What if you don't like old testament stories?

[vonfirmath]

But a Childs relationship with God is so much more than math. I'm not trying to teach them the subject of bible. I'm trying to point them to a relationship with their Savior. Jesus and His love and forgiveness is what drew me to God. Christians don't hand out pamphlets on God's need for justice and punishment. They hand out ones that talk about Jesus and His love and mercifulness

 

What drew me to God (as a child. I was 6 years old) was the justice of God. That he will come back and those who reject him WILL be punished and those who accept will be accepted part of his family -- I did not want to be among the punished. -- I was not sure about heaven and if I'd like it there, but I KNEW I did not want to go to hell. And that, because of God's justice, if I refused him, that is where I would go. Not because he wanted me to. but because he did what he said he would do and that is what I deserved.

[Twigs]

What really helped me to learn about God in the Old Testament was going through Precept Bible Studies (Kay Arthur), chronologically. I’ve done Genesis through 2 Chronicles plus the pre-exile minor prophets (plus others in the NT). In the spring I will start the Isaiah study, so I’m not finished yet. Getting this comprehensive view of God’s revelation has been simply amazing. God clearly told His people that obedience would bring blessings while disobedience brought cursings. I was astonished at the patience of God – the cursings generally took generations to come about. He gave the people warning after warning, and they still disobeyed. Since He cannot lie, He had to fulfill His Word. Going through the prophets showed me that He always promised restoration – chastisement for disobedience was not the end of the story. Our God is an awesome God.

Blessings to all.

[iammommy]

Does it help at all to realize that Yitzchak was an *adult* when this happened (37 years old).. and that he gave implicit consent?

This was not a parent and minor child.

 

Also, this event clearly shows us that G-d does not want us to perform human sacrifices - a human being cannot be a korban (ritual sacrifice), it is halachically impossible and unacceptable. So, those who claim they 'hear' such messages are clearly *wrong*.

 

I don't think my understandings of the text as an Orthodox Jew are going to be very helpful, but it is odd how differently you see our Torah than we do. ...and the foreshadowings which seem so obvious to you seem like complete non sequiturs, at best, to me.

 

I read the Chumash through every year, week by week; my children start out with children's versions (My First Parsha Reader and The Little Midrash Says among others), the older four all read directly from Tanakh now, and we find inspiration, comfort, insight, and guidance - awe, yes, but not *fear*, love, not distance, justice but tempered with chesed (kindness) and mercy. It is as if we were reading different texts.

 

I have not read your gospels, so I cannot compare. I wish you well in your study and spiritual journey; I'm sorry I don't know how to share my perspective in a useful way.

:iagree: Nan

[Chris in VA]

Just a quick comment or two--

 

To the poster who asked why God would make us fallible then demand perfection--I think the idea of free will comes into play. God wanted to give us a choice whether to love him or not, and in order to do that--make us free to choose--, he had to make us capable of choosing wrongly. But because he is HOLY (not only JUST), no one who is not holy could stand in his presence, and he wanted us so very much to be in relationship with him (perhaps because he made us for himself, and knew we would only be happy and satisfied if we were with him), he made a way for us thru Jesus Christ. Even before we were made, even before all creation was created, Jesus agreed to the plan.

 

I don't get some of the OT, either. But the more I study on God's Holiness, the more I see meaning in it. Perhaps studying that would help a bit.

 

I do think God is tender and patient, and he will be tender and patient with you as you seek the Holy Spirit to enlighten you and bring you to understanding. And I know he's pleased with your desire for your children to know him.

[Ginevra]

To the poster who asked why God would make us fallible then demand perfection--I think the idea of free will comes into play. God wanted to give us a choice whether to love him or not, and in order to do that--make us free to choose--, he had to make us capable of choosing wrongly. But because he is HOLY (not only JUST), no one who is not holy could stand in his presence, and he wanted us so very much to be in relationship with him (perhaps because he made us for himself, and knew we would only be happy and satisfied if we were with him), he made a way for us thru Jesus Christ. Even before we were made, even before all creation was created, Jesus agreed to the plan.

 

I understand the concept of being free to love, not robotically able to only do what is right. I get that. I just think it's convoluted to create us with free will, which makes it a certainty that we will choose wrong at least sometimes, and then be unable to accept us as less-than-perfect. And so, then, have to come up with The Sacrifice, which also does not make sense (to me). Why must blood be shed to atone for sin? It's like God set up a system that could only work with a sacrifice, but why does a sacrifice work anyway? Why does The Sacrifice make us holy, and yet only if we so choose (or are elected, depending on your perspective)?

 

I don't know. I keep the faith, but there are so very many aspects of doctrine that seem illogical to me and/or don't jibe with my experiences. My children love God, but I can't take credit for teaching them much doctrine, if any. They have learned doctrine from their classes and small groups at church.

[Ester Maria]

The OT and the NT go together, you can't just study half of the Bible and understand. Either half.

I'm going to venture to suggest that this is the key reason why so many Christians have a problem with the OT: you're reading the text outside of its original context, and you're literally reading into the text a whole other text.

Now, I do understand why, theologically, such an approach might work for you, or might even be demanded from you - but I still think you would greatly profit from attempting to read the OT "in the Jewish light":

Only when you read it in its proper context as the history of God's relationship to the chosen people does it really come alive . When read merely as a precursor/backdrop to the NT you are literally stripping away its context and thus it will read as dry bones.

Exactly.

 

I would like to add, perhaps, a somewhat general rule that I personally try to stick to - when attempting to study certain culture, it's almost a necessity, if you wish to understand it, to see what that cultures claims they are, as opposed to seeing only what other cultures claim that culture to be. And with "us", you certainly don't lack millenia of written thought of how the Jewish culture sees itself, not to mention the plethora of commentaries of the Biblical text itself.

I don't think my understandings of the text as an Orthodox Jew are going to be very helpful, but it is odd how differently you see our Torah than we do. ...and the foreshadowings which seem so obvious to you seem like complete non sequiturs, at best, to me.

 

I read the Chumash through every year, week by week; my children start out with children's versions (My First Parsha Reader and The Little Midrash Says among others), the older four all read directly from Tanakh now, and we find inspiration, comfort, insight, and guidance - awe, yes, but not *fear*, love, not distance, justice but tempered with chesed (kindness) and mercy. It is as if we were reading different texts.

Ditto.

 

But then again, keep in mind two important distinctions - one, we read the text in its original linguistic context (was it Bialik who said that "Reading the Bible in translation is like kissing your new bride through a veil"? so true, and many of the Hebrew concepts cannot adequately be translated into other languages) and two, we read the text also through the eyes of millenia of oral tradition, rabbinical commentaries and with a more thorough understanding of the legal and sociological background. I believe both of these factors contribute greatly to the phenomenon of "different texts" by "us" and by "them".

[Daisy]

I haven't read the other comments but a book, that might give someone a great look into how the OT ties into who God is and "what the point is", would be Starr Meade's The Storybook of Jesus.

 

It shows you how those OT events all point to Christ.

 

Wonderful book that even hubby and I have gotten teary-eyed over.