Image Of God In The Bible

Representation of God in the Bible

Throughout the Bible God can be represented in a number of different ways. In some chapters of the Bible God can be found to be a compassionate, loving God, who would do anything for his people. To contradict this, in other chapters of the Bible God can be found trying to instill fear into people so that they believe in him, or do what he wants of them. In both instances it shows how different God can be seen and why believers can have doubts about how God really is.

In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, God can be seen as having a sort of bi-polar attitude. In the beginning chapters God is shown as a caring person when he is creating the earth and when he talks about how he wants Adam and Eve to succeed and do well and how he gives Adam a companion, Eve because he feels Adam will be lonely. As the book unfolds God becomes very angry with how his world is turning out. Sin has been introduced and humans seem to be falling away from the righteous. This upsets God and he creates an idea that he will flood the world so that only Noah and the people and animals inside the ark will live. His intentions seem horrible, trying to kill humans because they have sinned, but in reality he is trying to free the world of sin so that the remaining humans will live wonderful lives free of pain and despair. The flood can be seen as both a positive and negative thing. To non-believers they may find fault in the idea that God felt that he had to punish the world as a result of how sinful the people of earth had become. To help promote their ideas they could use statements from the Bible such as this one when God's feelings are stated about how he seems to be dissatisfied with the people of earth, "The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain" (Genesis 6:6). It can also be revealed when God states, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth" (Genesis 6:13).

In Genesis the way women are treated directly displays all the work women have gone through to achieve equality. Equality for women has been a serious issue in the world for several decades. Now that we have finally achieved a great deal of equality for women, when you read pieces of literature about women and how they are belittled it tends to stand out. In Genesis it seems as if women were treated like property. Men seemed to give them away and take them whenever they felt the need too and it never seemed as if God had anything to say about it or felt that it was wrong. In Genesis 19: 7-8, it shows just how women could be treated so poorly when Lot freely gives up his daughters to men to do what they please with them. "...No my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. Look I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them..."

In the second book of the Old Testament, Exodus the same good God and evil God seem to appear every so often and switch places. In Exodus God begins to instill plagues on the Egyptian people in order to try and get the Pharaoh to free the Israelites. Exodus 10:2 exhibits just how insensitive God could be seen when he states "... that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I preformed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord." God seemed proud that he was hurting the Egyptians in order to free the Israelites. Along with this God is punishing the Egyptians for things they can not control, the Pharaoh is in charge of the Israelites and what happens to them and God is hurting not only the Pharaoh, but the innocent Egyptians as well. Even when the Israelites are free God demonstrates how jealous he can be and how he will do anything to be the only focus of the Israelites when he states, "Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:13-14). In the commandments God instructs us to not be jealous of others, when he himself is referring to himself as a jealous God. In the second part of Exodus God instills commandments on the people so that they shall fear him and know they must follow