People are often surprised at how sinful so many Biblical “heroes” are. One of the Bible’s greatest characters, King David, commits one of the vilest sins ever recorded in its pages. We should learn from this that even a converted member of God’s family can commit truly evil deeds. Yet, we also learn that the hope of the Bible is not that we have to become morally superior to the main Biblical characters. The hope of the Bible is that Jesus paid the penalty for David’s sin and for our own.

Near the beginning of Matthew’s genealogy we see Tamar—a most unlikely ancestor of Jesus. Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and had sex with her father-in-law Judah. But this is a tale of two sinners. Judah neglected to materially provide for Tamar despite the fact that she was a helpless widow, driving her to desperate measures. This story shows that the Bible is not a book about moral people who lived perfect lives worthy of emulation. Instead, we see how God uses broken people to bring about the only righteous person who has ever lived—Jesus.

Near the end of his life, Joseph displays his hard-earned wisdom. He shows us that we need to leave all righting of wrongs to God; we must see God’s providing hand in man’s malice; and we must never repay evil with evil, but instead we must meet evil with forgiveness, and even affection.

Anger has the power to disintegrate our health, our communities, and our individual wisdom. However, anger can be a good thing; it is an attribute of God and of anyone who loves. The key to healing anger is to find out what you truly love and why your anger is out of control.