Bad Theology

Text for today: Deuteronomy 31 xiv-xxi

God informs Moses that he is about to die and commissions the génocidaire Joshua to lead the Hebrews in his place. God tells Moses that, once the promised land has been delivered to His chosen people, they will turn to foreign gods, and that as a result God will send many evils and troubles to devour them. God dictates a song to Moses in order that the Hebrews of later generations will know that He told them so.

As happens so often under His administration, from the Garden of Eden to the Revelation of St John, God flaunts both His awareness of human frailty and His own decided belief in punishment over prevention. Although He does not admit to it, there must be some question whether the God who hardened the hearts of Pharaoh and Eli's sons might have played a more active and sinister role in the Hebrews' backsliding, above and beyond the passive-aggressive jealousy apparent in His address to His dying favourite.

In a particularly telling touch, when God appears at the handover meeting to foretell the Hebrews' disobedience and His own violent and abusive reaction to it, He shows Himself as a pillar of cloud rather than as a guiding light: a clear, even blatant sign of His penchant for obfuscation.