Prophets and God's Servants: Finding Relatability in Biblical Characters | WR
This Written Reflection is based on Episode #121 of the Order Within Podcast. If you prefer listening to reading, you can find the audio version here.
There's something profoundly rich about discovering the Bible and reading it deeply. The tapestry of characters, the depth of stories, and the multitude of people we can relate to and learn from make it unlike any other text in human history.
I think sometimes modern Christianity can focus too narrowly on "Jesus only, Jesus alone." While Jesus is undoubtedly the Savior, the master of humanity, God's only Son—the pinnacle of what humanity can be—this singular focus might cause us to miss much of the power that the Bible holds in its entirety.
The Relatability of Biblical Characters
Jesus, being God in the flesh, can sometimes feel difficult to relate to. His perfection, while inspiring, can feel distant from our everyday struggles. This is where the other characters in the Bible provide us with approachable examples we can connect with on a human level.
I'm not downplaying Jesus' significance—His act of love in giving His life for us is something I reflect on daily with tremendous humility. What I'm suggesting is that there's so much we can learn, grow from, and find inspiration in through the stories of other biblical figures.
Prophets and Their Struggles
Currently, I'm reading through Jeremiah. Here's a prophet tasked by God to tell the people of Jerusalem and Judea uncomfortable truths—that they've forgotten God, are living by their own ways, following false idols, and doing things harmful to themselves and their communities.
Yet when Jeremiah delivers these messages, the people dismiss him, ridicule him, mock him, and even threaten him with harm. This pattern appears repeatedly throughout Scripture—God's messengers facing rejection when delivering difficult truths.
Being a prophet or servant of God requires obedience and trust. If we demanded to know everything upfront, we might never follow through with what God asks of us. He teaches us, shows us, and leads us along the way. Trust and obedience become essential, which can be challenging in our modern world that emphasizes self-reliance and independence.
Going Against the Cultural Grain
If we're going to put God at the center of our lives and commit to following and serving Him, we should expect to find ourselves at odds with our culture and society. The modern world often inherently conflicts with Christianity, and the things God asks us to do frequently put us in opposition to prevailing cultural norms.
The prophets were asked to do things that brought ridicule, created challenges, and sometimes cost them their lives. Their paths weren't easy—they involved suffering and difficulties. But the difference lies in the fulfillment found in our Creator, the joy discovered in Christ when we commit our lives to Him.
Transformation Through Christ
When we bring God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus together in our lives and allow that Holy Trinity to lead and guide us, we transform. Our experience changes. The way we view the world shifts. Those feelings of anxiety and fear begin to diminish.
I didn't realize that all the self-discovery work I had been doing—learning to love myself as God created me—was actually His loving hand providing healing power all along. For years, I wore a cross but remained skeptical about identifying as a Christian because of preconceptions about the Bible and church I had absorbed.
A Living Relationship
Everything about our faith centers on a living relationship with our Creator, one made possible through Jesus Christ. He provides us the pathway to sit at our Creator's feet. We aren't saved by works or by following rules perfectly—we're saved by grace, by mercy, by accepting Jesus's sacrifice for our sins.
For the longest time, I viewed Jesus dying for our sins through a fear-driven perspective. But as I've grown in my faith, this has transformed into a more love-centered, grace-oriented viewpoint.
When I read about God's anger in the Old Testament—particularly in books like Jeremiah—I understand it differently now. His anger stems from seeing His creation worship false idols, follow harmful paths, and distance themselves from Him. As a parent, I can relate to the heartbreak of a broken relationship with a child.
Learning from Biblical Characters
The beauty of biblical characters is that they're flawed humans just like us. Unlike Jesus, who lived a sinless, perfect life, these characters struggled. They failed. They doubted. And that's exactly why we can relate to them.
When God called them to difficult tasks, their first response was often resistance: "I can't do that!" Think of Sarah bearing a child in old age, Moses leading the Israelites, Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son, Joseph enduring slavery and imprisonment, David facing Goliath—the list goes on.
We can look to these prophets and characters for inspiration. We can call Jesus into our lives to guide our biblical studies and ask Him to teach us the depth and spirit of God's word.
The Power of Scripture
There's no book like the Bible—no text that has journeyed as it has, been cared for as it has, or been more controversial throughout history. People have lost their lives to share it. Think of all the persecutions throughout human history, the Protestant movement breaking away from the Catholic Church to have direct access to Scripture, the early church formations after Christ, and the prophets who received messages from God.
We get to be part of that incredible story. God would not leave us alone without guidance, and we have everything we need right here. Yet we often don't consider the weight, seriousness, and power of the Bible and all it has endured to reach us today. The fact that we can access it on our phones, in beautiful printed versions, in multiple translations—it's a tremendous blessing we take for granted.
In Closing
We'll never be perfect like Jesus. We'll never live sinless lives. That's why we need Him—to wash us clean and provide the doorway to heaven, allowing us to sit at our Creator's feet despite our imperfections.
But the other characters in Scripture can teach us so much. They can inspire us, help us learn, and give us figures to relate to in our struggles. When reading about Jeremiah preaching for 25 years with little response, being dismissed as crazy, it resonates with our experiences today.
Our world doesn't honor God. We worship money, materialism, and secularism. And where has it gotten us? More depression, isolation, and loneliness despite our technological advances.
My hope is to inspire you on your journey to connect with the Bible, with God, and with Jesus. To invite them into your heart and deepen that connection. To find that living relationship with our Creator. And to become instruments of God's will, serving Him as the prophets and servants did throughout Scripture.
In a world that often rejects God's messengers, may we find inspiration in those who came before us, who faced similar resistance yet remained faithful to their calling.