Take a close look at family life in the Old Testament and you will find the same dysfunctions that plague families today–betrayal, jealousy, physical and emotional violence, infidelity, and mean-spiritedness. In Flawed Families of the Bible, David Garland and Diana Garland offer an honest and careful reading of scripture, showing that the families of the Bible were not so different from imperfect families today. Even so, God worked through those imperfections to reveal hope and grace to families then, just as he does today.

This book’s message is crucial for contemporary families. Everyone–those in the church and those outside of the church–struggles to sift through the dysfunction and build healthy and close families. The Garlands combine their expertise in scripture study and family life to unpack issues like feeling unloved by your spouse, family shame, betrayal of family members, abuse, and loss.

Flawed Families of the Bible will be valuable to pastors and counselors, as well as anyone looking for encouragement in family issues.

With astute scholarship, with feet planted firmly in both the world of the Bible and our own, with eyes of faith and hope, the Garlands have created a profound reflection on how God relates to, works with, and loves families whatever their circumstances, whatever their particular assemblages of strengths and weaknesses. They escort us on a tour of some of God’s more interesting biblical families, always with an eye to exposing their fully flawed humanity. Readers will have some familiarity with these families but perhaps have never thought of them as they really were. This book will challenge and change the way many read the Bible–not because it focuses on failures and difficulties, but because it shows that our true greatness is not so much of our doing, but of the God who is much more that we deserve. The book flows like a tempestuous river through the rocky terrain of families yesterday and today. It’s a perfect antidote to those who think God loves only perfect families.–David M. Thomas, codirector, The Bethany Family Institute, UK and USA

Diana and David Garland have pooled their combined expertise in scripture studies and family ministry to create a wonderful, wise book. Flawed Families of the Bible challenges all our pious platitudes about the life of faith and the ‘perfect’ family, opening us up to a radical transforming vision of real redemption experienced in the midst of confusion, failure, and pain. If you ever thought the Good News was too good to be true; if you thought you couldn’t measure up to the high standards of Bible; if you ever shied away from a church door because your family didn’t seem to fit there, then read Flawed Families of the Bible. This gracious and grace-filled book surprises us into seeing God and our family lives anew.–Wendy M. Wright, author of Seasons of a Family’s Life: Cultivating the Contemplative Spirit at Home