A young Canaanite couple is enjoying their after-lunch rest with their newborn son. The year is 1100 BC.
Like everyone else in their small village, this couple has also heard rumors that a warrior tribe was causing terror in the neighboring cities and that they believed they had a new and powerful god, called Jehovah. But they too had a god, baal, and together with the other members of the tribe they had taken part in the morning ritual sacrifice to Baal, and, as had happened so many other times, they believed Baal would protect them again — they were wrong.
On that day, their prayers and sacrifices were useless. The wife is the first to hear the shouting and she wakes her husband from his after-lunch sleep. He barely opens his eyes when he sees his neighbors running and the noise of war approaching. Their hearts race as they look at each other in disbelief.
The wife, realizing the imminent danger, picks up the baby in her arms and runs out, followed by her husband, who grabs the small sword and runs to the door… but it’s too late.
Unfortunately, before they reach the door, two Hebrew soldiers appear and shout: “Praised be Jehovah! Only Jehovah is God!”
The husband, terrified, tries to raise his sword, but it’s too late — the soldiers quickly run him through the belly and he falls dead.
Seeing the desperate situation, the mother throws herself on the floor on her knees and lifts the baby, begging the soldiers at least to have mercy on the child’s life.
One of the soldiers, approaching the mother and child, is shaken, perhaps because he remembers his wife and his newborn daughter. His comrade, noticing the slight doubt in the soldier’s heart, shakes him and says: ‘Don’t forget what Moses told us. Jehovah clearly told us to have no mercy on any of them. The mother and the baby must be sacrificed to Jehovah, right now!’
The first soldier, still reluctant, nods his head, closes his eyes, and shouts: “Praised be Jehovah! Only Jehovah is God!” and cuts off the mother’s neck. Both soldiers are washed in blood that splashes from the lifeless body of the mother. The other soldier shouts the same phrases while cutting in half the small baby still in the arms of the now-dead mother.
As disturbing as this story is, it represents the Bible’s description of events that happened thousands and thousands of times while the Israelites invaded the land of Canaan.
Scripture says Jehovah gave clear orders to Moses that all the inhabitants were to be destroyed, that no covenant was to be made, and that no mercy was to be shown (Deut 7:2-3).
Any honest reader of the Bible, sooner or later, has to deal with the “Elephant in the Room”: Some portraits of God in the Old Testament are really horrifying. He is a monster — unjust, prideful, petty, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, among other things.
At times he orders his people to ruthlessly annihilate all members of the Midianites… except the virgins, who were to be kept alive so the soldiers could have fun with them, as the spoils of war (Num 31:1-17).
Suppose you read about a god like this while reading any other book, or watching a film. You would surely question this god’s character. But isn’t it dishonest when you avoid doing this just because this story is written in your sacred book and not in someone else’s?
I think God has to answer some questions about his terrible past behavior, and no, I don’t believe God gets offended or angry at my honest questioning.