Dysfunctional families

We're reading Jon Ortberg's Everbody's normal till you get to know them in our Book Club at the moment. It's a book I read some time ago and just dipping into it a second time reminds me how much I enjoy Ortberg's writing.

His description of the "as is" tag that we all carry and the dance of the porcupines brings home the reality that we are all far from perfect. Take the headline: Totally normal women who stalk their ex-boyfriends. As Ortberg points out, "if the obsessive stalking of an ex-lover is not just normal but totally normal, how far would you have to go to be a little strange?"

The Bible, rather than hide the fact that we are all flawed, tells it as it is about the people who come "as is". Here's how Jon Ortberg sets out the patriarchal family line and its flaws:

Cain is jealous of Abel and kills him. Lamech introduces polygamy to the world. Noah–the most righteous man of his generation–gets drunk and curses his own grandson. Lot, when his home is surrounded by residents of Sodom who want to violate his visitors, offers instead that they can have sex with his daughters. Later on, his daughters get him drunk and get impregnated by him–and Lot is the most righteous man in Sodom!

Abraham plays favourites between his sons Isaac and Ishmael, they're estranged.

Isaac plays favourites between his sons Jacob and Esau; they're enemies for twenty years. Jacob plays favourites between Joseph and his other eleven sons; the brothers want to kill Joseph and end up selling him into slavery.

Their marriages are disasters:

Abraham had sex with his wife's servant, then sends her and their son off into the wilderness at his wife's request. Isaac and Rebekah fight over which boy gets the blessing. Jacob marries two wives and ends up with both of their maids as his concubines as well when they get into a fertility contest.

Jacob's firstborn son, Reuben, sleeps with his father's concubine.

Another son, Judah, sleeps with his daughter-in-law when she disguises herself as a prostitute. She does this because she is childless since her first two husbands–both sons of Judah–were so wicked that God killed them both; and Judah reneged on his obligations to her.

These people need a therapist.

These are not the Waltons. They need Dr.  Phil, Dr Laura, Dr. Ruth, Dr. Spock, Dr Seuss–they need somebody.

It's a sobering thought to see this family history set out like this. But God continues to use flawed people.