Here is a quote from The New American Bible wherein Yahweh is instructing Moses as to how he is to go to Egypt and free God’s chosen people from their lamentable bondage at the hands of Pharaoh: “Go and assemble the elders of the Israelites, and tell them: The Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has appeared to me and said: I am concerned about you and about the way you are being treated in Egypt; so I have decided to lead you out of the misery of Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites Hivites and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey. Thus they will heed your message. Then you and the elders of Israel shall go to the kind of Egypt and say to him: ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent us word. Permit us, then, to go a three-days’ journey into the desert, that we may offer sacrifice to the Lord, Our God.”
My response: these old Biblical stories are riveting and filled with truths and lessons, even if they are metaphorically and symbolically true, rather than logically consistent and scientifically corroborated. The Biblical truths are often more profound.
Moses is given an assignment in the world, by God, as are all of us, even if the deeds are never recorded, and we die obscure and forgotten. We have our job to do, and we must get going and do it, period. Like Moses, we are initially reluctant, but we must, like him, man up and do our duty.
You notice that the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey, is already occupied by other people, so it would seem that Yahweh is not averse to nudging His chosen people to invade and deprive others of their nation, which they most likely robbed from peoples that came before them. Criticism of invaders seems to fall on hollow claims, because most people have invaded and taken lands from previous occupants. If the invaders did not wipe out, drive out or enslave the conquered, it would not be so bad. Life is rarely easy, and almost none re without sin.
Let me lay out those same verses from the Holy Bible (KJV): “Go, and gather the elders of Israel together and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt.
And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
And they shall hearken to thy voice; and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.”
My response: Yahweh knows in advance that the elders of Israel will listen to Moses. It is not so bad being a messenger if someone heeds what you say—especially if God sent you—and then puts the divine advice into prudent action or policy. A messenger has put his ego, his entire reputation, and his future on the line, for the sake of God, and if the messenger is rebuffed, scorned ignored or killed, then it is a devastating blow for the messenger that still has to do his duty, no matter how the chips fall.
Biblically, it appears that the Devil is in the wilderness, and God is in heaven and in the society of humans, even in their capital city where the main temple is. By contrast, Yahweh’s sacred mountain, Horeb, is situated deep in the desert or wilderness, in the heart of darkness so to speak. Implicitly, the Biblical contradiction is resolvable under the law of ontological moderation that I espouse. God is mostly a city-and society dweller and Satan is mostly in nature, but there are complex, enduring exceptions.
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