Often, when discussing the Bible and the nature of God people bring up various examples to support their claim that God, especially in the old Testament, is evil and far from the loving being we are usually told. In this post I aim at explaining some of those instances and show how these things were justified.
The forbidden Tree
The best point to start with is probably the beginning, in Eden. The argument we find here is that God knows how we act and choose, and yet, knowing we will disobey, put it there despite this and then still punished us.
In my bit the origin of morality I explain how virtue requires free will, and true free will requires the abillity to choose wrong. By putting the tree there, the one forbidden thing, he gave us true free will and the opportunity to lead a perfect and virtous life, void of any pain and suffering by doing whatever we want as long as we remain faithful and trust Gods word to not eat that fruit while there are uncountable other fruits and trees around, all free to pick. God thus gave us a chance to remain good on "Very Easy" mode. And sure, he could interfer, but then it would negate the principle behind free will and we would never learn our lesson and disobey at the next given chance. It was either this or not giving us free will in the first place and robbing us of our chance of developing virtue.
If nothing else God here showed us how easy and good things could have been through faithfulness and how bad things turn when we stop believing in him. Its a lesson at how quickly we forsake trust and faith in spite of all the good provided to us
The sacrifice of Isaac
The next part that usually is brought up is God telling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac since he knew already how Abraham would choose.
The point here is that God knew, but noone else did. He gave Abraham a chance to prove his faith and trust to the generations to come, turning into a lessons for them on how we should trust God even at seemingly unreasonable and nonsensical demands.
It further was showing that Abraham knew his position. Everything, our lives, our riches, food, land, family and friends are given to us by God, and if God demands something back, who are we to withhold it? God demanded the most precious thing, his own son, and Abraham was willing to give it proving his absolute trust and faith in God which to this day is hard to find another such example of.
Also beyond that God gives us everything. It is made especially clear that Isaac was born only because of God. Abrahams wife at this point was over 90 years old, noone believed he could have a child with his wife anymore after trying their entire life. This is clear we look at the scripture when God told Abraham he will have a son
2But Abram replied, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3Abram continued, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
4Then the word of the LORD came to Abram, saying, “This one will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir.”
Thinking its impossible for his wife to bare a child he impregnated (on Sarahs behest) his housemaid Hagar
1Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. 2So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.”
God then addressed this error, and when he told them Sarah will bare the child she actually laughed at Gods words
10Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year, and your wife Sarah will have a son!”
Now Sarah was behind him, listening at the entrance to the tent. 11And Abraham and Sarah were already old and well along in years; Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. 12So she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
13And the LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really bear a child when I am old?’ 14Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.”
As we see noone thought its possible for Abraham and Sarah to have a child, yet through God alone they received this gift which was Isaac. Returning to the point above of not withholding what God gave us in the first place we see here that in this instance it fits better than in pretty much any other instance.
Further Abraham proved his absolute trust and faith, and as we are told God simply likes it when we trust his word
6Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness
Which we also find mirrored with Jesus
29Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
And who doesnt like to be trusted by those you love?
The conquest of Canaan and destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
The third issue I want to adress is the conquest of Canaan and the genocide of their inhabitants and the severe punishment he put on the people on various occasions.
Now we first must adress not all of them were "devoted to destruction" (meaning sentenced to be killed and everything in the town, including the riches, to be burned to the ground), but some were just driven out or assimilated. Those that were devoted to destruction were a specific bunch. We further hear that God drove them out because of their wickedness
4When the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness.
5It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.
Now what could possibly be so wicked that it justifies a genocide? Well let us see. The first hint we get is with Lot in Soddom. Two angels arrive at the town and Lot, knowing the people around already was close to panicking, calling them to come inside before the other people see them
1Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown, 2and said, “My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way.”
Now what was he panicking about? It was the worry that the whole town may rise up to rape the new handsome visitors
4Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house. 5They called out to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!”
Which was only prevented by the angels strucking them down with blindness.
