Two passages swim into view today, highlighting some of the difficulties I had with the Old Testament. James, are you reading this?
The first is the iconic Sunday School story of Abraham nearly killing his son Isaac. Perfect story for little kids, isn't it?
Day 15: Incidents in Abraham's life
Ok, welcome back. I did a classic job of skating over the surface here - just mentioning that I couldn't have raised a knife against my own son. But why? Why did God even ask this of Abraham. To test him?
My answer is that God wanted to show Abraham he was different from the other gods. Child sacrifice was not uncommon in Canaanite religion. The Bible itself tells us that. (Leviticus 18:21 for example). God didn't want his people having anything to do with that. So he staged a story that would enter their folklore, to convince them never to do it. The story became folklore alright, but the Israelites still followed Canaanite practice from time to time, and get rebuked for child sacrifice, especially by Ezekiel.
The important point that I think we miss from our great historical distance, is that people thought in those days that you had to appease the gods. If you didn't buy them off with frequent costly sacrifices, then you wouldn't have good fortune. You had to prove your devotion, over and over again.
Judaism is different. We haven't chosen God. God has chosen us. So we don't need to try to please him.
The second passage deals with the classic objection to the Old Testament. How could God order his people to invade and kill other tribes and take over their land? How can that be right?
Day 33: God's covenant with Israel
God had promised to take the Israelites to a "land flowing with milk and honey." Fertile land like this was always in demand. Different groups of people would have competed for it since time immemorial. As well as that, the land has a key strategic position on trade routes from north and south. It's an attractive place. Everybody wants to live there.
If you wanted to live in Canaan, you had to have big swords. These days, we do the competition with money. If you want to live in Chelsea, you've got to be rich. If you're not, you can't. So we've got rid of the blood, but if you want to tell me that anything else has changed, I won't believe you. The business of becoming rich includes back-stabbing, treading on people's heads, bleeding your opponents dry ... I could go on. We still use the language of war even though the weapons have changed.
The thing about Israel was that they weren't typical conquerors. They were runaway slaves, living in tents in the desert, scraping some mysterious flaky substance off the ground to eat every day. Not ideal preparation for war. It's a miracle that they won any battles at all.
Hi Nick
ReplyDeleteYes Im here! The bit that I contest is not that the Isrealites conquered, as that is what man has done to man since history began, and that man destroyed cities and killed children, as the last century showed that humanity has never changed from that and most likely got worse. Its when it states that God commanded it. I could be wrong, but I find it more believable that man commited the act and then justified it by saying God said so, then the idea that God willed it. History is littered with examples of atrocities caused by man jusified by a holy cause. How in all good consciousness can i point non believers to a loving God using these verses? From my studies it is the number one cause of non belief amongst athiests! I can understand why these things occured, in their context, but not the God ordered it, is the crux of my arguement. Phew! Rant over!
Hi James!
ReplyDeleteYes, so the question is, did God "say" this? And if he did, does it tell us what he's really like, or does it tell us what people thought he was like?
And if God is OK with telling people to do things like this, are we OK with believing him?
Here's a quick response: I reckon God puts up with a lot of stuff in us that he is dissatisfied with. He puts up with us ignoring the plight of the poor, trashing the planet to enjoy our luxuries, and in the church, getting hung up about sex and forgetting about justice. He goes along with our petty preoccupations and listens to our bleating prayers about our little problems, when he would rather us be thinking about stuff that's much more important. It isn't perfect, but it's the best we can manage at the moment.
So back then, he told the Israelites to do what they needed to do to survive, and put up with the fact that they were being unjust and cruel to other human beings. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best they could manage then.
But importantly, it won't do for us, because we've moved on from that situation, learned those lessons, and mustn't slavishly read these stories as giving us permission to do terrible things in God's name.
How's that? Full of holes, probably, which you're going to show me!