Questions About the Old Testament

StartToday said:

Okay, so I came across these two quotes:

"And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the lord thy god hath given thee."
Deuteronomy 28:53

"Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." Psalm 137:9

These are... well, kind of disturbing. So my questions are 1) do any of you take these literally? if not, why not? 2) why would there ever be a reason for people to kill and/or eat their children?? and 3) why use the old testament at all? I was always taught that everything in the old testament was archaic and that only the new testament really mattered.

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The information outlined in the Book of Deuteronomy makes perfect sense, because it is a curse that befall those who practice undermining God without repentance.

I am sure that there is some culture(s) that practices evil to the extent of doing those things out of sacrifical rituals or hunger or both. Also know that Deueronomy is a book to take seriously even today, because God never recanted those curses. They are still in operation.

The entire Old Testiment is vitally important to our learning and wisdom. Like in Pslam we learn how to pray and honor God. Proverbs fortifies us with wisdom and Isaiah confirms Jesus by giving us information about His coming, ministry, death and resurrection years before Mary gave birth to Him.

Then we have the Book of Ezekiel that gives us an account of the end times and, most important of all, the Book of Genesis which tells us how Adam and Eve died spiritual deaths and caused all of mankind to come into this world dead to God. How else would we know the reason why we must be born again if we didn't have this Old Testiment book at our disposal?

Of course, I understand where you're coming from, because I was there at one time. Even today I concentrate my study to the New Testiment, because I'm a Gentile. Still, there is so much for us to learn from the Old Testiment.

God bless you,

The Guide