Sunday, May 16

Hey. So I just watched a movie called "God on Trial". The story is about a group of Jews at Auschwitz during WWII, who decide - rightfully - that their situation is so despicable that they must put God on trial. They decided to determine whether or not the covenant that God made with the Jews was broken - was God in breach of contract, basically.

The movie plays out like a debate and about 90% of it takes place in the bunks the Jews are housed in. The main argument against God was that he promised to protect the Jews if they followed his commands - well they did, but now they're stuck in this horrific place. He promised to strike down the enemies of the Jews, but why is Hitler living and flourishing?

The argument for God was that it was the Jews who were at fault for their situation. One man quotes many of the scenarios in the OT (or the Torah in this case) where Israel disobeyed God and suffered for it. Another argument in God's favor was that they were suffering as martyrs so they could carry on the legacy of the Jews.

The debate carried on for a while, and then towards the end, a Rabbi - who had remained silent for the whole movie - spoke up. He began talking about how God struck down the first born child in Egypt. How God ordered the complete obliteration of the Amalekites by Saul. And when Saul tried to be generous with the plunder from the battle by giving the livestock to his people, God punished him for it. He concluded that it was now the Jews time to feel the pain and suffering that God had inflicted on all the other nations. He said, "now we may know what it feels like to be an Egyptian mother during the first passover." Finally, he concluded his impromptu sermon with this message - shouted from the  bottom of his lungs:

"God is NOT good!"

I have to say - if it weren't for Jesus, I would agree with him. I've already concluded that God is most likely not all knowing, and perhaps not even all powerful, why not ruin the whole image and throw the idea that maybe he isn't loving in there too? I mean, where does it say that he is all loving? Is that something Jews and Christians made up so it was more palatable to serve him? God's actions in the Old Testament are certainly not the actions of a loving, gracious, good God. He is ruthless, he is angry, he is abusive, he is frightening, he is murderous...but he is not good. It's strange that in the New Testament then that we see so little of God himself, and yet we see so much of him at the same time. Jesus is believed to be God in human form - but he is absolutely not the same God who killed every first born child of Egypt.

Maybe there are different emotional parts of God - a loving part, a wisdom part and a powerful part. Perhaps that is what the holy trinity is. Has anyone ever played the game Portal? The final boss is this sentient, self-aware machine that has different emotional cores - an anger core, a kindness core, one that prevents it from making mistakes and one that is a recipe for cake (I don't think that one has any relevance here...) Maybe God is made up of these emotional cores - and maybe the kindness core layed dormant for thousands of years. And maybe after God's anger core had been raging out on his people generation after generation, the kindness core (Jesus) took over. Maybe Jesus took over to save human kind. To save humanity from it's God.

Reading for May 16
1 Samuel 18:5-19:24
So here, we start to see David's popularity and power increase, while Saul's decreases. Saul tries to kill David several times - a couple times he tries to directly murder him with a spear, while others he just sends David into war hoping he will be killed in battle.

There's an interesting parallel here between David and Jesus as Saul is trying to kill David - an innocent man:

⁴ Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, "Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. ⁵ He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?"

Now, no one really spoke up for Jesus like this when the Pharisees were trying to kill him, but this is the same principal.

Again, Saul tries to kill David and David escapes. David's wife - who happens to be Saul's daughter - arranges David's escape and creates a decoy so he can get away. David fled to Samuel and told him everything that happened. Eventually, Saul figured out where David was and went to go and kill him but when he got there, it says:

²³ So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even upon him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. ²⁴ He stripped off his robes and also prophesied in Samuel's presence. He lay that way all that day and night.

I'm not sure what it means when it says "prophesying" - it's obviously preventing him from killing David, but is it something he has control over? It doesn't sound like it...

John 8:31-59
This is a pretty tense scene. Jesus is talking with the Jews - it just says Jews, not Pharisees or anything like that.

³¹To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

 ³³They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants^[a] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

 ³⁴Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.

What I want to examine here is the idea of slavery. I'm sure you've heard the term "slaves to sin" before, but I've never really thought about it. A slave is someone who is wholly owned by a master. Someone who must obey what the master says or face punishment. A slave is someone who works in horrific working conditions for no more reward than basic requirement to stay alive to continue working.

So if someone is a slave to sin, that means that sin is their master. They must obey sin - or perhaps a vice in their life. By obeying sin, the person is only giving themselves just enough to stay alive so they can continue to live in sin the next day. I think that's they key here - being a slave to sin, and living apart from Christ is not real life, you are merely sustaining yourself just enough to keep going.  Whereas being free through Christ will give you the freedom to live your life to the fullest - to live it in a way that it was meant to be lived. And this way that we were meant to live is the way God wanted us to live from the beginning with Adam and Eve. God had designed a life for us to live that was beautiful and satisfying, and sin stepped in and ruined it.

Now, through Christ, we can have the life we were meant to have from the beginning. Free from our awful master of sin. And the only reason we can experience that freedom is because Jesus took it upon himself to suffer on our behalf. He took everything of God that was "NOT good!" and absorbed that hatred, that anger, that jealousy that God poured out on mankind time and time again - Jesus took every last bit of anger God had, and he did that for us. It's as if Jesus absorbed God's anger core, so now God can be the loving, good God he wants to be.

I'm gonna call it there for the night - its a lot to think about.

Psalm 112:1-10


Proverbs 15:12-14
 ¹² A mocker resents correction;
       he will not consult the wise.
 ¹³ A happy heart makes the face cheerful,
       but heartache crushes the spirit.
 ¹⁴ The discerning heart seeks knowledge,
       but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.

I would love to discuss this stuff with you - any of you. Please comment below, email me (brandonamurray@gmail.com), or call me. I love discussing and debating this stuff. Also, I would really recommend that movie - it's a great conversation starter.