Giving more thought to this idea of God being good or not. One of the commenters on the original post about this topic had a theory. This theory was that the Israelites were misinterpreting the messages from God, or even just acting of their own free will and saying that God instructed them to do certain things like kill entire nations and destroy cities. This would certainly make a lot of sense - a fledgling race of people trying to make a name for themselves in the world would defintiely have a lot to gain by imagining that God told them to kill everyone else so they could become powerful. But that still doesn't explain the actions and miracles attributed directly to God. The flood, the first passover, and so on.
I don't know, I'm still in the camp of God changing between testaments. Perhaps the definition of "change" needs to be looked at, but there are clear differences between then and now.
Reading for May 18
1 Samuel 22:1-23:29
I don't have a lot of battery left on my laptop, so this may be a short one.
Saul searches for David to kill him. He is unable to locate him.
John 10:1-21
Jesus is the good shepherd.
Psalm 115:1-18
2 Why do the nations say,
"Where is their God?"
3 Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him.
mmmmmhmmm.
Proverbs 15:18-19
18 A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension,
but a patient man calms a quarrel.
19 The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns,
but the path of the upright is a highway.
Those Tylenol PMs are kicking in right about now. I am once again sick and need the sleep.
Goodnight, friends.
Not necessarily on topic, but read this story. This is such a sad story, but also such a beautiful example of witnessing Christ's love to the world and living it out.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/18/AR2010051805603.html?wprss=rss_metro&sid=ST2010051900146
Read this last night and thought it might apply:
ReplyDelete"A woman I know leads a small group of friends who are reading the Bible together, and one of them recently said, "I have come to realize that I don't believe the Bible is true." Her group cheered for her - not because the unbelief is good news, but because she had finally gotten honest enough to name her doubts.
One of the barriers to feeding my mind through Scripture comes when I am confused or unsure whether I can believe a story, but try to force myself to believe it or avoid reading it so that my faith doesn't get disturbed. Only when I read the Bible with an utter commitment to pursuing what I believe to be true, however, is it able to feed my mind.
So when you read the Bible and you have doubts, don't "try harder" to believe. "Try softer." Let God know about your doubts; he already knows about them anyway."
- John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be, p. 108
I like that reminder that it's OK to struggle with the Bible.