Beorn
Permabanned
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2008
- Messages
- 5,005
How is the moral of being obedient to God any different from the moral of having a good work ethic and being kind even to your enemy? All of these are life lessons that the authors, recorders, or repeaters of these stories hope the readers and listeners will glean from them, and none depend on the factual or historical veracity of the accounts themselves.
Let me expand on my points.
First, because as my examples intended to show if the God of Israel doesn't exist there are more important things than being obedient to that God such as self-preservation. Getting thrown in a lion's den or in a furnace because you refuse to bow to someone else's non-existent god seems pretty stupid.
Second, as I stated above the emphasis on obedience is premised on the miracles God had performed. The entire OT is all about God's Covenent to Israel. Israel's obedience is premised on the fact that God first loved them and first rescued them. If that's not the case then there's no reason for obedience to God and behaving as children of a covenant. Even more obviously someone who is non-existent holds no authority and can demand no obedience. We might have learned that Washington was honest from the cherry tree incident, but Washington isn't giving executive orders from the grave.