Durruck
Pirate!
Caution. This is a LONG post. It is approximately 6 pages when formatted to 1" margins, APA format. The questions that the paper must cover are:
To anyone that is not Jewish, Muslim, or Christian, a quick look at our common beliefs must make it look like we are all masochists or prisoners suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. How can three separate religions share a common foundation and be so drastically different? How can three religions all worship a God that is known for His demands of perfection? How can three religions worship a God that is known for His wrath? How can Christians say that they worship a caring and loving God?
The most important thing we have to do while reading the Old Testament is to make sure we are looking for the big picture. (Lennox, 3, 11) We should be constantly on the lookout for what we can learn about God and His plans. (Lennox, 53) Fortunately, there are four things we can be watching for to make sure we get the most out of reading the Old Testament. (Lennox, 55)
First, we should be watching for the attributes of God. For example, Genesis 1:3 says, “And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.” (NIV) which shows us that God is a powerful being – powerful enough to will light into existence. We also see that God is a Creator – He makes things. So as we read, we need to always keep in mind that God has the power to not only make things happen, but to make things.
Second, keep in mind what you’ve already learned about God. Most people that read the Bible start with the New Testament. With that in mind, we already know that God is good, forgiving, loving, and willing to take drastic steps to restore us. The verse that most everyone can quote is John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God took extreme measures by returning to Earth as a man, and while being sinless and whole, paid the price for all the sins of mankind. So as we read the beginning of the story, we have to always be looking for what extreme steps God took early on to heal us.
Third, God is a spiritual being, not of flesh and blood. Everything that is easy for us to comprehend about traits is generally attributed to someone or something we are familiar with through analogies. He is the Lord of Hosts (Isa 6:3). A host is a mass of people, typically used to describe a regiment organized for war. So, God is the leader. Exodus 15:26 says, “I am the Lord that heals you,” so we see that God is a healer. All the traits that we find about God are always there, as He is never changing, as described in Malachi 3:6. So we quickly build a list of traits – Leader, Healer, Savior, Redeemer, Shepherd, Teacher, and the list goes on.
Fourth, we should keep in mind that the goal is to not just know about God, but to get to know God. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time clearly knew all the rules, but failed to recognize that they were standing in the presence of the Almighty. How terrible it must be to attempt to live your life by hundreds of rules to show that you know God and His commands, and then not realize when you are looking into His eyes, watching Him perform miracles, hearing Him tell you how much you mean to Him.
So, with those four points – God’s attributes, God’s character, the analogies that we will read, and attempting to really know God – in mind, let’s continue to explore what we can learn about God and His plans by taking a closer look at Genesis, specifically chapters one through eleven. God created everything in Genesis chapter one, and called everything “good.” At the culmination of creation, God looks at everything together and calls it all “very good.” This included man, which He created in His likeness. In his book, God With Us, Lennox explains,
All it took was one little temptation, and our freedom to choose became our undoing. Eve eats the fruit and gives some to Adam. They both gain the Knowledge of Good and Evil. When confronted by God, we can already see that sin has set into Adam’s heart as he immediately tries to shift the blame completely to Eve. Punishments are doled out and man is kicked out of paradise. We see the second attribute of God – He is Holy. He cannot allow sin to go unpunished.
Already mankind has lost the intimate relationship with God, the Garden of Eden, and the easy life. Now there is inequality between men and women, men must work harder to tend his crops because of the weeds that will now grow and women will experience greater pain during childbirth than originally planned. Worst of all – we all will experience death.
It seems that we have already fallen a long way and lost so much through just a few “little” sins, but it gets worse. In Genesis chapter four, we read the history of Cain and Abel. Abel appears to be righteous – giving the best of his flock to God as his tithe. Then we see Cain, who is already trying to cheat God out of the tithe due Him – sin number one. Then Cain gets angry, holding great contempt for his brother – sin number two. He takes the hatred a step farther and murders Abel – sin number three. He is deceptive to God about Abel’s whereabouts – sin number four. In a single generation, we have gone so much farther than just disobeying God to cheating, lying, hating, and murdering. So again, God hands out the punishment (showing God’s holiness), forcing Cain to leave and cursing him so that he will be unable to settle down and farm anywhere ever again. Cain of course realizes the magnitude of what has occurred and cries out to God. Cain protests saying that he knows that he will be killed.
Here, God the Father steps in. God promises to put an even worse curse upon the head of anyone who attempts to kill Cain in vengeance. The first new trait that we find is that of a loving father that wants to protect His children, even if they have sinned. We also see that God is the Judge – God has ruled on the punishment, and it is final.
From here, we see a little bit of a gap. There are 11 generations listed from Adam to Noah, yet no further information about specific sins are recorded until we get to Genesis chapter six, where we find wicked hearts that disobey God (verse 5) leaving the world corrupt and full of violence (verse 11).
