Thursday, 24 July 2008

• Currently Reading God: A Biography By Jack Miles see related

  Abraham was cool

  I haven't had the motivation to post in a while, but I thought since I had a new subscriber, I should at least update for them!

  I'm reading a great book "God: A Biography" by Jack Miles. He looks at the God of the Bible as a literary character who undergoes changes throughout the story just like any other literary character.

   I never thought of this before, but the Bible is the only book I read where I expect the protagonist to be exactly the same at the end as he is at the beginning. So naturally I'm very confused when I read instructions to stone children in one part and the statement "God is love" in a much later section. Well, it makes sense if you look at the bible as literature with a protagonist who is just trying to figure things out like the other characters.

  I'm reading the chapter about Abraham right now. It never occurred to me how gutsy Abraham is. God keeps promising him over and over that he will have a son, but when years go by and God still hasn't made good on his promise, Abraham straight up laughs at Gos when he tries to tell him "No, really, you're going to have a son. I'm gonna get around to that." I mean, Abraham was basically telling God "Whatever! You've been saying that for years and I ain't seen nothin yet. I gave up on you making good on your promise."

  Now that's gutsy.

  Then later, he blatently defies God when he gives his wife away to some foreign ruler, saying she's his sister. I think that was Abraham's way of saying "I'm through with this whole mess", but God snitched to the foreign ruler about what Abraham did and he gave Sarah back to Abraham.

  I rather like this Abraham character. He's not the meek, submissive father of the faith I was told about in Sunday School.

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