Fiction

Angry God

by Gary Ritter
08/28/14
Not For Sale
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“This god of yours is nothing but an angry little boy,” Jack said.  He and his friend, Tony, had been sparring for the last fifteen minutes.   Tony, a devout Christian, wanted desperately for Jack to turn to the Lord, but it seemed that every time he tried witnessing to him, Jack’s parries kept Tony off balance.

“How can you say that?  He’s a loving God; a God of grace, mercy, and compassion.”

“Really?”  Jack countered.  “Then tell me why does the Bible show just the opposite?”

Tony’s look of confusion egged Jack on.  “No doubt those are the passages you conveniently forget.”

“Help me out here,” Tony said.  He hoped the trepidation he felt hadn’t voiced itself.

“You got your Bible?  Good, give it to me.”  Jack paged through the Old Testament until he found what he wanted.  “Check this out.”  He pointed to 1 Samuel 15 and read the second and third verses: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.  Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them.  Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels, and donkeys.’”

Jack looked up triumphantly.  “See?  Not only is he angry, your god is a child killer.  How pathetic is that?”

“The one thing I can tell you,” Tony said, “is that God has a purpose.  He knows the beginning and the end.  I may not know everything to answer you, but I know this: if the Israelites didn’t kill every last one of these Amalekites, they’d come back eventually and make big trouble for them.  In fact, I just read the Book of Esther the other day.  There was an evil man at that time high up in government by the name of Haman.  He was descended from the Amalekites, right down the line from their king named Agag that God ordered to be killed.  He hated the Jews because they had almost exterminated his people.  He plotted to kill every last Jew, tricked the king, and almost wiped out God’s chosen people.  It was only because of faithful Esther that he didn’t.”

Jack gloated.  “You just made my point.  If the Jews hadn’t tried to eliminate the Amalekites under God’s direction, Haman wouldn’t have hated them so much and sought revenge.  This god of yours has created a vicious circle of violence.”

Tony could only shake his head.  He simply wasn’t as prepared as he needed to be to take on someone like Jack.  The friends ended their conversation on this topic and soon parted.

In the weeks that followed a sadistic Islamic terrorist group began overrunning various states in the Middle East, including Syria and Iraq.  Known as Islamic State, or ISIS, they made it known they ultimately planned to strike and take down Israel and the U.S.  This was much in the news when Tony and Jack got back together.

Incensed at the atrocities ISIS was committing, including many horrendous beheadings, Jack fumed.  “They are nothing but evil scum.  They should be destroyed, every last one of them!”

Surprised at the vehemence of his friend, Tony said, “You want them all dead?  Why?”

“If they’re not all killed, you know they’ll reconstitute themselves and come at us again.  That’s what happened with al Qaeda; they morphed into ISIS.  If I was your god, I’d stamp them out, like the cockroaches they are.”

“So, there’s sometimes a reason for completely eliminating an enemy?”

“Sure, if you know they’ll come back to hurt you otherwise.”

Tony said, “Remember our conversation about the Amalekites?  Here’s a thought-exercise for you: I told you about Haman’s evil plot to kill the Jews.  It was made possible because all his people weren’t totally destroyed.  If the Israelites had followed God’s command, they wouldn’t have had to deal with Haman years later.  God saw all this.  Like I said previously, He knows the beginning and the end.  He knew what He was doing.  It was only because the Jews disobeyed Him that they had to suffer the penalty for it.  God is good!”

Jack scratched his chin.  “You have an interesting point.  I think you win this one.  Let’s keep talking.  Maybe you’ll convince me some day that God knows what He’s doing after all.”