Let My People Go

Being raised in a Southern Baptist family like I was definitely gives you a different perspective when reading the old testament. (If you've ever read Jonathan Edwards' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God you know exactly what I'm talking about.) All of the plagues, fire and brimstone, wiping out all of humanity is perfectly normal behavior for an omnipotent power like God and is not to be questioned. Human beings are inherantly bad and should be punished fpr their lack of potential to ever be enough to earn God's love. So I was told from a very young age.

The reason I mention this is because there were alot of things I found while reading the book of Exodus that made the remaining Southern Baptist in me cringe.

I thought I knew the story of Moses, but I was shocked upon reading how very little of the story in my head is actually in the bible. The things that he did that are in the bible confuse me and downright frustrate me. Here is a man saved from an imminent death as a baby, chosen by God to deliver his people out of bondage, actually having a conversation with God, and all he does is question him. Personally, if a flaming bush told me through the voice of God to do something, I'd do it, however crazy that makes me. It is Moses' audacity to stand there and argue with God, the great I Am, the alpha and omega and all that jazz.

Another audacious lot is the Jews that were delivered out of Egypt. I just don't understand how you could be saved from bondage, witness God parting the sea, and still be dumb enough to make a false idol, let alone complain the whole way to the promise land. As a southern Baptist, this absolutely blows me away. People want a benevolent God, but how can he be that when the even his chosen people blow it?