What would have happened if those wouldnt have been angels but mere men we see in the book of Judges. Here a Levite is said to return his concubine and on their way home they stop at Gibeah. Here the same scene happens, and old man urges them to come into their home, and the town rises up to rape the new guy and the woman. After fearing for their lives the woman is send out and she is raped to death.
Now it is noteworthy that this town consisted of Benjaminites, and this act led to the rest of Israel joining together and waging war on Benjamin, exterminating almost the entire tribe except for a few that could run away, showing that this form of punishment was not based on racial issues, but actually a form of punishment for the wickedness.
Another example that gives some perspective is the conquest of Jericho. Joshua sent spies into the town, but the people learn of it and search them. Then however a prostitute hides them and requires an oath of them to not kill her or her familly and they later keep it. What is to be considered here is that God promised Abraham to not destroy the good with the wicked (Genesis 18: 16-33). What does it tell you about the place if the only one deemed to be rightouss enough to be provided a way out is a prostitute?
To add to all this we must also consider the practice of human sacrifices prevelant in the land
On this same note we can rationalize the flood too. Considering how God watched this evil for centuries and gave us chance time and time again to turn from our ways we can only be thankfull he didnt destroy us wholly. We are told.
37As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man
Since He didnt return yet we know it will get worse, which subsequently means it was worse at the time of Noah. And if God were to send another flood right now I dont see any reason I could blame him for looking around in the world right now.
The vow of Jephthah
Jephthah, in a heated battle made a vow to give over (as burned offering) whatever comes out of his door first when he returns, if he is to win the battles and subdue the enemies. He did win the battles, but upon his return its his daughter and only child that greets him, which results in Jephthah breaking down and tearing his clothes. People take this as an argument that God desires human sacrifices, but I rather see it as a warning against lighthearted vows and oath.
First we learn in Ezekiel that God despises human sacrifices even if its done towards him
26And I pronounced them unclean through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn in the fire—so that I might devastate them, in order that they would know that I am the LORD.
so its definitely not that God desired a human sacrifice.
We find another similar instance of such an oath being spoken without consideration by Saul
24Now the men of Israel were in distress that day, for Saul had placed the troops under an oath, saying, “Cursed is the man who eats any food before evening, before I have taken vengeance on my enemies.” So none of the troops tasted any food.
His son, Jonathan however didnt hear about this, and thus tasted some of the honey that was around and incured guilt upon him. The difference here is, that while Saul was willing to pull through with the death sentence the other soldiers interceded and pleaded for Jonathan to be spared, but the guilt through this oath spoken without consideration still remains. I believe this is too a big reason that Jesus advices us
gain, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’m 34But I tell you not to swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36Nor should you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. 37Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.
Another reason being probably to avoid mentalities like "since I didnt swear I am not required to keep my word".
Another issue is that many assume that his daughter wasnt sacrificed. Reason is that we are never told so. What instead is assumed to have happened is that she was given to the LORD in service. We are told his daughter went out to bewail her virginity for a few months. To live in service of God means she cant marry another man and thus has to remain virgin and childless and her being his only child means that his line will die out which is great reason to grief even without her being sacrificed. If nothing else her (impending) death is never mentioned or thematized. This article goes into this subject in a bit greater detail
Born punsihed
Now the next issue to address is not from the Bible specifically, but rather a question being opened up through the framework the Bible creates. Mainly its about the issue of childrens suffering, especially when born with disabillities.
I believe to understand this the concept of the sins of the fathers are an important part. Much like a pregnant woman drinking alcohol causes the child to be deformed so to does sin of every kind harm our bodies and soul. And once turned imperfect (which is a downward spiral kicked off when we ate the fruit), sin took more and more hold in our world and corrupted our bodies ever further. And a corrupted body cant produce perfect offspring, meaning that due to our own sins we corrupt our bodies and pass it to our children, leading in extreme cases to disabilities or even death. The fault, as always is to be searched among us humans.
