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A glad heart makes a cheerful face,
but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed. _{Proverbs 15:13}

Job has two problems. One is bad luck. (God giving Satan the go-ahead to screw with your life counts as bad luck in my book.) The second problem Job has is his pessimism. He compounds his misfortune by bewailing it. A more stoic chap would have accepted the bad turn of events as his lot. Machiavelli might have reminded him that “time sweeps everything along and can bring good as well as evil, evil as well as good.” Job’s friends aren’t as wise as this. They keep reminding him that there must be something he did to piss off God. After all, God wouldn’t just punish a blameless man for no reason. This is not a very comforting thing to say to a man whose fortune has just evaporated, whose children have died, and who has sores all over his body. Especially when he has lived as an exemplary citizen – helping out the poor, sharing his food with the orphans, and being an all-around good guy. Job is understandably angry at his friends and keeps insisting that he is blameless. He brings up a point that many religious people wrestle with: why does God allow terrible things happen to good people? It is such a vexing problem that a variation of it has earned its own title among the Philosophers of Religion. They call it the problem of evil.

God’s answer to Job is along these lines:

“Look, Job. I’m a very powerful dude. What makes you think you can understand my reasons for doing what I do? Oh, and here’s your stuff back. I can’t do anything about the kids, but I’ll give you seven more. They’re just like the ones I let Satan kill, you’ll hardly know the difference.”

This is an unsatisfying answer to me. I happen to be reading about Buddhism right now. They have a much more satisfying answer for Job. A Buddhist would contend that God (or the gods, or fate, or luck) will allow evil to happen to you. You can count on it. Don’t spend too much time worrying about the causes of your misfortune. With the cultivation of certain states of mind (loving-kindness, compassion, yada, yada), you can come to view your problems in a way that does not lead to suffering. The problem with God’s answer to Job is that the next time his fortune changes for the worse, he’ll be back in the same place as before, suffering until his luck improves.

Yet he did not put their sons to death, but acted in accordance with what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the LORD commanded: “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sins.”

Doesn’t the Lord kill all of the Egyptian’s first-born sons in Exodus?

Deal courageously and may the LORD be with the upright! _{2 Chronicles 19:11}

We are hosting an exhibit at my Museum based on the Star Wars universe created by George Lucas. It’s called Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination but, I have noticed that nobody is all that concerned with the Science part. Why do people love Star Wars so much? Could it be that people are starved of myth in our skeptical culture? Maybe Star Wars is a twentieth-century answer to our need for dramatic stories of good and evil. We dress up in costumes and bless each other with “the force.” We hold our breath while Luke fights Lord Vader and his dark power.

I’ve caught myself in the act. Again.

I should follow Spinoza’s advice.

I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them. _{A Political Treatise(1677)}

Back to reading.

Who is going to do all the dirty work of building the Lords temple? Slaves, of course.

All the people left from the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (these peoples were not Israelites), that is, their descendants remaining in the land, whom the Israelites had not destroyed—these Solomon conscripted for his slave labor force, as it is to this day. But Solomon did not make slaves of the Israelites for his work; they were his fighting men, commanders of his captains, and commanders of his chariots and charioteers. They were also King Solomon’s chief officials—two hundred and fifty officials supervising the men. _{2 Chronicles 8}

It makes me wonder why the smartest man in the bible didn’t invent democracy a thousand years before the Greeks.

In Islam, it is customary to pray toward Mecca. Early in Muhammed’s career, he had his followers pray toward Jerusalem. I notice some language about praying toward Jerusalem in 2 Chronicles 6:12. Do Jews (or Christians) still do that?

Things pick up again in Judges. I was delighted to find not one, but two woman protagonists in this chapter. These are among the very few women I’ve encountered so far who are treated in a positive light. Deborah is a prophetess who leads Barak and his people into victory over Siseras people. She sings a jubilant song with Barak that is the highlight of the chapter.

Awake, awake, Deborah!

Awake, awake, break out in a song! (5:12)

Jael, another woman, has the honor of driving a tent stake into Sisera’s head while he lay sleeping.

Most blessed of women be Jael,
the wife of Heber the kenite,
of tent-dwelling women most blessed.

He asked water and she gave him milk;
she brought him curds in a noble’s bowl.

She sent her hand to the tent peg
and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet;
she struck Sisera;
she crushed his head;
she shattered and pierced his temple.

Between her feet
he sank, he fell, he lay still;
between her feet
he sank, he fell;
where he sank,
there he fell—dead. (5:24)

The storytelling in this book has a livelier pace than the last few books. I enjoyed reading about Samson and Delilah and Isreal’s war with the tribe of Benjamin.

The violence in this book is stunning. There are graphic depictions of a fat king being stabbed to death(3:22), the gang rape and murder of a concubine (19:24), and a beheading (7:25). This is against a background of a thousand men killed in one battle, and ten thousand killed in another. You get used to it.

Reading Ruth’s beautiful story was a welcome respite from all the masculine violence. It is a short chapter, but it shows a warm story of loyalty, gratitude, and benevolence. My favorite four pages in the entire book so far.

This book is boring. It is mostly a detailed description of how the tribes of Israel invaded all of the lands near them, killed the people in the towns, burned the towns to the ground, and divied up the spoils. All with the Lord’s blessing, of course. There are a couple of stonings and hangings for good measure. :-(

I counted seven different reasons for stoning someone in Deutoronomy. Roughly, you can stone someone if they…

encourage you to worship gods other than the Lord (13:10),

worship gods other than the Lord, especially the sun or the moon (17:6),

disobey a priest (17:12),

disobey his mother or father (20:21),

can’t prove their virginity on their wedding night (22:21),

sleep with someone else’s wife, and

get raped in their town, but do not yell for help (22:23)

I’m glad nobody follows these rules anymore.

Deuteronomy seemed particularly bloody. It discusses war and conquest at great length while wrapping up the story of Moses and his people. In the twentieth century, most of the behavior described as justifiable during war would land you on trail for war crimes. No, it is never okay to “save alive nothing that breathes, but [] devote them to complete destruction,” even if the inhabitants of the town you are conquering have “abominable practices” and the Lord has given you first dibs on their land. (20:16)

My favorite section of all is the elaborate curse described in 28:15. It serves as a warning against disobeying God’s commandments, and since the God of Deutoronomy is truly jealous and vindictive, the curse is nasty. I wouldn’t wish this stuff on my worst enemies. Here’s a snippet;

The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. The LORD will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

It continues like this for several pages.

To be fair, there is some good stuff in this chapter of the bible. I enjoyed reading the rules for helping the poor and freeing your slaves after seven years. (15:1-17).

On to Joshua!