Deuteronomy Part II: Just a Few Questions

With ALL of these questions posed in regards to the Bible wouldn't it be nice to be able to access the questions in one place instead of flipping between blog postings? Now you can! The questions for the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch are now in one compilation, and there is no need whatsoever to flip-flop between various posts! Go here for your copy:
http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Broth-Spirit-Questions-Pentateuch-ebook/dp/B00GVLQ0CY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385651545&sr=8-1&keywords=ester+lighthorse

Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies?

Some of the arguments presented by individuals who believe in God, the total truth of the Bible, and salvation are seriously stupid in their circular, do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do reasoning. The one argument that really gets my goat is how believers will tell you again and again to question whatever it is you are doing and ask yourself whether or not it is something Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit would want you to do? Is your conscience bothering you about what you are doing? Is that still small voice in your heart alerting you that something is seriously wrong with what you are doing, about to do, or being asked to do?

I was taught that the purpose of God's gift of free will to man was specifically to benefit man in these types of situations. Man is supposed to use his free will to question so that he will be better suited to choose what God wants and thus what is good for him. Questioning the things that you do and the things that you want and the things people tell you and the things other people do and tell you to do are essential to living a life for God. And as you question, if you get the feeling something is off, out of whack, not quite right, nonsense...well, you can safely bet such an assessment is likely correct.

Unless you are questioning the Bible or God or Jesus. The Bible and God and Jesus should never be questioned.

Do you have children? If you do have children have they ever behaved in a manner that was disrespectful or lazy? Did they ever mouth off at you? Would you stone your children to death for such things? Have you ever been married and cheated on? While you may have wanted to throttle your cheating spouse would you have really stoned them to death? Have you ever broken a law unintentionally/out of simple negligence? Would you kill and offer as a burnt sacrifice a bull or any other animal to atone for your unintentional sin? You may not believe in or practice such things as tarot, dream interpretation, palm reading, energy reading, psychic abilities and the like, but would you really kill an individual who does? Would you kill someone for working on the Sabbath? Would you do half of the crap mentioned in the Bible, a book that is supposed to be lasting truth?

All of the above things are mentioned in the Bible. All of these things are supposed to have been commanded by God, God's own words. All of God's words are supposed to be lasting, never fading, never falling out of date, good for all of eternity as valid truth. And do you know what?

All of these things should ABSOLUTELY be questioned...yet I distinctly recall being informed that it was wrong to question the Bible or anything in the Bible as far as instruction by God or Jesus was concerned. But...wasn't my conscience telling me something was wrong, off, screwy?

Isn't religion grand? Isn't God some fellow? Sooo...we are to question everything suspicious BUT the Bible and God? Well, isn't that a balanced slice of life?

And now...Part II of the questions for Deuteronomy.

1. Deuteronomy 2:14-15
14 Now the time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.

15 Moreover the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from within the camp until they all perished.

Questions
     1) So, the 'men of war' were twenty and older, correct? That means for those men who were only twenty when leaving Egypt they died at about age fifty-eight when the norm for the age limit was well over one hundred?

     2) Did it take thirty-eight years for God to destroy these people He was pissed at because it was a hard task, or was it because God was enjoying Himself?

     3) Why did God drag out getting rid of these people when, being all-powerful, He could just get it done pronto in one quick swoop?

2. Deuteronomy 2:33-34
33 And the LORD our God gave him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people.

34 And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction every city, men, women, and children. We left no survivors.

Questions

     1) Do you equate this type of behavior with a God of love?

     2) Is this what Jesus meant when He said that line, "Suffer the little children unto me," in the New Testament?

     3) Why would an all-forgiving, all-loving, all-powerful, all-everything, perfect God devote Himself to anything that serves only to destroy and tear down and not cherish and build up?

3. Deuteronomy 3:3-6
3 So the LORD our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, and we struck him down until he had no survivor left.

4 And we took all his cities at that time—there was not a city that we did not take from them—sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages.

6 And we devoted them to destruction, as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every city, men, women, and children.

Questions
     1) Is this really the God of the Bible, the giver of wicked commands and the taker of life?

     2) Sooo...are commands of genocide commonplace when believing in the God of the Bible?

     3) WHO devotes themselves or demands that others devote themselves to the flippant disregard for the value of human life?

     4) Considering the absolute evil abandon with which God was so generous with when dealing with these SIXTY cities, do you think it is possible Hitler was really God in another one of His human forms?


4. Deuteronomy 4:2
2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.

Questions

     1) If this verse is true then everything God said in the Old Testament is just as valid as everything in the New Testament, right?

