God instructs Abraham to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering

Genesis 22:1-3 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied.

Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

Countless sermons have been preached on this story demonstrating Abraham's "faith" in God. However, think about the reality of this story and its implications. I've read stories about parents killing their children because they claim God told them to do so. It would have been nice to say "God would NEVER say such a thing" but this story negates that.

God hardens Pharaoh's heart then threatens to kill his son

Exodus 4:21-23 The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.' "

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

Should Pharaoh be held accountable for something God is forcing him to do?

Punishment for rape: 50 shekels of silver to girl's father +

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

Ok. Put yourself in this girls shoes. She's raped. Now her father gets 50 shekels of silver and she has to marry her rapist. Does this sound like a good deal for this victim?

Stone the rape victim for not screaming for help

Deuteronomy 22:23-24 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the girl because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man's wife. You must purge the evil from among you.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

Isn't this a classic case of further victimizing a victim?

Wives to submit to husbands in everything

Ephesians 5:22-24 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

Everything? Honey.......

The angel of the Lord kills Herod

Acts 12:21-23 On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, "This is the voice of a god, not of a man." Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

This sounds very "Old Testament."

God kills, wounds, and devours flesh and blood

Deuteronomy 32:39-42 "See now that I myself am He!
There is no god besides me.
I kill and I bring to life,
I wound and I heal,
and no one can deliver out of my hand.

I lift my hand to heaven and declare:
As surely as I live forever,

when I sharpen my flashing sword
and my hand grasps it in judgment,
I will take vengeance on my enemies
and repay those who hate me.

I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
while my sword devours flesh,
the blood of the slain and the captives,
and the heads of the enemy leaders."

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

I have to keep telling myself - God is a loving God.

Praise you, O Lord, for killing, destroying, and committing genocide

Psalm 9:1-7 I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders.
I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

My enemies turn back;
they stumble and perish before you.

For you have upheld my right and my cause;
you have sat on your throne, judging righteously.

You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.

Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy,
you have uprooted their cities;
even the memory of them has perished.

The LORD reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

Can you imagine singing this song?

Ask and God will give you nations to dash to pieces

Psalms 2:8-9 Ask of me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.

You will rule them with an iron scepter;
you will dash them to pieces like pottery."

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

What do you think it meant to the original readers that they would receive the nations as their inheritance? Slavery?

Why would we want to rule the nations with an iron scepter and why would we want to dash them to pieces?

42,000 Ephraimites killed when they couldn't say "Shibboleth"

Judges 12:4-6 Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, "You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh." The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, "Let me cross over," the men of Gilead asked him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he replied, "No," they said, "All right, say 'Shibboleth.' " He said, "Sibboleth," because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

Not a very scientific test, was it?

God instructs his people to commit genocide

Deuteronomy 7:1-4 When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you- and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

"... then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy."

God kills 14,700 for grumbling about the killing of the 250+

Numbers 16:41-50 The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. “You have killed the LORD’s people,” they said. But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the Tent of Meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared. Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and the LORD said to Moses, “Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” And they fell facedown.

Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put incense in it, along with fire from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has started.” So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah. Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, for the plague had stopped.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

Our last reading, God kills 250+ with an earthquake and fire, God killed Korah and a little over 250 others. The Israelite community, a bit appalled by this action, grumbled to Moses and Aaron. Well, to judge them for this, God killed 14,700 of them and would have killed more had Aaron not “offered incense and made atonement for them.”

God kills 250+ with an earthquake and fire

Numbers 16:1-3,16-21, Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolent and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD's assembly?"

... Moses said to Korah, "You and all your followers are to appear before the LORD tomorrow—you and they and Aaron. Each man is to take his censer and put incense in it—250 censers in all—and present it before the LORD. You and Aaron are to present your censers also." So each man took his censer, put fire and incense in it, and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the glory of the LORD appeared to the entire assembly. The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once."

...As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions. They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, "The earth is going to swallow us too!"

And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

More on this tomorrow.

Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb or break its neck

Exodus 34:19-20 “The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons. “No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

1. Why does a firstborn donkey need redeeming with a lamb?

God’s judgment against the firsborn and gods of Egypt

Exodus 12: 12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.”

