There is a tendency in popular discourse to speak about God, from the New Testament, as a merciful and kind figure. With The Old Testament, however, God is represented very differently. Throughout many moments in the Bible, God is merciful and kind, while in others, he is hot-tempered, impulsive, and cruel. These drastically different representations of God in the Old Testament are especially evident in the relationships between God and his prophets. In Adam’s story in Genesis, God’s relationship with Adam is parental, while God’s relationship with Moses through Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy is more of a master-servant dynamic than a parental one. While the dynamics of God’s relationships change between Adam’s life to Moses’s life, God’s
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This is evident, for instance, when he takes on the role of a parent/caregiver and offers Adam everything from a partner to a blissful life in Eden (Genesis 2). The kindness that he extends, however, is limited to various conditions, which when transgressed, cause God to become extremely wrathful. When Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, God tells Adam, Eve, and the serpent: “thou art cursed above all cattle…./I will put enmity between thee…./I will greatly multiply thy sorrow…./cursed is the ground for thy sake…” (Genesis 3:14-19). In this moment, God’s harshness is troubling because there is no indication prior to this moment that Eve is forbidden from eating the fruit, or that the serpent is not to suggest it to Eve. This seems to suggest that neither Eve nor the serpent make any transgressions; only Adam does, and yet, Adam is not reprimanded nearly as harshly as Eve for having eaten the fruit despite knowing that he should not have done so. In this sense, God’s anger towards Eve and the serpent has no justification which makes this scene the first indication that God is not the unconditionally kind and positive paternal figure that he appears to be at first glance. God’s …show more content…
For instance, he tells Moses that he “is Jealous, is a jealous god” (Exodus 34:14). The capital “J” indicates that God identifies very strongly with the word jealous and embodies it. This jealously is played out earlier when he says “let me alone, that I my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation” (Exodus 32: 10). The jealous anger that God expresses here disregards all of his promises in the covenant with Noah and it disregards the previous sympathies he had for the Israelites. Moses recognizes this irrational anger and jealousy by reprimanding God and reminding him of his covenant and of his previous sympathies. In a way, Moses and God switch roles so that Moses, by necessity, becomes the paternal/master figure who guides and reprimands God who has become the misbehaving child in this
This is evident, for instance, when he takes on the role of a parent/caregiver and offers Adam everything from a partner to a blissful life in Eden (Genesis 2). The kindness that he extends, however, is limited to various conditions, which when transgressed, cause God to become extremely wrathful. When Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, God tells Adam, Eve, and the serpent: “thou art cursed above all cattle…./I will put enmity between thee…./I will greatly multiply thy sorrow…./cursed is the ground for thy sake…” (Genesis 3:14-19). In this moment, God’s harshness is troubling because there is no indication prior to this moment that Eve is forbidden from eating the fruit, or that the serpent is not to suggest it to Eve. This seems to suggest that neither Eve nor the serpent make any transgressions; only Adam does, and yet, Adam is not reprimanded nearly as harshly as Eve for having eaten the fruit despite knowing that he should not have done so. In this sense, God’s anger towards Eve and the serpent has no justification which makes this scene the first indication that God is not the unconditionally kind and positive paternal figure that he appears to be at first glance. God’s …show more content…
For instance, he tells Moses that he “is Jealous, is a jealous god” (Exodus 34:14). The capital “J” indicates that God identifies very strongly with the word jealous and embodies it. This jealously is played out earlier when he says “let me alone, that I my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation” (Exodus 32: 10). The jealous anger that God expresses here disregards all of his promises in the covenant with Noah and it disregards the previous sympathies he had for the Israelites. Moses recognizes this irrational anger and jealousy by reprimanding God and reminding him of his covenant and of his previous sympathies. In a way, Moses and God switch roles so that Moses, by necessity, becomes the paternal/master figure who guides and reprimands God who has become the misbehaving child in this