     2) If God said His commands could not be diminished, why don't people still obey the practices and decrees given by God in the Old Testament?

5. Deuteronomy 4:11
11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.

Questions
     1) The mountain was burning with fire? Are we talking a volcano here or perhaps a mountain that simply measured very high in radiation? Was it mass hallucination?


6. Deuteronomy 4:15
15 Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,

Questions

     1) Uhmmm...how can it be said there was no form when the voice came out of the fire and the smoke? Wouldn't the fire or the smoke then be the form associated with the voice?

     2) Why would anyone even need to see God in order to make an idol or statute or anything since, because man has supposedly been made in the image of God, we then KNOW what God's basic form looks like?

     3) Shouldn't people be asking themselves why, if Genesis 1:26 is correct and man has in fact been made in the image of God thus logically concluding God does have a human-like form, why is God constantly trying to hide Himself or appear as something other than His human-like form? What is He hiding? 

7. Deuteronomy 4:23-24
23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you.

24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Questions

     1) If God has forbidden man to make any images in the form of God, well...considering that man was made in the image of God and considering the mass amounts of statutes created by human beings throughout history, hasn't man really REALLY dropped the ball on that one?

     2) Is there any just cause for the most powerful being ever, God, to be jealous about anything? Where is the validation for an omnipotent, omni-present being experiencing jealousy if He is the most powerful, the ultimate in everything? Wouldn't this supposed jealousy be bullshit, a totally wasted effort?

8. Deuteronomy 4:26-27
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.

27 And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you.

Questions

     1) Heaven and earth cannot speak or reason or offer opinion, so how in the fuckey-doo can they serve as witness to anything when they possess no opinion either objective or subjective?

9. Deuteronomy 4:28
28 And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

Questions
     1) Sooo...in interpreting this verse are we to think that the LORD God eats when there is never any need for His nourishment since He is supposed to be perfect and never lacking in anything?

     2) In interpreting this verse are we to think that the LORD God sees everything when people do horrible things every damn day and yet does nothing about it?

     3) In interpreting this verse are we to think that the LORD God hears all words uttered and all cries for help and yet ignores such?

     4) In interpreting this verse are we to think that the LORD God smells all, such as great fires and the decomposition of murdered victims and yet routinely ignores such?

     5) If God cares nothing for the works of human hands, even though man has been made in the image of God who is supposed to be perfectly creative with HIS hands, are we to think God gives a good goddamn about anything people do?



10. Deuteronomy 4:29-30
29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice.

Questions

     1) If God is everywhere, why do so many people have to try so hard and go through so much to find Him or hear Him or see Him?

11. Deuteronomy 4:39-40
39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

40 So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am giving you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may live long on the land which the LORD your God is giving you for all time.

Questions

     1) Does this mean that this God fellow is the lone God of the heavens (sky) that people saw and the earth that people saw during this particular time in history?

     2) Is this God fellow an extra-terrestrial that has 'control' of the heavens/skies and much of what is on earth and simply tells people He is God so that He can better manipulate people?

     3) Why doesn't the verse say that this God fellow has control of or is the LORD God of the universe?

12. Deuteronomy 5:4
4 The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire,

Questions

     1) Doesn't Deuteronomy 4:15 say that there was no form of God seen?

    2) If the above question is true, and remember that this is Moses speaking to the people of Israel and not the LORD speaking to Moses, then how the hell did the LORD speak to anyone face to face? Isn't a face a form? Sooo...if they did not see any form how in the frickety-frack did they see a fucking face?!

13. Deuteronomy 5:7
7 You shall have no other gods before me.

Questions

     1) Sooo...is the inference here that there are indeed other gods with the only issue being that the God of the people of Israel wants to be the number one God?

     2) Okay, so no other gods before God? Does this mean there can be gods AFTER God?

14. Deuteronomy 5:8-10
8 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

10 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Questions

   1) Is this supposedly all-powerful God seriously that jealous over a carved image, a representation of a so-called fake and phony deity? How in the world can the greatest being EVER be so infantile in His absurd displays of jealousy? How STUPID is the lack of logic in this idea?

     2) Is it even possible that in His purported perfection God could experience such rabid jealousy?

15. Deuteronomy 5:17, 19, 21
17 You shall not murder.

19 You shall not steal.

21 And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’

Questions

     1) Doesn't God break these commandments quite regularly as He instructs his people to obliterate entire cities and not leave one living soul, instructs His people to take lands and possessions that are not their own, and instructs people to take the virgin women who are beautiful in order to make them wives, women who, if left alone, would become the wives of other men?

