aiki
Regular Member
If you're really interested in well-reasoned answers to your questions, one book you ought to read would be Paul Copan's "Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God."
Let me take a brief stab at responding to the two verses/passages you've offered here:
Hosea 13:16
16 Samaria will be held guilty, For she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword, Their little ones will be dashed in pieces, And their pregnant women will be ripped open.
Does this verse say God will act to rip open pregnant women? Does it say that God will dash children into pieces? No. Men will do this to the people of Samaria. Wicked men, enemies of the Samaritan people, would attack and savage Samaria. And this would happen, in part, because the people of Samaria had turned from God in rebellion and forsaken, not just God's leadership, but His protection that went along with His leadership.
This is what happens to any person who rejects God. When such a person steps outside of God's authority and protection in their rejection of Him, they become vulnerable to the Enemy, Satan, and to the World he controls. And the devil is playing for keeps, a "roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." He delights in provoking wicked people to do his will, smashing children to pieces and ripping open pregnant women - among other vile obscenities and atrocities.
God is also making clear just how evil a thing it is to spurn Him. It is a wicked act to rebel against Him. Why? Because He is the Maker and Sustainer of Everything. God not only brought everything into being but keeps it going moment-by-moment. The breath you take to speak your defiance of God is the breath God has made possible; the mind you exercise in rebellious thought and attitude toward God is the mind He gave you and sustains continually; the physical strength you use to enact disobedient, sinful deeds is imparted to you from God. Why should you be able to employ these things God has given and sustains to God-defying ends? As Greta Thunberg would say, "How dare you?" What enormous hubris, what staggering arrogance, we show when we take God's gifts of life, and strength, and wit and use them to snub Him! Why should God take this lying down? Well, He doesn't. As the wicked people of Samaria found out.
2 Kings 2:23-25
23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, "Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!"
24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.
25 He went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.
Was Elisha just another dude? Some scruffy, old religious nut that young men could disrespect and mock? No. He was a well-known prophet of God, a speaker for the Almighty Jehovah, and worthy of enormous respect in that role. To mock Elisha was to mock the God whose agent Elisha was - as those young men well knew. Those "lads" of Bethel knew they were sneering at God, not just Elisha, which is why God (not Elisha) sent a couple of bears to tear them up.
God warns us all against mocking Him.
Galatians 6:7
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
One day, holy God will judge each person according to their deeds and it will be for many a terrible, terrible day - much worse than a bear-mauling. Will you accept the lesson of 2 Kings 2:23-24 and the warning of Galatians 6:7, or just continue to shake your fist at God?
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