Genesis

For quite a while I've been struggling with the Old Testament God. Jesus is a nice guy, but the OT God seems to be on some power trip and isn't so nice. So I thought the best thing for me to so would be to read the whole thing. The whole Bible.

So, first up is Genesis.

Genesis 1 is the creation story. Creation poem maybe. This is my blog, so I can be honest; I don't understand how people can take the creation story (both Genesis 1 & 2) literally. I know plenty of people who do, and that's fine, they're allowed to, but when I read them I can't help but want to draw little illustrations and put it on the bookshelf next to 'How the crow became black.' I shall call it 'How the snake lost its legs.'

I don't believe in evolution fully, but I don't believe in the 6 day creation as it's written. Some people are all like "If you don't believe in that part of Genesis, how can you believe in the rest?" Well, a) because not believing that it's 100% literal doesn't take away its importance, b) are we even sure Genesis is written by one author? Coz it reads differently as you go along. c) Maybe that's a good question. Let's continue with Genesis.

I have some questions about Adam and Eve and the garden.

1) Wouldn't the tree of life still be there? Being the tree of life, surely it wouldn't die?

2) Eating the fruit opened our eyes to good and evil; surely that is a good thing? Otherwise we would have been living in ignorance of truth, and following God like robots. I don't understand how in Genesis 3:22 God says, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” He seemed disappointed that we would learn the truth. He wanted to hide us from that. LIE to us. And if that's not the case, if He had PLANNED for that to happen, that makes him even worse. He purposely made us sinners, so I can't really see any good in this Genesis God so far.

Now we get to the birth of Adam and Eve's children. God told them to be fruitful, and I don't really think they did a good job, since they only had 3 sons in 130 years. I'm assuming they had some daughters, but having 3 sons still seems like a bit of a failure if you're trying to start the race of humans. I believe there were more people on the Earth. Cain did seem a little fearful of other humans in Genesis 4:13

"Cain said to the LORD, 'My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.'

15 But the LORD said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him."

That just sounds like there's more than Mum, Dad, and a few younger siblings.

Then in Genesis, there's a whole lot of name-listing until we get to Noah. The flood story bugs me a bit, simply because it really makes God look like a failure. The Bible even says He REGRETTED making humans. How does someone ALL POWERFUL and ALL KNOWING come to regret something?

And what in the world is a Nephilim?

Why did God suddenly decide it was okay to eat meat?

A question (or more) about Genesis 9:20 where Noah gets drunk and his sons walk in on him naked. First one of them sees him, then goes out and tells his brothers, then they come in and cover him up. When he wakes up he's all mad and stuff and curses the first brother.

Why did he curse him? Why was it a big deal? Why was his son punished when he was the idiot who got drunk and passed out naked in the first place? Why is this story even important?

I fail to see the importance of the name listing/cursing/blessing. It's just segregating nations/people groups right from the beginning.

Now we get to the tower of Babel, another story I find stupid. So, these people decide to build a really big tower, one that reaches the Heavens. God doesn't like that, so He changes their languages and they have to scatter.

Firstly, why hasn't God done that now, when cities try and build the tallest building ever? He obviously doesn't have a problem with tall buildings. Was it their attitude? Coz people have that attitude all the time and God doesn't confuse them by changing their languages, or interfere in that sort of way. And surely God knew that it was impossible for them to reach Heaven. I, once again, don't see the importance of this story besides some sort of folk tale to tell us how we got difference languages.

Now we get to the story of Abraham, and this is where it starts to read differently to the beginning of Genesis.

In the story of Abraham, and then the ones that follow, like Jacob, God blesses these people by making them nations, and continuing their family line. I don't understand this much.

Why does God seem okay with incest and extra-marital affairs, and extra wives in Genesis? I realise the law hasn't been given to Moses yet, but apparently God doesn't change, so why does He not seem to care? In fact, He's blessing these people.

There's clear favouritism from God. Sometimes it seems unfair, like the story of Esau and Jacob. Jacob did the dirty on his brother, but still seemed to be the favourite. And why was Rebekah in on it, lying to her husband Jacob? Was it just because she didn't like Esau's wives? And what's with Jacob's blessings? Why couldn't he bless both sons?

Also...was Esau born hairy? Coz that's gross.

Jacob's little love story was nearly sweet. Working for 14 years just to marry the woman he loved. It's ruined by all the other wives though.

I don't really have a lot to say about the rest of Genesis. I just don't understand the importance of these stories.
Was it to show the family lines of people from Adam and Eve?

I don't really see the importance of Genesis at all, besides the creation story, and even then, I don't even understand how God is good yet.

On to Exodus I guess.