What does this say about God?

What does this say about God?

I have had a few questions regarding our process for the blog. As a result, let me begin this post with a few items of business. Please remember our summer read is not intended to be a place for my voice alone. If you would like to post more than a comment please contact me directly at markbradshawmiller@sbcglobal.net. I will gladly post your thoughts and make sure to give the appropriate credit.

Ok, now we have finished with the business items let me say I had not intended to write again until I finished all of Genesis. But after reading only the first twelve chapters I simply cannot resist sharing my thoughts. I appreciate the Author’s approach to the first twelve chapters of Genesis. It is as if he is reading a novel and these first chapters are intended to tell us about the main characters and story line. At least that is how I read his approach. After all, the basic question being asked is: “What do these stories tell us about God?” I find this a rather appropriate question for people of faith.

The answer to that question for the author seems a bit disturbing. In the first two chapters God seems unclear about the origins of the universe, as well as having an affinity for creepy crawly things. Later, God acts like an angry parent who sets the boundaries of punishment but does not follow through. God does not really punish Cain for killing his brother (a particularly disturbing inaction given our culture’s focus on law and order). Finally, God destroys people on the earth because they are “wicked.” A vague term which people throughout the ages have gladly filled in the gap with any sin of which they are not personally at risk of committing. The God that the author meets in the first twelve chapters is one that he finds troubling.

Instead of doing some defense of God, or offering an explanation I instead want to leave things open ended. What do you make of this? Does the author have a point? Has he overstated the case? (And in offering a response please do not say: Old Testament God=angry and mean, where the New Testament God= Love. Remember it really is the same God…) I am looking forward to your responses.

Peace and Grace,

Mark

Some initial thoughts...

My first thoughts about our summer read actually begin by way of confession. I did not want to read this book. My apprehension had a lot to do with my own ignorance of what was between the covers of the book. I suppose what I am confessing is my own guilt of judging a book by its' cover, or better yet its title. Fortunately, we can all overcome our ignorance. I have now only read the introduction but am really impressed by how reading Chapter 34 of Genesis that the author was driven to read more. As he concludes the introduction I imagine his words could have come from the founders of the reformation.
"My goal was simple. I wanted to find out what happens when an ignorant person actually reads the book on which his religion is based. I was in the same position as many other lazy but faithful people (Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus). I loved Judaism; I loved (most of) the lessons it had taught me about how to live in the world; and yet I realized I was ignorant about its foundation, its essential document."
Ok, so maybe John Calvin didn't write like this, but the idea of the followers of a religion actually being familiar with their founding document(s) would.
I am looking forward to our summer journey through this book.
-Mark