In my last post, I began talking about the role scripture can play in our moral instruction. I explained that scripture can remind us of what we’ve already learned on our own about right versus wrong. Said differently, our ever-developing moral sense helps us discern the moral teachings of scripture. It’s not the other way around. Scripture doesn’t shape our moral sense. Thank God—because a lot of scripture is morally dubious.

At best, the Bible’s a mixed bag. The Bible presents different ideas about God and His inclinations/preferences—reflecting the different cultures and circumstances in which the various biblical writers found themselves. Some of those depictions of God are worthy. Some aren’t.

For example, Israel didn’t adopt a monotheistic view of the universe until after the Babylonian Exile. You see this reflected in the Torah. Before the Babylonian Exile, the Israelites viewed Yahweh as just one of the many gods in the near east.

You doubt me? Take a second look at the first commandment. “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth from the land of Egypt, out from the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods in my presence” (Exod 20:2). Notice what it does not say: “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth from the land of Egypt, out from the house of slavery; you shall not worship false gods, but only me, the one true God.”

Again and again in the Torah, God makes big deal of how He is superior to the other gods. Think about it. Why would it be a big deal for Yahweh to be superior to false gods? Anybody can be better than nobody. Next to nobody, Bob Dylan is a great singer. No, the text is clearly saying Yahweh is just one of many valid deities the Israelites could choose from.

Anyway, I’m not here to pound on polytheistic religions, although I think they are mistaken. If God exists, He is One—without parts and utterly simple. Imagine the chaos if there were multiple gods—one saying the Law of Gravity makes you fall down and another saying the Law of Gravity is bollocks and you’re liable to ascend into the ozone in your cowboy pajamas when you go out for the morning paper.

So . . . what was I talking about? Oh yeah, the Bible’s differing views of God. I’m not here to trash polytheism per se. What I’m criticizing is the pathology embedded in the ancient Israelites’ polytheism. In the ancient near east, each nation had its own patron God and each was pitted against the others. Each God fought for His or Her people in exchange for their unconditional allegiance. If your nation got its butt kicked by another nation, it was because their God kicked your God’s butt.

It was a tribal view of the world—an us against them view of the world.

You see this worldview clearly advocated in the first five books of the Bible. Of course God commanded the Israelites to slaughter every man, woman, and child in Canaan. They deserved it, pagan malefactors.

That said, scriptures like this can still be of use to us. The portions of scripture that paint an unfitting portrait of God and His preferences need to be retained in our liturgies as cautionary examples. They need to be anathematized. (There. I did it. I used the word anathematized in a post.)

These texts remind us not to be too quick to assume we know God’s will—not to be so sure we’re God’s Chosen People. They remind us that we have room to grow. They remind us that we can learn from those we consider “other.” In fact, the essence of wisdom is to put ourselves into the other’s shoes.

We figure out how to live morally on our own. We don’t just blindly follow scripture. When all’s said and done, most scripture performs a descriptive function rather than a prescriptive function. In other words, the text tells you how the author was thinking/acting when he wrote the text—rather than how you should live now. Sometimes the insights from the ancient author are spot on—which is what you would expect from any human work. Other times, it’s just ancient nonsense.

So stay on your toes.

Note: I am indebted to Thomas Stark’s jarring book, The Human Faces of God: What Scripture Reveals When It Gets God Wrong (And Why Inerrancy Tries to Hide It, for many of the ideas in this post.

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The post Learning to be moral, Part 5 appeared first on A Danger to God Himself.