There is also the issue that Israelites seemed to have considered reincarnation at least a possibility
1Now as Jesus was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth, 2and His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
While in this instance we are told it happened only so that Jesus can show his powers and spread glory to God, it indicates that they though that the blindness may be the cause of the mans sins, and since he was blind at birth the sins must have happened before he was born indicating a believe in reincarnation.
Assuming this to be correct then a child born with disabilities may just be the result of its own errors in earlier lives.
Hell
Now many claim that Hell would be an unjust punishment, too severe. In my bit about Christianity I describe what Hell is in more detail which is essential to understand this. Essentially there are 2 things translates as Hell. This is Hades/Sheol, a realm of the dead with anguish and in solitude. Here the dead remain until judgment day and before Christ appearently everyone, and after Christ the unbelievers (there is some apocrypha around saying how Jesus went into Hades after
the crucification and preached there, bringing salvation to through
faith to the dead and closing the Hades down known as the harrowing of
hell).
However another thing translated as Hell is Gehenna, where
judgment day happens. Here people either have their souls destroyed in
flames (second death) or, if they took the mark of the beast, get
tortured with the beast, false prophet and Satan. Satan too gets
tormented here, he is not ruling anything.
Now to understand why this is justified you need to understand that everything exist within and through God, God is existence itself. Those that do not desire to be with God get first put into Hades, a place where God is hidden from you making you aware just how much he influences your life, and those that after this still dont understand do get their wish, seperation from God, from existence, and get their souls destroyed.
In general, if anything happens you have trouble to justify, you should be aware of one thing. God created you. He had every right to not create you. As such he has every right to uncreate you, destroy you without a reason given, without the sin just as he would be right to not give us anything of which he created. God has the right to do whatever he wants with us and every good thing we receive is just due to his love. Further, if God has the right and means to destroy us without reason it shows that we can only exist because God desires for us to exist, out of love, making his love the only thing that justifies our existence.
Afterword
God often seems to be extremely strict, but this strictness is an expression of his love desiring of us to do better and turn from our selfdestructive ways
10Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. 11No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peacec to those who have been trained by it.
You need to understand that we sin and blaspheme him every day, knowing and unknowingly. He waits patiently and reminds us of our errors so that we learn and to turn to him, and when, after centuries of breaking even the most basic and essential laws like "no childsacrifices" or "no murder", and murdering every prophet he sent us, he does punish us, after all this it is still a show of mercy from him when we left able to even complain about his strictness and didnt get destroyed as a whole.
Look around, we allow childsacrifices in masses through abortion, the churches turned towards virtue signalling, undoing all the basic laws and approving of the graves sin instead of accepting the sinner, just because calling some bad may drive people away. We let vipers dictate our faith and sin become our new virtue, and yet, instead of destroying us, he gives us time to repent and turn from our ways. And if someone, for whom admittance of error and an honest effort to do better is enough to be gifted eternal bliss, is unjust, the only unjust thing about it is that he does show mercy and not destroy as as we justly deserve
20The soul who sins is the one who will die. A son will not bear the iniquity of his father, and a father will not bear the iniquity of his son. The righteousness of the righteous man will fall upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked man will fall upon him.
21But if the wicked man turns from all the sins he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. 22None of the transgressions he has committed will be held against him. Because of the righteousness he has practiced, he will live. 23Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Lord GOD. Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?
24But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, committing the same abominations as the wicked, will he live? None of the righteous acts he did will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness and sin he has committed, he will die.
25Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’Hear now, O house of Israel: Is it My way that is unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust? 26If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, he will die for this. He will die because of the iniquity he has committed.
27But if a wicked man turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life. 28Because he considered and turned from all the transgressions he had committed, he will surely live; he will not die.
29Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’
Are My ways unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust?
30Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall. 31Cast away from yourselves all the transgressions you have committed, and fashion for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel?
32For I take no pleasure in anyone’s death, declares the Lord GOD. So repent and live!
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