Why all fail?

[Lila]

As I'm sure many others have also noted a pattern about those that were called in office by the Almighty Himself and yet they did not manage to remain faithful as anticipated and therefore had to deal with consequences thereof.

Just to name a few: (backwards) Solomon, David, Saul, Samson, Abimelek, Gideon and even Mose.

Any thoughts on why this pattern is so there? Were/ are promises of the Savior so not worth the perseverance, or what should the take home lesson be?

 

[UntoldGlory]

My thought is that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, so we shouldn't put our faith solely in men. People will fails us eventually.

 

[Slumberfreeze]

The lesson that I take home is that it doesn't matter if I am "used of God" or "called according to His purpose", I am just as prone to sin and in need of discipline as I would be otherwise. Even if I hear the literal voice of God, work miracles, or become elevated to the highest point of power in the land, I am just a man, and capable of spoiling everything with one moment of unguarded pride, or lust, or envy, or greed.

 

[Lila]

The lesson that I take home is that it doesn't matter if I am "used of God" or "called according to His purpose", I am just as prone to sin and in need of discipline as I would be otherwise...

So are we saying the significant men listed in OP were not aware of this perhaps?

 

[Slumberfreeze]

So are we saying the significant men listed in OP were not aware of this perhaps?

Welllll.... Solomon at least knew better, but he testifies that he invited madness and folly in order to fully test them like a science experiment.
And I wouldn't consider David to be wholly ignorant either. The difference between them and us is not information vs lack of information, although there are certainly things we know that they did not.

Like Jesus!

The principle differences are the access to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which none of these men had in the same manner that we do, and none of them had access to the new life in Christ. The majority of the oracles of God were delivered to these men, and they were unable to preserve themselves with them. All wisdom and righteous instruction was delivered to them right from the source, but it wasn't enough. None of them had the capacity to BE reborn.

 

[FollowingHim]

The principle differences are the access to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which none of these men had in the same manner that we do

That's what I had always been taught too, but:

You shall speak to all who are wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom...

I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all kinds of workmanship

Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel ... I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you don’t bear it yourself alone. ... Yahweh came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did so no more. But two men remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad; and the Spirit rested on them. They were of those who were written, but had not gone out to the Tent; and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran, and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”
Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered, “My lord Moses, forbid them!”
Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all Yahweh’s people were prophets, that Yahweh would put his Spirit on them!”

Yahweh said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.

I'll stop there, but the Old Testament is absolutely packed full of such quotes. Just do a search for "Spirit" and start scrolling... Many, many people in the Old Testament clearly had the Spirit dwelling in them - in other words, they had the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit". Throughout the Old Testament we see many of the gifts of the spirit manifested repeatedly - prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, even healing. We've been taught all our lives that these are unique to the New Testament Church, but this is a misconception - YHWH has worked through His prophets throughout time in the same way.

All that has changed regarding the indwelling of the Spirit, is that access to the Holy Spirit has been opened more widely, so more people can access this rather than just a select few leaders and prophets. It is a change in quantity, not quality.

I do agree that we do have the benefit of thousands of years of further revelation, so we have knowledge of Christ that these men did not have. However, that is not necessary for obedience. Adam had only one very easy commandment, he had no knowledge of either the Mosaic law or Christ, but he didn't need that, he just had one very simple instruction to follow. And he still disobeyed it, even though he walked with God in the garden daily!

We're just all humans. It doesn't matter how much revelation we may have, we are still fallible. All those in the past failed, and all of us in the present fail. That is why we need salvation by grace alone, because we can never achieve it by works. The fact that all fail, yet can still be chosen and used by YHWH, is simply the heart of the message of Yeshua.

 

[Teom]

I think Paul sums it pretty well in Romans 7. 2nd Peter is also good and worth a quick read.
I'd agree with FH, that the Spirit has always been there. Further, I would venture to say that every manifestation of God which man (Moses, et al) has ever interacted with was the son. John 1, and pretty sure there's other scriptures to support such a view which I can't recall off the top of my head.

My personal take away is that if men more righteous than I, even a man after God's own heart, can fail, that's all the more reason to strive for obedience and diligently seek Him.

 

[Lila]

Well said FollowingHim and Teom!