Some (more) thoughts on God and Suffering

[mahf]

My friend recently raised the question of why God let the Israelites suffer in slavery for 400 years before rescuing them. God did tell Abraham basically what would happen, but I don't think that means there were no other reasons. My immediate suggestion would be that the text indicates that the Israelites didn't cry out to God till then, since it

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[mothwentbad]

What follows is somewhat random, but they're a few points that have been in my mind for some time and they surfaced while reading this.

In retrospect, I find the God question to have been a costly distraction. I wonder how much better I'd have understood how humans actually work growing up if I hadn't been absorbed in a Heaven/Hell dilemma. And how much better I'd understand other, more important things now. And how much better off I could've been for it.

There is so much ordering around! He has no faith in us, but He expects us to have faith in Him.

The command to not bear false witness, when it comes into conflict with an order to have faith, so often loses the exchange. Parents so often pick an angle and stick to it. Their certainty becomes their lie.

Not that all lies are bad; I'm at luxury to disbelieve that they must be. Though that particular lie didn't work out well for me.

I'm fairly certain that feigning certainty is more useful than skepticism, that being slow to impress is not impressive, and that hardly ever laughing is not what it means to have an exceptional sense of humor. Though in saying "fairly certain", I have failed to feign certainty.

[mahf]

I know most parents lie to their kids, but I don't think that actually flows from the text. I'm starting to think that when I have kids I'm going to go out of my way to tell them the truth... I actually really appreciated it when I read an essay by this preacher guy (reallivepreacher.com) who, when asked by his oldest daughter if there was a God, answered honestly that he didn't know. He told her what he believed but that at the end of the day no one can definitively answer that question.

I suppose its needless to say, but I do think God displays plenty of faith in people in the biblical text. But this sort of thing always depends on how you look at it.