More biblical musings

So, seminar continues, as it tends to (cue dramatic voice: Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet...). The bible continues to bewilder me.

It's interesting, first of all, how many people have a gut reaction of sorts to the bible, how emotional it can be for so many. I personally was surprised by my reaction to it. Obviously to anyone who knows me, this was not a warm fuzzy 'yay god' reaction, more of a 'grrr must kill die die die stupid bible' type reaction. I think it's telling that the vast majority of people have some sort of emotional investment in it, regardless of whether or not they're religious and/or belonging to a judeochristian faith. I know that for me, I've built a significant part of my identity around not buying into anything in the bible, and having extremely little patience for organized religion as a whole. It's still a stretch for me to force that aside, take the bible as a text and nothing more, and I'm certain that there are many other people in the reverse situation.

Yesterday's reading, parts of Jeremiah and all of Jonah, were interesting. Jonah is two pages long in my copy of King James, but, once again, something that they misled us about in Hebrew school. The point is not, I don't think, that Jonah tried to run from God and therefore got swallowed by a very large fish, but that he gave a prophesy that did not come true. According to Jeremiah, he's therefore a false prophet. Frustrating that we don't know exactly what God told him to say.

What bothers me the most Jonah, though, is that he's such a doormat, basically. Here he is, and, as far as we know, he's Average Joe, just minding his own business. Then, Booming Voice From The Sky says: Go to Nineveh. Tell 'em that they're gonna die. Jonah clearly wants no part of that, for any number of reasons. He's scared of God. He's scared of Ninevites. He's scared he'll end up as a false prophet. Whatever - he's terrified, so he bolts. God takes this out on everyone around him as well, nearly killing them. They get Jonah away from him, and he gets swallowed whole by a fish.

Then, he prays to God, saying how compassionate and kind God is. While he's inside a giant fish.

I just don't get it.