The Morality of the OT

The ramifications of interpreting the OT as God's direct commandment to His people, literally, and without mercy for people who do not share our beliefs is troubling:

1. The ends justify the means - any behavior is justified by a good result. That means we can lie, cheat, steal, murder, pillage, and covet our way to success.

2. War is just as long as it is waged to protect our beliefs. Fanaticism is the norm according to the Bible, if it is directed towards the preservation of our beliefs.

3. God created evil to discipline us - God, who cannot sin, farms out His dirty work to the Devil in order to assert His wrath and judgment on His disobedient creation.

4. God is characterized as threatening, petty, jealous, and wrathful. His mercy and love for us is dwarfed by His terrifying emotional volatility, which is justified by our sins and unfaithfulness.

5. God has no problem treating His creation like a Sim game - if people get out of line just damn them to toil upon the Earth, suffer in childbirth until they raise a murderer, drop dead and go to Hell. Or call in a flood and start over. Then after sacrificing a son to get everyone back on track, delay the ending for centuries in order to rack up as many atrocities as possible, and blame creation for it so that vengeance can be wrought once more, this time ending in total destruction.

6. God place fossils and signs of an old universe to confound the scientific community, yet convinces the Church that the Creation story is the literal (even scientific) account.

7. Blesses sinful nations like Egypt and then send plagues and bugs and blood to punish them.

8. Creates a law which must be followed so that it can end up condemning the people who faithfully follow it.

9. Murders a faithful man's family to prove a point to an evil entity - as if his opinion matters.

I do not believe God intended us to interpreted the OT in this manner, yet it is exactly what many Christians believe and defend!

None of it is characteristic of the God of the Universe - no way! It is instead the interpretation of humans who are looking out for their own interests. God is speaking and people are using selective listening and responding in a way that furthers their agenda.

1. The ends never justify the means and no Good God would ever consider it. Instead God asserted His will despite his people's thieving, murdering, unfaithfulness, in hospitality, sexual perversion, and nationalistic expansion.

2. God asserted His Being. His people responded by murdering nations who did not recognize Him, claiming their lands, and giving the credit to God.

3. God did not create evil. In fact, evil is not a force - it is the misuse of creation. God punishes us by allowing us to experience the natural consequences of our less than good choices.

4. God is just, Good, merciful, loving, and compassionate. He wants to be in communion with us. The human portrayal of God in the OT is the mirror image of an abusive spouse. Instead of reflecting God's nature, it gives us a picture of humanity's character - petty, jealous, wrathful, immoral (implementing the ends justifies the means ethics), murderous, unable to take personal responsibility, with no regard for the sanctity of life, and self righteous.

5. Here is another glimpse into the human heart, not God's heart. In actuality, the flood story and other miraculous, catastrophic events are included in the Bible to display God's omnipotence

6. Science is accurate. Evolution has some validity. The Creation story is actually a vision or inspired story of creation. It is important because it speaks truth about human nature, and God's power, not because it lays out the actual creation of the Earth.

7. Egypt was just as morally guilty as any of their contemporaries including the people they were enslaving. Although their is no historical record of Egypt enslaving the Israelites during the reign of the Pharaoh named in the story, it is likely that the records were expunged because they caused embarrassment to the civilization. However, I also believe that the story of emancipation was a lot less dramatic. It seems likely that the leadership of Egypt was weak and the Israelites simply left. They may have been pursued and there may have been hardship in Egypt that was attributed to the God of the Israelites. In any case, the point of the story was to unite the tribes and provide them with a legendary history. Also, it reinforced the message of the OT - God's omnipotence. One of the parts that did not happen is the parting of the Red Sea, which is a mistranslation of the Reed Sea - a small river.

8. God did give Moses the law, but it was not enforced by striking people dead or to bring down God's wrath on the people. It was a practical law, which was necessary for any large group of people to live by. I am sure tragedies where attributed to the breaking of the law, and it was enforced through intimidation in God's name. It also served to reinforce the culture, which has endured into the present.

9. The story of Job is a story. It is in the Bible to showcase God's omnipotence. No merciful, loving God would murder a man's family, steal his possessions and inflict health problems in response to a challenge from an evil servant.

The fact is, the ancient Israelites were a tough group of desert nomads - they were shepherds who became warriors and they had a primitive and tough view of God. Indeed, God had His hands full declaring His being to primitive man, but He succeeded. The result is a magnificent, inspired record of a primitive peoples attempt to respond to the Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient God and I think the best way to interpret the OT is to place ourselves in the shoes of all the characters - we can learn from their mistakes, because their mistakes are our mistakes.