People Who Failed In the Bible | Finding My Victory In Christ

Oftentimes, we forget that the people in the Bible were human, just like us. They made mistakes. They disobeyed God. They let their flesh control their decisions. They even did things like unjustly murder other people. They weren’t perfect. They are more relatable than we sometimes make them seem or look.

Many of the people we often hear stories about in the Bible failed and I’d like to take a look at three of those times.

ADAM AND EVE – The fall of humanity

Adam and Eve were the first humans God ever created. God created them in His image and called His creation very good (Genesis 1:26-31; Genesis 2:7). They had free range of the Garden of Eden and access to every tree except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

God made sure Adam and Eve were taken care of. He gave them everything they needed. He established them with purpose and directions. Yet in Genesis 3 we see that the serpent made them feel like they were missing something. The serpent questioned God’s direction and promised their disobedience would lead to them becoming like God. They ate of the fruit that was on the Tree and separated themselves from God.

They died spiritually and separated themselves from their relationship with God. They walked and talked with God in the Garden every day yet still chose to disobey the one thing God had forbidden them from doing. Even still God took care of them. Even still, God has mercy on them. If they had eaten of the Tree of Life after eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they, and all of humanity after that, would have lived forever separated from God. So God cast them out of the Garden.

GOD STILL USES ADAM AND EVE

Having everything you need but seeing something that might look better is a temptation every human deals with. Adam and Eve did and did something that had catastrophic consequences. Can you imagine what they must have thought, felt and realized, knowing they were no longer walking with God how they used to? That their kids would not walk with God in the Garden of Eden how they had? The weight of that seems almost too much to think about. But God. God sent Jesus and redeemed them and us. God still used Adam and Eve.

Adam named every animal and plant we have today. Adam and Eve were the first people ever married, a covenant that pictures our covenant with God and believers. Adam and Eve started the rest of humanity. Seth, Noah, and Abraham, the father of nations, came from Adam and Eve. Adam is the start of the genealogy of Jesus.

DAVID – Gets Uriah Killed

In 2 Samuel 11 and 12, we find David. He is now king of Israel and God has made a covenant with him. One night, David gets up to go onto his roof and sees a woman named Bathsheba bathing. He finds her incredibly beautiful, has someone bring her to his home, and sleeps with her, after someone had informed David that she was married to Uriah. She becomes pregnant from this and tells David.

David tries to convince Uriah to sleep with his wife, but Uriah refuses, saying his people are in battle, how can he just go home. David even gets Uriah drunk but Uriah still doesn’t go home. Uriah had proven to be loyal and to care about his men. So David hands Uriah a letter to give to Joab, and the letter reads “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and down” (2 Samuel 11:15).

David had Uriah level his own death order. When this story is often told, it’s not always mentioned that David attempted twice to get Uriah to sleep with his wife before this. And David didn’t just put Uriah in the frontline of the battle, but he wanted it to be in one of their hottest battles.

The prophet Nathan comes to David and reminds David of all the things the Lord has done in David’s life. He also tells him there will be consequences for David’s actions. David admits his sin. God tells him the son he and Bathsheba had will die. The son gets sick and dies a week later.

Many of the things in the Bible are heavy to talk about. Losing a child would be absolutely devastating. An innocent baby died because of David’s actions. An innocent man died because of David’s actions.

GOD STILL USES DAVID

There are consequences for our actions. But God is still a redeemer. No problem, no mistake, and no failure is too big for God to redeem, for God to walk you through, for God to fix. God can use anybody. And God still uses David.

God called David His anointed one. David conquered the people who had occupied Jersulem and made it the capital of Israel. David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. David wrote over half of the book of Psalm. David fathered Solomon.  David is the lineage that Jesus came from. God called David a man after His own heart.

PETER – Denies Jesus

Peter was one of Jesus’s first disciples. He walked with Jesus for years. Peter saw the miracles and wonders that Jesus did. Peter talked with Him and learned from Him every day.

Matthew 26:69-75 and Luke 22:54-62 tells the story of when Peter denied Jesus three times. After Jesus was betrayed and arrested, Peter sat by a fire with a group of people. Luke says they were sitting by a fire in the midst of a courtyard. The people there recognized Peter and said he was with Jesus, that he was “one of them,” a follower of Jesus.

Peter denies knowing what they are talking about and denies knowing Jesus. One thing we often don’t hear about with this story is that each time Peter denied Jesus, it was to a different person. Matthew says Peter denied Jesus in front of all the people who were there. Both accounts in Matthew and Luke mention how this happened over a couple of hours, not all at once.

After this happens, Peter remembers what Jesus has said and he “went out and wept bitterly” (26:75 and Luke 22:62.

I would do the same. I can’t imagine the feeling of regret and guilt he felt, especially after not long before this, happened Peter had said “‘Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny you!’” (Matthew 26:34).

If I were in Peter’s position, I would feel so ashamed and not be able to look at myself in the mirror. Even Judas, who betrayed Jesus before this, later hangs himself over what he had done (Matthew 27:3-5).

GOD STILL USES PETER

The beautiful thing about this story is Jesus restores Peter.

In John 21, Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him and Peter says “‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You’” (John 21:15). Jesus asks him this three times and Peter responds yes every time. Each time Peter answers, Jesus answers differently. Jesus tells Peter to feed His lambs, tend His sheep, and follow Him.

GOD CAN STILL USE YOU – Victory In Christ

For most of my life I have seen and defined myself as a failure. I’ve told myself I wasn’t good enough or smart enough. That I couldn’t possibly be successful in life. That I messed up everything in my life and that there was no coming back from it.

But now? I’m learning to take risks. I’m learning to no longer live in fear of trying. I’m learning that mistakes are a part of life but I don’t have to live in shame and regret. I don’t have to define myself as a failure but as a victor in Christ.

None of these people in the Bible were perfect and neither are we. God still used each and every one of these people and God can still use you.

Remembering the gravity of the things that happened in the Bible but also remembering the goodness of God can change your perspective and change your life.

Whether we’ve disobeyed direct instructions from God like Adam and Eve, been lustful, committed adultery and plotted murder like David, or whether we let fear make us afraid to represent Christ like Peter, God can still use you.

My victory is in Christ. Who defines me is Christ, not my mistakes, not my insecurities, not my shortcomings, not my shame or guilt, Christ and Christ alone.