I love you... Now pull my finger

I was at a gospel / bluegrass concert at a church with my dad. The group was entertaining and talented. As they were introducing the next song they told how it was inspired by the Bible story of Elijah and Widow of Zarephath.

It is a story about faith and kindness to strangers. Elijah is on the run during a time of severe drought and famine in Israel. God guides him to a widow who is preparing a last meal for herself and her son before they die. She gives him food and the flour and oil do not run out until the famine was over.

Then there was the 'gotcha' part of the story, the part that most people gloss over, but the part that is like a twisting inside me and makes me spiritually squirm.

Elijah insists she feed him first. What? Why not sit down and eat together? Why does Elijah insist on eating first? I don't get it.

Okay, there is the symbolic putting God first in our lives, but why did Elijah insist on being first? If she had offered to feed him first, wouldn't that have been a more powerful show of faith.

So many stories in the Bible have little gotcha's in them that are not consistent with who I believe God is. I do not believe God is random or capricious, I don't think he's pathological or psychotic, but so many stories would have you believe that God's temper is so violent that he is willing to kill hundreds, even thousands of his own people. He seems willing to punish a whole society for the sins of a few.

That's not God. Not in my book. I refuse to worship an entity that has less compassion than I do.

One of my mom's favorite stories was of Job who refused to curse God even when he was afflicted with every form of misfortune that could befall a person.

But the part that makes me squirm is that God tells Satan he can murder all of Job's children and servants. What ?!?!? God is willing to kill off several dozen faithful people to win a bet???

Oh but Job was given new kids later as if they were interchangeable. I know we are supposed to identify with Job, but I identify with the innocents God allowed to be killed.

Again I have to say this is a nice story but that's not the god I believe in.

It must be in the human mindset to add these bizarre elements into stories. All we have to do is look at the children's prayer we all grew up with...

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

And we wonder why our kids are so screwed up.