NOT want to learn the hard way. Never lick a steak knife. Never pet a growling dog. Never look directly at the sun. These lessons need to be learned the easy way.
What’s the easy way? Learn from someone else’s mistakes.
- If a guy with a sliced tongue says, “Don’t lick your steak knife!” Take his word for it!
- If a girl with a mangled hand says, “Don’t pet a growling dog!” Learn from her.
- If a blind guy says, “Never look directly at the sun!” Learn the easy way what he learned the hard way.
Fortunately, the Bible is full of mistakes. What? Don’t get me wrong. The Bible is perfect. It was written exactly the way God wanted it to be written. The original books and letters were without the slightest error and He has preserved it for us throughout history. But the Bible is full of stories about people who have made mistakes. One of the reasons it is so believable is that the Bible’s heroes are not presented as perfect people.
Adam—the closest thing to a perfect man (other than the God-Man)—made the biggest mistake ever. He brought sin into the world and got us all kicked out of Eden.
Samson made the mistake of choosing the wrong woman. It cost him everything—the original and worst bad hair day.
The people who watched God bring the Egyptians to their knees made the mistake of doubting God’s power to protect them from the Canaanites. They died in the desert without ever seeing the Promised Land.
David and Solomon—probably the two greatest kings in the Bible (other than the King of kings)—were great examples in many ways. But their mistakes were colossal. Their families and the nation never recovered.
Peter—who was probably closer to Jesus than any other person on earth—made the huge mistake of saying he didn’t even know Jesus. His heart almost exploded from the shame.
These are just a few. There are hundreds of mistakes in there. God put them there for a reason: So we could learn from them. The question you have to ask yourself is, “Am I going to learn the hard way or the easy way?”
You can disobey God like Adam and mess up your fellowship with God or you can learn from Adam’s mistake.
You can date and marry non-believers like Samson and cause yourself a lifetime of grief or you can learn from Samson’s mistake.
You can doubt God’s power and never know God’s blessing like the Israelites or you can learn from their mistakes.
You can selfishly abuse your power and freedom like David and Solomon and cause your family to suffer for generations or you can learn from their mistakes.
You can pretend you don’t know Jesus—pretend Jesus is no big deal—and feel the agonizing heartache Peter felt or you can learn from Peter’s mistake.
There’s a reason all those stories are in the Bible. There’s a reason God included the stories about good kings as well as bad kings. There’s a reason God led His writers to tell stories about the successes as well as the failures of the twelve apostles. There’s a reason the Bible tells so many stories about sinful sinners who sinned: You can learn the hard way or you can learn the easy way.
The choice is yours.