The story picks up with Noah, his family, and an ark filled with animals. God sends a massive flood to wipe out the unrighteous. While at the surface this appears cruel and hateful, God chose this path to try to heal the wicked human heart. God wanted to give humanity the chance to start over, rather than just annihilating us and calling us a failed experiment. God shows his grace and kindness by letting us try again, and again, and again.
After the floodwaters recede, God makes a new convent with Noah and his family. God promises that he will never again send a flood to wipe out mankind. He goes on to promise that we will still be His representatives, that we will have dominion over the animals, that all plants and animals are now a food source, and that Noah’s family will be fruitful and populate the earth. (Genesis 11:1-17) So far, we haven’t had another catastrophic flood, we still have dominion over the animal kingdom, and we can eat most any plant or animal. Lastly, as the earth’s total population rapidly approaches seven billion, it is safe to say that we have certainly been fruitful and multiplied.
So how does this prove God’s grace and kindness? God made an example that we can look back upon and start to realize that humanity would be doomed if left to our own. We cannot achieve the holiness that is required to enjoy life as it was intended for us. God showed that He was willing to be the one to take extreme measures to reach out to humanity and attempt to heal us. He set the stage for us to realize that we need Jesus.
He even loved humanity when He was punishing them for their disobedience.
Without this punishment, there would have been no hope of ultimate restoration. Like the surgeon who must remove diseased tissue for the sake of the whole body, God had to perform a painful operation for the greater good. God loved humanity too much to leave it sick and dying (Lennox, 67)
In conclusion, we need to make sure that when we read the Old Testament, we remember to keep God’s actions in context that match what we know to be true about His attributes and character, that the things that are revealed are by analogy and that we are supposed to develop a relationship with Him. By doing this, we can know more about God and His plan, while understanding that even when things seem to be harsh, He did it because He loves us and wants us to experience life the way He planned it. But the sin in our hearts makes it impossible to live the perfect life that we need to live so that we can have the intimate relationship with God. But God started taking the steps immediately after Adam’s sin to make sure that we would recognize the further need for us to rely upon Him. God started taking the steps to introduce us to a Savior, long before He was born. Christians do not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome and we are not masochists. We have opened our eyes to the Truth.
References
Lennox, Stephen J. (2009) God With Us: An Introduction to the Old Testament. Marion, IN: Triangle Publishing.
Zondervan NIV Study Bible. Fully rev. ed. Kenneth L. Barker, gen. ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002.
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Thoughts?
To anyone that is not Jewish, Muslim, or Christian, a quick look at our common beliefs must make it look like we are all masochists or prisoners suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. How can three separate religions share a common foundation and be so drastically different? How can three religions all worship a God that is known for His demands of perfection? How can three religions worship a God that is known for His wrath? How can Christians say that they worship a caring and loving God?
The most important thing we have to do while reading the Old Testament is to make sure we are looking for the big picture. (Lennox, 3, 11) We should be constantly on the lookout for what we can learn about God and His plans. (Lennox, 53) Fortunately, there are four things we can be watching for to make sure we get the most out of reading the Old Testament. (Lennox, 55)
First, we should be watching for the attributes of God. For example, Genesis 1:3 says, “And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.” (NIV) which shows us that God is a powerful being – powerful enough to will light into existence. We also see that God is a Creator – He makes things. So as we read, we need to always keep in mind that God has the power to not only make things happen, but to make things.
Second, keep in mind what you’ve already learned about God. Most people that read the Bible start with the New Testament. With that in mind, we already know that God is good, forgiving, loving, and willing to take drastic steps to restore us. The verse that most everyone can quote is John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God took extreme measures by returning to Earth as a man, and while being sinless and whole, paid the price for all the sins of mankind. So as we read the beginning of the story, we have to always be looking for what extreme steps God took early on to heal us.
Third, God is a spiritual being, not of flesh and blood. Everything that is easy for us to comprehend about traits is generally attributed to someone or something we are familiar with through analogies. He is the Lord of Hosts (Isa 6:3). A host is a mass of people, typically used to describe a regiment organized for war. So, God is the leader. Exodus 15:26 says, “I am the Lord that heals you,” so we see that God is a healer. All the traits that we find about God are always there, as He is never changing, as described in Malachi 3:6. So we quickly build a list of traits – Leader, Healer, Savior, Redeemer, Shepherd, Teacher, and the list goes on.
Fourth, we should keep in mind that the goal is to not just know about God, but to get to know God. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time clearly knew all the rules, but failed to recognize that they were standing in the presence of the Almighty. How terrible it must be to attempt to live your life by hundreds of rules to show that you know God and His commands, and then not realize when you are looking into His eyes, watching Him perform miracles, hearing Him tell you how much you mean to Him.
