God Behaving Badly: Part One

On Thursday of this week I will begin my third year teaching Senior High Bible at Somonauk Christian School. Our Bible curriculum indicates that this year I will teach Old Testament Survey. I love the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments. I especially love the consistency of the narrative that begins with Genesis and “concludes” with The Revelation. It has become common amongst our church family for me to lift up my copy of the Scriptures and ask, “How many books am I holding?” And the answer, “One!” will resonate through the pews. I love the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, because within its pages I encounter the one God, my heavenly Father as I understand the Bible through the Spirit to testify of Christ, the only Begotten Son of the Father.

An Ancient Struggle

Nonetheless, I also understand the unity of the Bible is not easy to grasp. Certain aspects of God’s Word are indeed difficult to interpret in a way that leads to Christ and his unique and full revelation of the one God. From as early as the Second Century, the Church has struggled to read the Bible without describing the God of the Old Testament and the God and Father of Jesus as “other than one.” Marcion infamously professed the existence of two “gods” – One god is Yahweh, the creator and god of the Old Testament, while the other god is the Father of Jesus, the god of the New Testament. The good Bishop from Lyons, Irenaeus, came to Marcion and said something like this, “You’re free to believe that Marcion, but don’t call yourself, Christian.” More specifically, Irenaeus wrote this.

Marcion divides God into two, and calls one God good, the other just; and in so doing he destroys the divinity of both. For he who is just is not God if he is not also good; for if he lacks goodness he is not God; while he who is good without being just is similarly deprived of divinity (Against Heresies, III. xxv. 3).

Marcion fell in the all too common trap of understanding the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament as somehow different. Some folks may believe that, but they may not call themselves “Christian.” As Christians we believe in “one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.” The God who made heaven and earth and who is the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is one.

Within this ancient struggle to understand the Old and New Testaments as testifying to the reality of one God, David Lamb offers the Church his helpful book, God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist?  David loves the Bible and is committed to the orthodox confession of the oneness of God revealed through the words of Scripture within both the Old and New Testaments. At the same time, however, he is honest with the struggle many of us have to understand the Bible to support such a confession. Because Lamb’s book will be required reading for the Juniors and Seniors in my Old Testament Survey Course, I thought it would be helpful to blog/email my way through it.   

But also …         

It doesn’t take long for Lamb to subvert the false assumption that God is nice in the New Testament and not so much in the Old Testament. In fact, he likes to begin the class he teaches by posing this question to his students.

How does one reconcile the loving God of the Old Testament with the harsh God of the New Testament?

You see there are many false assumptions behind the all too common perception that the God of the Old Testament is full of wrath and the God of the New Testament is full of love. The plain truth is there are many places in the Old Testament that describe God as overflowing with love and there are many places in the New Testament that describe God as acting out of wrath. For example the word, “hell” does not occur in our English translations of the Old Testament. In the ESV, “hell” occurs 14 times in the New Testament and 12 of them are from the lips of Jesus. Furthermore, when the apostle Paul begins to articulate his gospel message for the Roman Christians, he begins in this way:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth (Romans 1.18, ESV).

Furthermore, it is often asserted the God of the Old Testament is judgmental and unforgiving and the God of Jesus is quicker to forgive. This is plainly not the case. Just this morning, I read these words.

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared (Psalm 130,3-4, ESV).

Also notice these words from the Psalmist.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, not repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him (Psalm 103.8-11, ESV).     

Obviously a few Scripture citations will not resolve a struggle the Church has endured for more than 1,800 years. These references should remind us, however, to get in the habit of saying, “BUT ALSO.” You see almost anyone can find a proof text for anything. Stringing together proof texts does not good theology make. We arrive at “good theology” by interpreting the biblical text. Do difficult texts exist? Yes! But difficult texts must be interpreted like all texts. And I hope that David Lamb’s book can help the Church interpret both the Old and New Testaments in a way that is good and true and faithful and edifying and above all, Christian.

So I want us to get into the habit of saying, “BUT ALSO.” In other words, the God of the Bible can become really angry, BUT can ALSO be extraordinarily patient. In the Old Testament, God seemed to view women and wives as property, BUT he ALSO selected women as spiritual and political leaders over Israel. God commanded the Jews to “utterly destroy” the Canaanites, BUT ALSO commanded them to care for the poor, the widows, the orphans and the Canaanites.

Bottom Line: A Hermeneutic of Humility

In one of his final concerts Rich Mullins talked about the peril of proof texting, and then he said this: “When God gave us the Bible it was to prove that God is right and the rest of us are just guessing.” I appreciate those words from the late singer/songwriter because they are a humble acknowledgment that understanding God’s Word can only take place within the humble confession that God is God and we are not. This is what I call a hermeneutic of humility. In other words the Bible will not be understood by those who seek to master it but by those who seek to be mastered by the God who gave us the Bible. I believe that God wants to be known and one of the ways he wants to be known is through the Bible. We need to be motivated by a humble desire to know God as we open the sacred text and that text will be over abundantly full of complexities – kind of like the God who gave it to us. Amen.