Have you read the Bible lately? Like it or loathe it, there is no book that comes close to the readership that the Bible has generated over the 2,000 years and counting. So as a cultural influence, no other work comes close.
In this New Year’s resolution to challenge my faith, I’ve been reading the Old Testament, the story of God and his chosen people. It’s definitely not a puff piece, not a celebrity memoir. Nobody comes off looking good, especially God.
It’s hard for me to reconcile the God of the Old Testament with the God I pray to.
For starters, He has anger issues. Adam and Eve make one mistake, perfectly understandable given the circumstances, and he goes ballistic. The punishment far exceeds the crime: He banishes them to a life of pain and suffering and for all generations to come as well.
Later, he’s so mad he decides to annihilate all life. Noah convinces him to give it another go, but after the annihilation.
While his chosen people wander in the wilderness, freed from Egyptian slavery, He constantly complains to Moses about them. What a stubborn people, He says over and over. On the other hand, his people are constantly complaining about God, and Moses is constantly complaining about everything.
With Abraham, God breaks his promise over and over about offspring, more than the stars in the sky. By the fifth time, when Abraham and Sarah are around 100, they just laugh at Him. And, lo and behold, they have a son.
David leads Israel to a time of domination. But a few generations later, God gets mad again because they are worshipping other gods, so he causes the neighboring tribes to destroy everything they have and scatter them away from their homeland.
After the prophets fail in their predictions of a return to mightiness, God changes his tune. Instead of promising a great tribe if they follow the law, he now promises the individual a good life if they follow the law, not a great life, a good life.
And then comes the showdown with Job. This could be God at his worst. He makes a bargain with the Devil, allowing the Devil to kill all his family, deprive him of all his possessions then wreak torture on his body, basically, just to see what happens. Will he curse God?
Job calls God into account for this lapse in morality. How could a God like this be worthy of devotion? Job does not back down, and God evades an answer.
It’s messy, crazy, full of illicit sex and violence, prone to disaster.And the countless editors along the way didn’t water it down either or try to smooth out the rough edges. Why is this story my religion?? Why isn’t it more uplifting, more setting an example for right behavior?
I’ve got some thinking to do, or better yet, some praying.