the temptation

each of us have our own solutions to world problems:
from starvation, through war, to law and order.
but the real temptation comes
when, like oliver cromwell, or hezekiah,
we find ourselves in a position to act upon them.

mr dawkins' complaint about the god of the old testament
stems from the jewish belief in a political god.
he has made a covenant with the jewish people:
if they follow the law handed down by moses
and keep to his ways
he sustains the nation and wins them great victories.
if the nation suffers, it is because the people have fallen away.
this is the message of the history books and the prophets too.
however
running right through the old testament is a subtext.
job, the psalmists, and the prophets point beyond this tidy simplicity
toward another truth

the iscariot, judas, sought political freedom for the nation that he loved.
but jeheshua's kingdom of god is not the jewish nation.
jeheshua does not proclaim the tidy simplicity.
he proclaims instead the subtext.
[the christian might say that he was the subtext]*
and so it was judas who felt betrayed, not the other way round.

but mr dawkins could complain just as bitterly about the christian god
(I am sure that he does).
those who wield power rarely quibble over how they maintain it.
from the conversion of constantine to the reformation of henry viii
the temptation remains the same:
to fall back on the tidy simplicity of the old testament god:
the god who leads the nation to great victories.
I see oliver cromwell scouring his bible for help
but because the help that he seeks is justification for his own actions
that is what he finds, whether or no he does it in the name of christ.
the temptation of all who wield power is to use god to further their own ends.
and because we all seek power, control, security: call it what you will
we shouldn't be surprised when we fall over you;
our real beginning is hidden in our undoing.

*the stumbling block becomes the corner stone