Flannel Board Theology

When David, Solomon, and Samson become bigger heroes than Jesus.

Have you ever noticed that many of the Bible heroes we were taught to look up to in Sunday School and Children’s Church were actually fairly terrible people? I mean sure, many of them did really good things, but a lot of them also committed horrific sins and even crimes.

I got to thinking about this after reading a quote by Voddie Baucham. He said:

“The wisest man in the Bible fell into sexual sin, the strongest man in the Bible fell into sexual sin, and the godliest man in the Bible fell into sexual sin. For me to think I’m above falling into this sin is to think that I’m wiser than Solomon, stronger than Samson, and godlier than King David.”

I agree with Voddie that we need to be aware of our weakness and fallibility. I agree that we must continually remember that we desperately need Jesus Christ as our Savior, and pray for the Holy Spirit to spare us from temptation.

But … was Solomon really the wisest man in the Bible? Was Samson the strongest, spiritually speaking? No doubt, Samson could benchpress a ton, but that doesn’t make him a good role model.

Consider David, for example. David had some solid moments. He felled an evil giant. He defeated wicked Saul. But later on he murdered Uriah, committed serious sexual sins, and was an objectively terrible father.

Eventually, when David’s own daughter, Tamar, was raped, he did nothing to defend her or give her justice. Like many of David’s kids, Absalom, his son, went completely off the rails. The entire nation was plunged into bloody war and thousands of godly men died because David was a weak father. The Book of Samuel reads a lot like the Jerry Springer Show but with farm animals and chariots.

Samson was completely bizarre. He had an ongoing affair with a woman who he knew was actively trying to get him killed. He ate honey out of a dead lion’s corpse (which I think has profound scriptural symbolism [maybe I’ll write about that later!], but it’s still super gross). He tied lit torches to the tails of foxes when he could have just shot flaming arrows or lit the field on fire himself. He was physically strong, but morally anemic, and apparently not the sharpest tool in the shed. He literally held onto God’s grace by his hair.

Solomon was wise but he became stupid. He committed profoundly serious sins, married more women than he could possibly get to know, and eventually turned away from God. Solomon expressed wisdom at one point in his life, but ultimately, Solomon’s wisdom was God’s wisdom shining through Solomon. As Solomon rejected God, God’s wisdom passed from him.

In fact, you could make a solid argument that David’s goodness wasn’t David’s, it was Gods; Samson’s strength wasn’t his own, it was God’s; Solomon’s wisdom had nothing to do with his intelligence, but was God’s Spirit upon him. David, Samson, and Solomon were deeply flawed individuals who God blessed with virtue for a time and in certain ways. But when these men rebelled against God, God withdrew his blessings.

It’s certainly comforting to know that God can save the worst of the worst; rapists, murderers, polygamists, thieves. If God can save those guys, he can definitely save me, who has never cheated, enslaved, abused, or murdered anyone.

However, I find the belief that, “If David could murder a guy to steal his wife, so could I,” absolutely alarming, and I don’t think it’s a healthy way to think.

Psychologically, this line of thought sets us up for temptation. If we’re constantly thinking, “I could cheat,” “I could abuse,” “I could kill,” we’re much more likely to gravitate toward those evils instead of away.

To make an analogy, it’s a bit like being on a diet and constantly thinking about junk food. “I could eat those cookies. I could down that soda pop. I could devour that whole bag of Doritos. There but by the grace of God go I.” Of course, breaking your diet isn’t sinful. I’m speaking in metaphor here.

If you want to stick to your diet, you’re much better off thinking about healthy food. “Grilled chicken sounds good. An apple a day. Water sounds refreshing.” This is far more helpful, and you’ll find that the right mental posture helps you stay on track and hit your goals better.

And this is actually a biblical concept. In Philippians 4:8-9, Paul urges us, “brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

Paul knows that when we think about good things, we do good things. In Proverbs 4:23, Solomon himself writes, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” In other words, if we’re constantly thinking of all the sins we could commit, we’re setting ourselves up for failure. When we think about good things, we’re less prone to sin.

This idea that any godly person can spontaneously fall into serious sins like murder, rape, adultery, and sexual abuse, also has the unintended side-effect of normalizing serious sins and evil.

If David was the most godly man of his day, then murder, adultery, sexual abuse, and rape, aren’t the extreme evils we know them to be. Anyone can commit them, even the godliest man on his godliest of days.

But this is not how sin works or how people behave. In order to commit premeditated murder, you’ve got to callous your heart and rid yourself of all sympathy and compassion for your victim. In order to rape someone, you have to harden your heart, objectify the victim in your mind, and dehumanize them to the extent that assaulting them doesn’t bother you. In order to abuse a child, you have to come to view children as objects of hatred rather than the cute, sweet, and innocent treasures they are.

You cannot do this overnight.

This level of evil takes months if not years of faithfully practicing and pursuing perversion. You don’t “fall into” evil. It’s a slippery slope, a slow fade, and a lengthy hike into that darkness.

Perhaps at one point, as young David stared down Goliath, he was the epitome of human goodness and godly valor. But as he stared down Bathsheba from the roof of his palace, Peeping-Tom David was a predatory creep with homicidal tendencies.

Overall, David was not the most godly man of his day. Consider Nathan, Samuel, Jonathan, or Uriah.

Samson was physically strong, but morally weak. And I cannot impress upon you enough how spectacularly dumb he was to stay with Delilah even knowing she was trying to get him tortured and killed.

Solomon was wise for a time but ultimately turned away from God, making himself a fool. In fact, Solomon is arguably the most foolish man in the Bible, because despite talking with God and enjoying God’s richest blessings, he threw it all away to sate his own ego and lusts.

Part of fighting sin is resisting the urge to relate or sympathize with it. Part of avoiding evil is focusing to purely on Christ, that sins like adultery are repulsive and unreleateable.

We must be staunch in our desire to never compromise. We must boldly condemn the smaller gateway sins that lead to greater sins and eventually evil. We must recognize the first steps onto that slippery slope; that enclosing shadow; that gradual decent into evil. We must love God with such a passion that - by his grace - we never slide into serious error, let alone jump off a moral cliff.

A much more healthy and effective mode of thought (and I believe, the biblically sound approach) is to aspire to be like Jesus.

Jesus honored women.

Jesus protected children.

Jesus helped the weak.

Jesus comforted the suffering.

Jesus befriended the outcast.

Jesus served and cared for others.

Jesus said, “Follow me.”