I am reading through the story about Moses and I came to this part of the story:
"At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. "Surely you are a bridgegroom of blood to me." she said. So the Lord let him alone." Exodus 4:24-26 (reference to blood referring to blood from circumsion)
It might be easy for us to pass over these verses since they seem to contradict the rest of the story. But, in thinking about this I thought to myself, "Really? God is willing to kill Moses simply because of a circumsion or lack thereof?" It seems out of character with the God that I know. Maybe it is why so many people say that the God of the Old Testament seems so much madder than the one in the new. The God of the Old Testament seems to be willing to destroy Moses, a man who he has been preparing for the last 80 years because Moses hadn't yet circumsized his boy.
It may give us an idea of how important this was to God also. That the circumsion isn't just a hygiene issue, but a sign of the covenant between the children of Abraham and God. Nevermind that God hadn't said a word in the last 400 years. This is meant to be a sign between God and man and apparently Moses never got around to it. It was only due to Moses' wife fast acting knife that kept Moses around to see another day. Interestingly, through the next 40 years, we never hear Zipporah say another word. She falls of the page and is never heard from again. But, apparently it was obvious to her why God was angry.
Critics and atheists I have spoken to online have said to me at one point or another that God's nature does seem different. I tend to identify with the angry God more than the compassionate one. I think about Jesus and how patient he was with his disciples. That even on the eve of his crucifixion were arguing about who was the greatest. Jesus has to interrupt his own last meal, pick up a towel and wash his disciples feet to make his point. No arguing or rebuking or anger there. Just a towel and some water and the act of a servant. Yet, there are also pictures throughout the Old Testament also of God being patient. So maybe the question isn't as simple as Old or New Testament. After all, it was in the New Testament that Jesus put cords together, made a whip and cleaned out the temple. That doesn't sound like a passive person to me.
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boast boast about this; that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight." Jeremiah 9:24
