Why Jerry Springer Would Love the Old Testament

Growing up, the Jerry Springer Show set the standard for low-brow talk shows. Every week, it seemed like he would set up shop in a trailer park and just have at it. Do that many people not know who their ‘baby daddy’s’ are or that their boyfriends are having an affair with their sister? The few times I watched the show, I shook my head and wondered, “Where do these people come from?”

Here’s what I love about the Old Testament: it’s the story of God using a broken and flawed people to do His work, many of whom would have been great candidates for the Jerry Springer Show. Consider some of the ‘heroes’ of the Old Testament:

• A guy who threw his wife under the bus and pretended to only be her brother every time they moved somewhere new (Abraham).
• A guy who got completely drunk and passed out naked in front of his kids (Noah).
• A guy who’s wife turned into a pillar of salt and whose daughters got him drunk so that he would impregnate them (Lot).
• A guy who thought the best way to take care of a problem was by killing someone (Moses).
• A guy who mistook his daughter-in-law for a prostitute and slept with her, getting her pregnant (Judah).
• A guy with serious anger issues who would let foxes run loose in grain fields and rip the gates off of city walls (Samson).
• A guy who lusted after another man’s wife, slept with her, then killed the husband (David).

These are the heroes of the Old Testament, and they’re all deeply flawed characters. If God can use them, God can use you. Never count yourself out.