Biblical Personalities That You Identify With

 

I’ve mentioned many times over again on this blog that I love to watch people, and to learn just what makes them tick. People, to me, are the most interesting creatures, and not a single one of us can be recreated in entirety. Considering how many of us souls have graced the earth since the beginning of time, that concept should just blow your brain right out of your head. It sure does mine.

That being said, though, I truly believe that each of us Christians can relate to at least one biblical personality. I think God purposely covered each basic personality trait through His people long ago, and I can’t even begin to tell you how many times this has brought me comfort.

The biblical person that I relate to the most is David. And no, it isn’t because he was a king, or even more amazing, called a man after God’s own heart. I wish. Instead, it is because of the way he responds to life that I tend to recognize in myself.

David spent a good deal of his childhood alone. Because of this isolation, he developed a true relationship with the Lord, and even though he committed all of the most humiliating and disgusting of sins, he had the wisdom and knowledge from the Lord to accept his discipline, and then move past it, never once doubting that the Lord still loved him. What I recognize in myself is that I handle discipline from the Lord much the same way, and though I’ve had my issues with trust, I have always known that I was saved. I think David did too.

David had an intimate understanding of who God was, and I recognize that kind of relationship with God in my own life. He was a warrior, but he wrote poetry as well. He played a harp, but he could sling a stone and kill a giant. Sometimes, I’m weak, yet other times I can be very strong. No, we obviously aren’t exactly the same, but I understand his reactions and decisions better than I do other people in the bible.

My daughter Rebekkah, on the other hand, always tried to insist that she could identify with Paul better than any of the other biblical people, but I just never did see it. I always saw a lot of characteristics of Moses in her, and when I finally got her to study about him, she totally agreed I was right.

Things I love about Moses are that he was meek — the meekest man on the face of the earth. Yet, through that humble, quiet man, Israel was led out of Egypt. He insisted on proof that God was who He said He was…He didn’t want to be fooled or tricked. Hence, the burning bush. Rebekkah is the same way. She tests the spirits until they cry Uncle…Moses wasn’t a complete innocent either, though. Moses murdered a man and then split after hiding him in the sand. He hid away from his sin for a long time before God called Him for His purposes.

One of my favorite Moses stories is that of Miriam being prejudiced against Moses’s inter-racial marriage. Because she was basically racist, she began to disrespect Moses, and Aaron, instead of calling her out about what was motivating this nonsense, just followed along, being deceived by her arguments. Here is the story from Numbers 12:

  1  Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.   2  And they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it.   3  Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.   4  And suddenly the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out.   5  And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward.   6  And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.   7  Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.   8  With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”   9  And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed.   10  When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.   11  And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned.   12  Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”   13  And Moses cried to the LORD, “O God, please heal her—please.”   14  But the LORD said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.”   15  So Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again.   16  After that the people set out from Hazeroth, and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

Now, answer me truthfully. How would you feel if God Himself confronted those who talked about you behind your back? I’m not sure, but it seems to me that Moses might have been completely clueless about what Miriam and Aaron had been saying. I think the key here though, is that Moses was so meek, it didn’t give him any pleasure at all that Miriam was being punished for what she had said about Moses. I can’t say that I’m a fraction of a fraction meek enough not to feel some sense of justification should God defend me against someone like that. And that is probably why God doesn’t speak to me mouth to mouth….I just have a long, long ways to go before I could ever be ready to be in His presence. Yet, Moses begged for her healing, and did not move the camp until she was allowed back in. What a beautiful, sweet, kind heart. I would dearly love to have that kind of heart.

So, my point to this post is just this..who do you identify with in the bible? I’d love to know what it is that you recognize in yourself that resembles that person.

— Bird