So, with those four points – God’s attributes, God’s character, the analogies that we will read, and attempting to really know God – in mind, let’s continue to explore what we can learn about God and His plans by taking a closer look at Genesis, specifically chapters one through eleven. God created everything in Genesis chapter one, and called everything “good.” At the culmination of creation, God looks at everything together and calls it all “very good.” This included man, which He created in His likeness. In his book, God With Us, Lennox explains,
All it took was one little temptation, and our freedom to choose became our undoing. Eve eats the fruit and gives some to Adam. They both gain the Knowledge of Good and Evil. When confronted by God, we can already see that sin has set into Adam’s heart as he immediately tries to shift the blame completely to Eve. Punishments are doled out and man is kicked out of paradise. We see the second attribute of God – He is Holy. He cannot allow sin to go unpunished.
Already mankind has lost the intimate relationship with God, the Garden of Eden, and the easy life. Now there is inequality between men and women, men must work harder to tend his crops because of the weeds that will now grow and women will experience greater pain during childbirth than originally planned. Worst of all – we all will experience death.
It seems that we have already fallen a long way and lost so much through just a few “little” sins, but it gets worse. In Genesis chapter four, we read the history of Cain and Abel. Abel appears to be righteous – giving the best of his flock to God as his tithe. Then we see Cain, who is already trying to cheat God out of the tithe due Him – sin number one. Then Cain gets angry, holding great contempt for his brother – sin number two. He takes the hatred a step farther and murders Abel – sin number three. He is deceptive to God about Abel’s whereabouts – sin number four. In a single generation, we have gone so much farther than just disobeying God to cheating, lying, hating, and murdering. So again, God hands out the punishment (showing God’s holiness), forcing Cain to leave and cursing him so that he will be unable to settle down and farm anywhere ever again. Cain of course realizes the magnitude of what has occurred and cries out to God. Cain protests saying that he knows that he will be killed.
Here, God the Father steps in. God promises to put an even worse curse upon the head of anyone who attempts to kill Cain in vengeance. The first new trait that we find is that of a loving father that wants to protect His children, even if they have sinned. We also see that God is the Judge – God has ruled on the punishment, and it is final.
From here, we see a little bit of a gap. There are 11 generations listed from Adam to Noah, yet no further information about specific sins are recorded until we get to Genesis chapter six, where we find wicked hearts that disobey God (verse 5) leaving the world corrupt and full of violence (verse 11).
The story picks up with Noah, his family, and an ark filled with animals. God sends a massive flood to wipe out the unrighteous. While at the surface this appears cruel and hateful, God chose this path to try to heal the wicked human heart. God wanted to give humanity the chance to start over, rather than just annihilating us and calling us a failed experiment. God shows his grace and kindness by letting us try again, and again, and again.
After the floodwaters recede, God makes a new convent with Noah and his family. God promises that he will never again send a flood to wipe out mankind. He goes on to promise that we will still be His representatives, that we will have dominion over the animals, that all plants and animals are now a food source, and that Noah’s family will be fruitful and populate the earth. (Genesis 11:1-17) So far, we haven’t had another catastrophic flood, we still have dominion over the animal kingdom, and we can eat most any plant or animal. Lastly, as the earth’s total population rapidly approaches seven billion, it is safe to say that we have certainly been fruitful and multiplied.
So how does this prove God’s grace and kindness? God made an example that we can look back upon and start to realize that humanity would be doomed if left to our own. We cannot achieve the holiness that is required to enjoy life as it was intended for us. God showed that He was willing to be the one to take extreme measures to reach out to humanity and attempt to heal us. He set the stage for us to realize that we need Jesus.
He even loved humanity when He was punishing them for their disobedience.
Without this punishment, there would have been no hope of ultimate restoration. Like the surgeon who must remove diseased tissue for the sake of the whole body, God had to perform a painful operation for the greater good. God loved humanity too much to leave it sick and dying (Lennox, 67)
In conclusion, we need to make sure that when we read the Old Testament, we remember to keep God’s actions in context that match what we know to be true about His attributes and character, that the things that are revealed are by analogy and that we are supposed to develop a relationship with Him. By doing this, we can know more about God and His plan, while understanding that even when things seem to be harsh, He did it because He loves us and wants us to experience life the way He planned it. But the sin in our hearts makes it impossible to live the perfect life that we need to live so that we can have the intimate relationship with God. But God started taking the steps immediately after Adam’s sin to make sure that we would recognize the further need for us to rely upon Him. God started taking the steps to introduce us to a Savior, long before He was born. Christians do not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome and we are not masochists. We have opened our eyes to the Truth.
References
Lennox, Stephen J. (2009) God With Us: An Introduction to the Old Testament. Marion, IN: Triangle Publishing.
Zondervan NIV Study Bible. Fully rev. ed. Kenneth L. Barker, gen. ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002.
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Thoughts?
