How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture

by Dan Kimball

The story continues as God raises up a descendant of Abraham named Moses and defeats Egypt’s evil, rescuing his people and bringing them to Mount Sinai. God uses Moses to lead Israel and enters into a covenant (a formal agreement, like a contract) with the Israelites. They are invited to obey the terms of the covenant, which start with the Ten Commandments and include several hundred other ways God sets in place for Israel to remain distinct from their neighbors who worship false gods. By being faithful to these commands, the people will become God’s priestly representatives to the nations. This is where we find many of the very crazy-sounding laws and practices that confuse people today. These laws were given to Israel, commands about not eating shrimp or not having tattoos. They seem odd and strange to us today, but to Israel at that time these laws made sense. And they were what was needed at this time in their history and their relationship to God.