     2) Do these things not count as murder and stealing and coveting since God told people to do it?

16. Deuteronomy 5:26
26 For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have, and has still lived?

Questions

     1) How can this question even be fairly asked when Moses and Aaron and the people of Israel are instructed that ALL other gods of all other beliefs are false, that the manners in which other peoples believe are all false and have no merit, that the people of Israel are the only people God has chosen as His own, and that the LORD communes and speaks with them only?

     2) How can this question be fairly asked when all other beliefs and religious experiences and deities are denied from the very beginning? There is absolute partiality here, so how can this be anywhere near a fair and valid question deserving an answer?

17. Deuteronomy 5:32-33
32 You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

33 You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

Questions
     1) Sooo...if I want to live a good, plentiful, happy life I had best do absolutely everything that God tells me to do even if it is something bad like murder an entire freaking town, to include all of the animals?

     2) If the LORD told me to kill gay people would I have to do it in order to be righteous and walk in the LORD's way, or else be considered as having turned to the right or the left and therefore worthy of God's jealous wrath?

     3) Sooo...if I am gay and God tells me to kill gay people does that mean I would have to kill myself? Isn't suicide wrong? Why would a loving God order such a pathetically absurd thing in the first place?


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Deuteronomy Part I: Just a Few Questions

With ALL of these questions posed in regards to the Bible wouldn't it be nice to be able to access the questions in one place instead of flipping between blog postings? Now you can! The questions for the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch are now in one compilation, and there is no need whatsoever to flip-flop between various posts! Go here for your copy:
http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Broth-Spirit-Questions-Pentateuch-ebook/dp/B00GVLQ0CY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385499539&sr=8-1&keywords=ester+lighthorse



Rounding Out the Pentateuch

FINALLY we have reached the last book of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Holy Bible written by Moses. Well, traditionally these five books are held to have received the majority of their information from Moses. I suppose it is entirely likely that there are many who hold a slightly or even significantly different opinion as to who authored these first five books of the Holy Bible. That, however, is a different subject for a different posting. Here, we are continuing with going book by book in the Bible and listing particular verses and any questions I have in regards to these particular verses.

These questions are part of why I DO NOT believe in the Holy Bible as total truth, why I do not believe in a great deal of the assertions and ideals and practices presented in the Holy Bible and interpreted by religion in general, and why I think there is no such individual or ultimately divine person or being known as God.

I do not have answers to many of my questions, but make no mistake...I DO have some answers. But what I am doing here is NOT giving you my answers (with the exception to a very few cases) because what I really want is to hear YOUR answers. I do not wish for my own answers to mar your response. If you DO believe in the purported total truth of the Holy Bible and if you DO believe in God and if you DO have answers to any of these questions please make a response in the comment link at the end of the posting.

Some of the questions I have are so simple they sound absurdly ridiculous. Some of the questions seem to be quite common for believers and non-believers alike. Some of the questions require greater consideration than your general run-of-the-mill pondering. Some of the questions demand if not require the individual to render far more than the passing, intellectual glance.

If you wish to use verses as references please remember to note the passage location so that I may look it up.

Remember, I am NOT trying to turn you away from what you believe; besides, if you truly love and believe in God that is not even an issue for you to concern yourself with, correct? Does it not say in the Holy Bible that once you are in the Father's hands, you are always in the Father's hands? So, do not fret my many questions. I just want your answers.

In your response please be as clear and concise as possible because, for all I know you just may be able to provide me with an answer that is superior to my own answer, or lack thereof.

Tell me your answers. Tell me why you believe. Tell me why I should believe as you believe.

Give me...a reason...to believe.

And now, here are questions for the book of Deuteronomy.

1. Deuteronomy 1:8
8 See, I have placed the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their descendants after them.

Questions

     1) Is this the Old Testament version of manifest destiny?

2. Deuteronomy 1:10
10 The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number.

Questions
     1) Did the LORD forget how many stars were in the sky when He promised Abraham's and Isaac's and Jacob's descendants that they would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens?

     2) Do you think there is any truth whatsoever or even the slightest remote possibility of God's promise to multiply the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to the point where they are as numerous as the stars when you stop and consider that there are about ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND MILLION stars in our own Milky Way galaxy, and in addition to that about 100 billion galaxies in the universe? 

     3) Isn't it just a TAD over-exaggerating for God/the LORD to utter such an absurd, grandiose promise, especially when He is supposed to know everything?

     4) Is God exaggerating here?

