Another silly Bible story...this time brought to you by Moses

by RULES & REGULATIONS 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  RULES & REGULATIONS

  

  Does this silly Bible story make any sense after you take off your rose-colored glasses?

  Moses comes down from the mountain with two freshly made tablets of stone written with the finger of God. One commandment on the stone tablet reads '' You must not kill/murder.'' It doesn't take long before Moses breaks a commandment. I guess it should have said,'' You must not kill/murder, but in this case, it's O.K."

  Exodus 32: 19 So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it. 21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?”

  Moses is so angered, he breaks the tablets and instructs the sons of Levi to the kill anyone who is not on the Lord's side.

  Exodus 32:25 Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), 26 then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’ ” 28 So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses.
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  stillin

  Moses was an asshole
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  fulano

  But he had a tablet...
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  tiki

  Tribal massacres....history of humanity. Still occurring sad to say. And each and every group is adamant in their belief in their justification.
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  peacefulpete

  Irony at its most tragic.

  But don't feel too bad for the people killed,....they were literary devices, not real people. The author wrote the story in the 6th century, not the 15th century or so that the setting suggests. The work was a polemic against the use of iconography for Yahweh. The OT and archaeology both indicate that Yahweh was traditionally worshipped with the Baal calf images but by the 6th century this was regarded as unsophisticated.
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  skin

  That's a good one that I had never noticed before.
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  sparky1

  ...however, he was the 'meekest' of assholes.
  
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  stillin

  Samson was another fine piece of work. Tying two foxes together, 300 of them, putting a burning torch on their tails and setting them loose to burn the grain fields of his enemies. It would have been easier and more humane to just go out there himself, but no. He wanted to be cruel to the foxes too.

  Another asshole.
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  hoser

  And don’t forget the watchtowers poster boy King David. He was a total dick but the watchtower still loves him.
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  blondie

  David was an adulterer and tried to hide it by murdering the woman's husband. Both murder and adultery were capital crimes, punishment death. No mercy for other Israelites who committed adultery or murder even if they had been merciful to others. Yet David go off free of punishment, but the baby died, David's wives would be humiliated publicly, etc.

  Remember he conducted a census too knowing god told him not too, and one of David's generals warned him but David ignored him.

  God punished David by having him pick from several punishments, so David picked a plague, and 70,000 people died for David's sin.