Christians are often bothered by the illicit material found in the Old Testament. Incest, violence, warfare, rape, and deceit fill the pages of the 39 books. What is bad is that sometimes the text does not speak a word of condemnation against the perpetrators. And worse, the culprits are often the good guys. Since these stories typically find their major audience with juveniles, these narratives puzzle conscientious Sunday School teachers who are duly aware of the psychological (This conent could be harmful) and the practical (We have no flannel-graph to represent that particular episode). In their search for the wholesome, they seek to lay their classroom down on greener pastures.
Some suggest that these narratives make it into the Bible in hopes of showing that God can save anyone, no matter how great their sin. And this is a true statement. But is that it? Consider this excerpt from Keillor’s Love Me:
The most visceral and vital writing is about bad people and allows the reader to see that “We are Them.” For reasons having mostly to do with arrogance and stupidity, young writers waste years trying to impersonate goodness and inner peace. Bad move. What you really want to write about is greed, anger, pillage, thievery, corruption, eye gouging, meanness, shameless groveling, that sort of thing. And lust. Always lust.
Could it be true that part of the Old Testament’s sauciness can be attributed to the simple fact that it is a piece of literature? The idea behind literature is that people read it. The Bible is not an almanac, encyclopedia, owner’s manual, or TV Guide. And for that we are thankful. It has a dramatic message that incorporates the best and worst of the human experience. We remember the things that make our heart race and our brow sweat. They force us to consider how truly bizarre and disturbing our behavior can be. And in the end, we are moved to seek the God within and behind the story: who finds the violence in the Bible more egregious than we dare; the rape more offensive than words can tell; the love more moving than we can comprehend; the hope more transforming than we can know.
But now we see through a glass dimly.
7 Comments
February 10, 2009 at 7:59 pm
This was encouraging. Thanks Bob
February 10, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I got a kick out of envisioning flannel graphs of some of the stories you are referring to.
February 10, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Good post.
I’m just glad you got a NT reference in there at the end.
February 10, 2009 at 10:07 pm
That was me.
February 11, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Excellent thoughts and great post Bob.
February 12, 2009 at 5:01 am
Good stuff Bob. I really liked this post. I read a book by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin who pointed out that the morals that Western Christians/Jews read these stories and judge them by, where given to them by the very Bible that they now struggle to understand. Thanks for the good words Bob.
February 16, 2009 at 3:42 am
Not every Christian is nice, wholesome, sweet or wise. If we don’t impersonate these characteristics, some of our fellow Christians feel we are not necessarily useable in the kingdom. This theory has been disproved several times in the Bible. God is not interested in “cookie cutter christians”. He needs us to be real and not impersonators.