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

I’ve always wondered who these “other gods” were that were consistently referenced in the Old Testament. The references seem to affirm the existence of the these gods (as real) but God is greater.

Were the gods of Egypt real so that God will have to bring judgment against them?

I know the argument can be made here that Pharaoh was the one referred to as god but this doesn't explain all the other references throughout the O.T. referencing these gods.

God will cause you to eat the flesh of your sons and daughters

Leviticus 26:27-39 ” ‘If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols, and I will abhor you. I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings. I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled. I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.

” ‘As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them. They will stumble over one another as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies. You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you. Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their fathers’ sins they will waste away.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

This is the third and final installment on Leviticus 26 where God lists out judgments for those who “fail to carry out all [his] commands.” (Here’s a list of some of God’s commands). “

Here are the previous installments:

1. 3/2 - God will bring sudden terror and diseases on you
   (7 judgments)
   
2. 3/4 - God will send wild animals to kill your children
   (9 judgments)

In other words, so far we have 16 judgments.

Let’s pick up with these verses:

1. You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.
2. God will destroy your high places
3. God will cut down your incense altars
4. God will pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols
5. God will abhor you.
6. God will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries
7. God will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings
8. God will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.
9. God will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you.
10. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.

Then comes my favorite line: ” ‘As for those of you who are left…”

Here’s the final list:

1. God will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight.
2. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them.
3. They will stumble over one another as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies.
4. You will perish among the nations
5. The land of your enemies will devour you.
6. Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their fathers’ sins they will waste away.

In total there are 32 of these. I should mention that there are a few blessings for those who obey.

Killed for offering "strange fire"

Number 3:1-4 Now these are the records of the generations of Aaron and Moses at the time when the LORD spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai. These then are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests, whom he ordained to serve as priests.

But Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD when they offered strange fire before the LORD in the wilderness of Sinai; and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests in the lifetime of their father Aaron.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

Can someone help me understand what “strange fire” is? The NIV uses “unauthorized fire.”

God will send wild animals to kill your children

Leviticus 26:18-26 ” ‘If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit.

” ‘If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve. I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.

” ‘If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me, I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over. And I will bring the sword upon you to avenge the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given into enemy hands. When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

This reading is the second installment of a previous reading “God will bring sudden terror and diseases on you.”

God continues to list out judgments for not obeying his commands including:

1. Your soil will not yield its crop nor your trees yield its fruits
2. He will multiply affliction seven times over
3. God will send wild animals to kill your children, cattle, and to make you few in number
4. God himself will be hostile towards you and afflict you
5. God will bring the sword against you
6. God will send a plague against you
7. God will give you into your enemies hand
8. God will cut off your supply of bread
9. You will eat and not be satisfied.

more to come….

Exiled for incorrect use of fragrances

Exodus 30:30-38 “Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so they may serve me as priests. Say to the Israelites, ‘This is to be my sacred anointing oil for the generations to come. Do not pour it on men’s bodies and do not make any oil with the same formula. It is sacred, and you are to consider it sacred. Whoever makes perfume like it and whoever puts it on anyone other than a priest must be cut off from his people.’ “

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha and galbanum—and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts, and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred. Grind some of it to powder and place it in front of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. Do not make any incense with this formula for yourselves; consider it holy to the LORD. Whoever makes any like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut off from his people.”

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

This is one of those issues that you say “surely, God is bigger than this.” Why the constant threat of exile?

God will bring sudden terror and diseases on you

Leviticus 26:14-17 " 'But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

If you do not obey God's commands, here's what will happen to you:

1. God will bring upon you sudden terror
2. God will bring upon you wasting diseases and fever
3. The diseases and fever will destroy your sight and drain away your life
4. Your enemies to eat your crop
5. God will set his face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies
6. Those who hate you to rule over you
7. You will flee even when no one is pursuing you

Priests must wash or die

Exodus 30:17-21 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base of bronze, for washing; and you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.

Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it; When they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, so that they will not die; or when they approach the altar to minister, by offering up in smoke a fire sacrifice to the LORD. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they will not die; and it shall be a perpetual statute for them, for Aaron and his descendants throughout their generations."

PERSONAL COMMENTARY

.... so that they will not die.