When he came to consciousness, he also became a murderer. While he was on the lam, he encountered Yahweh in a burning bush. Chosen as a liberator and giver of laws, he agonized about his middleman status, had a hard time communicating, and died with the grumbling of his people echoing in his head. And as for the liberated people, to gain the so-called promised land they launched a generation of wars, the violence of which still makes readers of the books of Joshua and Judges flinch, and, so many of you tell me, still turns you off from sustained Bible reading. In fact, the Bible has a distinctly ambivalent attitude toward progress.
Individuals can and do grow and mature.
Groups and nations can become more faithful. Take King David. Great in battle and eloquent in verbal arts and in music, he was a bounder in the personal relations department. And in the long line of the kings of ancient Israel and Judah, for every noble reign or deed, there are ten that are squalid. But when he grew powerful his pride led to his own undoing.