Where Is God?

[Freewill]

And How come God makes it hard for most people to believe? He appeared to Moses and had to actually persuade Moses to follow HIm and do his bidding. How easy would it be to believe when you see a talking burning bush?

Not so easy if no one else saw the burning bush or heard the voice of God. Most people would question their sanity for a very long time, well, at least for 40 days and 40 nights.

But God did reveal Himself to the people in many different ways. First of all there were the plagues. Then we have the parting of the sea. Then the Moses delivering the 10 commandments. Then the manta from heaven itself. Then the Ark of the Covenant. