Trying to prove that Biblical narratives do not lead to good
moral living, especially in the 21st century, Dawkins picks up
narratives like destruction of the cities Sodom and Gomorrah, Noah’s flood, and
destruction of people who worshiped the golden calf during Moses’ time and so
on and gives a twisted interpretation of these events, painting a picture of a
cruel and vindictive God.
What Dawkins does here is cherry-picking, a tendency which he
condemns in the evangelists but ends up doing the same. That is first of all
intellectual dishonesty. Secondly God had His reasons to act that way. All these destruction were carried out because of some grave moral turpitude of the
people concerned.
Without going into details of these incidences, I would like to
point out that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of the sin of sodomy. Genesis
19:5. Noah’s flood carried away people to their death as they were morally
corrupt. God “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis
6:5
Golden calf episode was inexcusable, as God had just
delivered the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt and have brought them up to
Sinai after performing many great miracles and was busy giving Moses on the top
of Mount Sinai Ten Commandments and the other laws. During this absence of
Moses for 40 days, people wanted to create new gods for them and had the golden
calf molded. Wrath of God though Moses destroyed large number of them
justifiably. Genesis 32:1
Coming to the intended sacrifice of Isaac, son of Abraham, on
Mount Moriah, where God’s demand of such a sacrifice and Abraham’s obedience of
it are ridiculed by Dawkins, I would like to deal with this matter in some detail.
This whole episode is narrated at Genesis 22:1-19.
One fine morning, God tests Abraham and asks him to take his
son, his only son, whom he bore in his 100th year, to the land of
Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering to Him. Isaac was the promised
son of Abraham, for whom he had waited for 25 long years and when he finally was
blessed with him in his very old age, the same God who blessed him with this
son, is asking this precious child to be sacrificed.
In spite of this Abraham takes this journey towards this
mountain range taking along his son Isaac, I am sure with great turmoil in his
heart. How could God ask such a thing from him? Would He really let his son,
the promised son, be killed like that? May be, it is possible that after the
sacrifice, God would still bring him back to life? Is not God capable of that?
Still Abraham went ahead and prepared an alter for making the
sacrifice and at the nick of the time when he was about to raise his knife to
sacrifice his son, God stops him and provides him a ram to be sacrificed in the
place of his son. Abraham calls this place where the ram was provided as a substitute,
as the place where, “The Lord will provide,” ‘Jehovah Jirah.’ Genesis 22:14.
Dawkins disapproves this whole episode and feels that the
child would have gone through such a trauma and how will he ever recover from
it! To him it appears as if God was joking with Abraham tempting Abraham to
test his faith. As a modern moralist he calls this narrative as child abuse,
bullying in two asymmetrical power relationships and as ‘one of the great
foundational myths of all three monotheistic religions.’[1]
‘It is commonplace that good historians don’t judge
statements from the past times by the standards of their own,’[3]
is a statement by Dawkins for defending racist comments made by Thomas Huxley during
his time and such others. Then why does he violate this code and judge Abraham
in the light of modern child psychology? Intellectual dishonesty? Hypocrisy?
God of Abraham abhorred child sacrifice and condemned the
gods worshiped by the people of Canaan for demanding such sacrifices. Canaanites
were making their sons and daughters pass through flame in the arms of their god
Moloch. 2 Kings 23:10. Israel, in spite of warnings, started to copy it. Such
sacrifices have happened in Punic city of Carthage as learned from Greek and
Latin sources.
They sacrificed their own children to build a city, to lay
the foundation and to erect the gates of the city. 1 Kings 16:34. There is no
way that God of Abraham would have literally wanted such a sacrifice.
Yes, God wanted to test the faith of Abraham. Abraham was to
be the Father of the great nation that God would raise, from which will come the
salvation blessing to the entire world. In Genesis 12:3 and elsewhere God had
promised Abraham “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The
test is obviously for Abraham, to know that he could obey God even to this
extent.
It was necessary for God to build up Abraham’s faith in Him
and this was the ultimate test, in which Abraham came out with flying colors. Who
can find fault with that? After all, all the three monotheistic religions,
Judaism, Christianity and Islam, hold Abraham as their Founding Father. Should
he not be strong in faith in such a God, who selected him and set him as the
Father of Nations?
Lastly the range of Mount Moriah, where Abraham was to offer
the sacrifice was also the place where the present Temple Mount of Jerusalem
stands. Abraham was asked to go to the mountain range of Moriah and offer his
son as the sacrifice around 2000 BC. Genesis 22:2.
Solomon, the son of David, King of Israel, built the Temple
at Mount Moriah around 1000 BC, 2 Chronicle 3:1, almost in the same place. That was also the place where the Son of God
himself was crucified as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, around
33 AD.
Yes, the Lord will provide in the mountain, a lamb for His
sacrifice. 2000 years later in the place of ram God provided a lamb, His own
son, who was cruelly murdered by unbelieving people like Dawkins. But he rose
again!
God raised him from death. That is the hope and promise of
God that all of us who believe in what Jesus Christ has done on the cross and
seek forgiveness for our sins, will be saved, saved for eternity to be with God
and His Son Jesus Christ.
The significance of these will not disappear just because
some distraught minds question the act, which I would say is foundational to our faith in Christ.
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