Great Post about the Problem with Scriptural Inerrancy

Ronan wrote an excellent post on By Common Consent about the recent attention give to the situation in Nigeria where girls are kidnapped and sold to soldiers. It was titled, “When prophets of God enslave women“. The link is:

http://bycommonconsent.com/2014/05/05/when-prophets-of-god-enslave-women/

He compared the situation in Nigeria with the story in Numbers 31 about the Israelites and their war with the Midianites. The similarities are striking, and Ronan’s post does a fantastic job pointing out the danger of accepting all scripture, especially the more ancient scripture, as inerrant and reflective of the will of God, as written. I recommend it HIGHLY.

I also love two comments toward the end of the thread, written by Jason K, about this story and about the story of Abraham and the attempted sacrifice of Isaac. I am providing the actual verses he references, with his main points about what they say and don’t say, simply because I want to share a different perspective on reading ancient texts that includes an interpretation I REALLY like but had not considered previously. I also recommend those comments HIGHLY.

No matter how someone sees the these stories (mythological, historical, embellished, anachronistic, etc.), a careful reading of the actual words is interesting.

Numbers 31:1-2 says,

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, “Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.”

Notice, the account does NOT say that the Lord commanded what happened to the Midianites – not genocide nor the providing of virgins to the soldiers. He simply is said to have told Moses to fight back and “avenge” his people. What actually happened was commanded by Moses in verse 14, which says:

And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.

This verse says nothing about the Lord; it simply says Moses was mad and commanded (in the next few verses) something in the middle of his anger.

Jason wrote:

Perhaps a take-away from Numbers 31 is that we need to be careful when what we want aligns with what God wants, lest we miss the mark by being overzealous. God commands revenge against the Midianites; apparently Moses wants this too, and in his anger he seems to go beyond the commanded revenge to order the commission of something truly horrible. (At this point it seems pertinent to recall the title of the lesson in the manual: “I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord.”)

I think that is a phenomenal point.

Now, about the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, Genesis 22:1 frames the Lord’s statement in an interesting way. It says:

And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham . . .

Notice, it is NOT phrased as a “command” but rather as a “tempt(ation)”. With this phrasing, Abraham succumbed to temptation – the temptation of going back to / not fully rejecting the incorrect tradition of his ancestors.

I share these for no other reason than to point out that there are legitimate ways to deal with problematic scriptural stories, with the foundational understanding that all of us, no matter when we lived or what position we held in life, are subject to the “weaknesses” of our time and culture. Sometimes, we simply have to reject the stories as reflecting God’s will – but that doesn’t mean we have to reject the opportunity to learn from and liken them to ourselves, even if the “likening” means we conclude that we will never, ever, under any circumstances, accept such a feeling / temptation / command / whatever in our own lives.

The very least we can do, no matter how we view them, is read them carefully and thoughtfully – and address what they actually say, not just what everyone assumes (and has assumed for a long time) they say.