People sure talk dirt about the “God of the Old Testament”.
Here is an example I found:
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
Yowsa!! Sounds like the kind of guy you would definitely keep away from your daughter.
Or call the police on.
Or the psychiatric ward.
But first, it may be best to try to look at it from the other side of the fence.
When you were a snotty nosed little kid, riding in the back seat of the car, fighting with siblings, did you try to tell dad that he was going in the wrong direction..? If you did, would he care…? Prolly not..
Let’s go to a pivotal Bible verse – a good one to “make sticky”.
Gen 1:26 Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule (DOMINION) over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.
First, we must always recognize the misdirection that we have all had our brains boiled since childhood…
A craftsman MAKES a chair.
It is something OUTSIDE of the maker!!
It’s not until the next chapter, Genisis 2, that God MAKES bodies.
The clarity comes from Jesus – 2 verses worthy of SUPER STICKY:
John 4:24 God is spirit
John 3:6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
So in Gen 1:26 we read “Let US….” Who is this “us”…? That would be Father and Son.
His Father GAVE BIRTH to (begot) a Son – Jesus.
Here inGen 1, Jesus has grown up and matured to the point where HE IS GOING TO BEGIN TO REPRODUCE – just like any healthy, normal being. The desire to reproduce ones self is built in and natural.
When Jesus, A SPIRIT (John 4:24), reproduces Himself, what would He reproduce…?
He would give birth to SPIRITS (John 3.6)
When Jesus reproduced, over time, He GAVE BIRTH TO BILLIONS of spirit babies. One of them is the 98.6 degree furnace burning in your chest right now. What does a normal parent do with kids…? Grow ’em up!!! Bring them to maturity.
Gen 1:26 is a father and son discussing the goals that they have for this new batch of children, coming into their family.
Their “goals” for these kids..?
“Gain DOMINION over the birds of the air” – YOUR THOUGHT LIFE.
“Gain DOMINION of the fish of the sea” – YOUR EMOTIONS.
“Gain DOMINION over the beasts of the field” – YOUR PHYSICAL BODY.
The rest of the Old Testament is Dad trying to get His kids to trust Him with the driving.
Finally, Dad got so tired of watching us, His kids, blow it worse and worse as time went on, He finally said “I’ll COME AND SHOW YOU HOW TO DO IT MYSELF“.
So Dad, the father of our spirits, squeezed His spirit into a brand new, 100% human body, grew up and proceeded to show us how to accomplish the Gen 1:26 goals.
Some people LOVED Dad, and soaked up His words of life.
Other people HATED Dad, and wanted Him to go away.
Next week we’ll take a look at John 10:18 No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
Letting Dad Drive
Russ Dibird
REPRINTED
https://fepeople.com/read-blog/21_the-mean-old-man-in-the-bible-revealed.html
