Genisis: God's mercy

God, in the beginning, made man in his image, and gave him the Garden of Eden, a woman, and only one command. That command was not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Death was the punishment for disobedience. Eve, however, was tempted by the serpent and ate the fruit and Adam ate it too. God expelled them from the garden and cursed them. Death entered the world, and as our ancestors died eventually, so must we. This could be the entire story, the end of the story.

This, however, is not the end of the story. When people become so evil that God wants them all dead, he spares Noah and his family. Then, when humanity again erupts into evil, he changes their languages, protecting them from their own power. People still refuse to follow him, and instead turn to gods of their own creation, gods who demand obscene rights and horrendous sacrifice. Gods who live on fear and blood. From this chaos God pulls one man, Abram. When Abram follows him in faith, God promises to give him children and a land for them to inherit. After Isaac, the child of the promise, is born, God tells Abram to sacrifice Isaac to him. To those who have been steeped in the Bible, this may not seem a big thing. It is a test of Abram’s faith. That’s all. The idea of child sacrifice is horrifying, and of course God would never make Abram actually kill Isaac. To Abram, however, this was very different. Abram lived at a time when child sacrifice was common, expected. The fact that Abram believes that somehow he will come back down the mountain with Isaac, and that he believes that the god he serves is good is what is really weird. It was the logical assumption. Abram, however, is right. God provides an animal to sacrifice instead of Isaac, a substitute. This is weird, different. God’s mercy and compassion are seen in stark contrast with the other gods, who would have simply demanded Isaac’s blood.

God is good. It is so easy to read Genesis and just see the things that are taught in Sunday School. It is so easy to miss the wonder of how different God is from any other God. What other God is both just and merciful? What other God demands sacrifice for atonement of sin and then becomes his own creation to pay that debt with his own blood? What other God died for the very people who have rebelled against him? How is it that we find it so easy to ignore what we have been saved from. The world of Genesis seems so very far from our own that we cannot see that it is our world. We serve gods that demand child sacrifice, obscene rights, the very destruction of our souls. We serve ourselves. We need a savior before we are destroyed by our gods. God has provided a savior, but we find it the story clichéd. God have mercy.