     5) Do you equate exaggeration with lying?

     6) Is God lying here?

3. Deuteronomy 1:12-13
12 How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?

13 Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.'

Questions
     1) Did God/the LORD not think about things such as a system for addressing the many issues of the people of Israel or at least bring such issues up to Moses and Aaron before they left Egypt?

     2) If it was God/the LORD who brought the people out of Egypt and if it was God/the LORD who made many many promises to provide the people a great land flowing with milk and honey, did the people of Israel reasonably rely on an assumption that if God/the LORD was going to provide this great land He would also provide the necessary leadership and logistics?

     3) Why didn't God discuss this with the people, or at least with Moses and Aaron before they all left Egypt, thus making God's chosen people better prepared? 

4. Deuteronomy 1:16-17
16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.

17 You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.

Questions

     1) Sooo...when these verses discuss not being partial and judging justly, listening to ALL whether they are small or great, does this NOT apply to gays and lesbians?

     2) Wouldn't passing judgment upon an individual or group of individuals based on their sexual preferences qualify as being partial in judgment? 

5. Deuteronomy 1:21
21 Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.

Questions
     1) You know what this verse reminds me of when I read it? It reminds me of the folks traveling across the Atlantic in search of a land of tolerance and freedom...the New World, right? I mean, just as the land that God promised His people was already occupied, so the New World was already inhabited by the Native Americans, correct?

     2) Do you think the Puritans and Quakers and Pilgrims and Separatists and religious folk and every one else who went along with them, do you think they had this verse in mind when setting foot on what later became U.S. soil? 

     3) Considering their trials and tribulations on the other side of the Atlantic do you think these people saw the vast, rich land of North America and figured that God/the LORD/Divine Providence had placed the land before them, and all they had to do was to subdue the Native Americans and TAKE IT?

     4) Is inappropriate seizure of real property part of God's/the LORD's modus operandi?


6. Deuteronomy 1:30-31
30 The LORD your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’

Questions
     1) The LORD went before His people and fought on their behalf? He fought on their behalf while they were in Egypt?

     2) Who led the people of Israel into Egypt in the first place?

     3) Who hardened Pharaoh's heart against the Israelites?

     4) Who, in exhibition of a stunning show of hatred, disrespect, contempt, and total disregard for human life MURDERED all of Egypt's firstborn, including innocent children/babies and down to the last animal? How the f**k does that qualify as fighting on someone's behalf?

     5) Since when and according to whom did God/the LORD carry anything or anyone with Him through the desert (well, He sure as shit carried along His out-of-control anger and equally unrestrained jealousy)?

     6) Did God categorize the persistent water shortages, persistent food shortages (until manna), persistent mind games played by God, and persistent meandering about the desert in circles for forty fucking years as carrying and caring for His chosen people? 


7. Deuteronomy 1:32-33
32 But for all this, you did not trust the LORD your God,

33 who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.

Questions
     1) How in the hell did God think His people would react to the stupid shit He put them through on purpose?!

     2) Would you trust someone who promised you a La Jolla, California mansion of your choice, but who neglected to tell you that you would have to kill the residents of that mansion in order to obtain possession/title to the property?

     3) What good does it do to have a pillar of fire and a pillar of smoke to protect the people of Israel when the vast majority of their problems and dangers suffered were instigated by the very same God who was claiming to protect them?


8. Deuteronomy 1:34-36
34 Then the LORD heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying,

35 Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers,

36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the LORD!

Questions

     1) Why the hell is God taking an oath when by His own nature He is supposed to be total truth? Wouldn't such an attribute as ultimate truth negate the need to make an oath or promise?

9. Deuteronomy 1:40
40 But as for you, turn around and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.

Questions

     1) Isn't God making grand promises to the people of Israel and then looking for ways to revoke the promises either in part or in full total bullshit?

10. Deuteronomy 2:5-6
5 do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a footstep because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.

6 You shall buy food from them with money so that you may eat, and you shall also purchase water from them with money so that you may drink.

Questions

     1) Sooo...God is basically saying that if you pass through land that the LORD does not want for His people you must pay them (the people of the land) for whatever goods are needed, but if it is land God wants you to have then screw paying for anything and just take it all?

11. Deuteronomy 2:7
7 For the LORD your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the LORD your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing.

Questions

     1) The people lacked nothing? Nothing? What about going for days without water, and quite frequently at that? What about the situations where the people lacked of food? How the hell does that qualify as a generous sprinkling of blessings?

     2) Sooo...wandering in the freaking desert boonies for forty damn years is God watching out for and blessing His people?

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