UMC20230305 - Falling in love with the Old - Part 2¶
Last week I mentioned that I have started a "read the Bible in two years" program and I wrote about how the Israelites learnt about Holiness through embodied practices rather than mental acrobatics. Another thing that I am coming to appreciate in the Old Testament is how ground breaking, forward thinking and loving the "Old Testament God" is. Christians often have this perception that God "back then" was hectic and God "now" is much more loving. And we are scared to venture into the Old Testament because of this. God is the same now as God was then. God breaks through into human thought wherever we are at. People 4000 years ago had a long way to go then and we have a long way to go now.
One place that reveals God's ground breaking nature is in the laws given in Exodus. Let us look at one of them today: "As one does to others, so it shall be done to him; injury for injury, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth". Reading this with a modern lens we think it is about getting revenge for a wrong done to you. But in a day where over retaliation was the norm; you steal from me then I wipe out your village; this law then moderates behaviour somewhat. Do not over react to an injustice, react in proportion to the crime. Only take an eye for an eye lost, no more. This is ground breaking. Today God meets us where we are at and the challenge is "turn the other cheek". But, like children, we cannot get to this new law, without first embodying the old law.
Reading the Old Testament with the lens of, "How is God breaking through to these ancient tribes? What was the world like then? What is God asking his people to do differently?". This gives us insight into how God might be doing similar things in our world today.
Love, Cliff