Alt Sunday School: I, The Lord Your God , Make the Deaf, Mute, and Blind.
Wow. There’s a lot to unpack in Exodus 4. Today I’ll cover the first half.
This is the part of Moses’ story where the Judeo-Christian God (henceforth, just God) is telling him to go to Egypt and demand that they let his people go. Remember, they are slaves at this point; to the Egyptians. God even gives Moses the power to perform some magic tricks to prove that God sent him. Moses doesn’t think he has the wherewithal to deliver this message but God assures Moses that he can. And will. Moses explains to God that he’s not the man for the job. Not eloquent, and claims to be “slow of speech and tongue,” to which God replies, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” (verse 11).
Woah. Did God just let it slip that He’s the one responsible for for making human’s deaf and mute? Interesting. Most God-fearing folk I know would like to say no, the devil, or original sin is responsible for handicaps some may inherit. But here we have God himself straight up owning that shit. So which is it? Is God responsible for defects and diseases? Is he the cause or the solution? Surely a loving, caring God would never be responsible for unfortunate birth defects. If he’s not responsible, then we have a case where God simply ain’t all powerful now, is he? Either he is omnipotent and could stop that from happening or he 1.) Doesn’t care; or 2.) Is not omnipotent.
Some would like to argue that it’s not that God doesn’t care, we don’t know. God works in mysterious ways. We’ll never know God’s reason. His reasons are beyond our comprehension. Bull shit. Ain’t nothing mysterious about it. If God want us to mirror his love, well he better be showing us a real image of love to reflect. Goose. Gander.
On the next ASS – again, with some foreskin stories. What is it with the Bible and it’s Foreskin Fetish?