true blood
Active Member
linwood said:Moses was misled by god about Balaams council and if you read the story you know that.
Read all of Numbers 22 to see this story unfold.
Balaam absolutely refused to meet with Balak because god told him not to then the next day they sent for him god specifically told him to go "and wait for his word".
When Balaam went with Balaks messengers god got mad at him, after he specifically told him to go.
He sent an angel to kill Balaam for going but Balaams donkey saved his life
Balaam did EXACTLY everything god told him even when his orders directly contradicted themselves.
Balaam was a good Jew trying to do the right thing stuck between a despicable king and a jealous confusing god.
Yes this is morality for you...god tells Balaam to go to Balak(at Peor) and then accuses him (To Moses) of conspiring against the Israelites for being there even though he still refused to curse the Israelites as Balak angrily demanded and blessed them instead (as god instructed him to do)
I can understand that, the acts of this god are too confusing to even follow let alone justify.
I can find "meaning" in the word of god myself thanks.
So in conclusion, if you read the entire story the unethical behaviour of god does not lie in the killing of innocents alone.
God himself contrived this false conspiracy against the Israelites so that Moses would feel justified in destroying them.
The destruction of Midia was not merely gods answer to a problem it was gods answer to a problem he intentionally created so he could destroy Midia.
This is essentially the same story of Moses being sent to petition the Pharaoh for the release of the Israelites.
God tells his messenger to do something then puts obstacles in his path and makes it virtually impossible for him to succeed.
Both stories seem to have no other purpose than enabling god to kill innocents.
You need to learn certain idiomatic traits of Hebrew expressions. Active verbs were used by the Hebrews to express not the doing, but the permission of the thing in which the agent is said to do. It involves the concept of man's free will. But sometimes the Bible uses figurative terminology representing God doing the action but in fact he does not. The bible, then, clearly teaches that Pharoah hardened his own heart by yielding to the enchantments done by his magicians and refusing to submit to the will of God. And the Lord God let him go his own rebellious way that he might eventually demonstrate who really was in control. When Ezekial affirmed that God gave him statues that were not good, he cannot literally mean that the Holy God gave bad laws. Rather he is suggesting that when those stubborn people determined not to submit to Heaven's law, God permitted them to follow the statutes of the wicked pagan nations around them. And when Jeremiah suggested that God decieved the people of Israel, he really was saying that God allowed them to follow their own paths of self-deceit, and to eat the bitter fruits thereof. Remember Jeremiah foretold of the great destruction to be visited on upon the people of God but the people declared that this evil would not come, "neither shall we see sword or famine" and the prophet who declared such was full of "wind"? Since they were determined to be decieved God said "Go ahead and be decieved, I will not stop you"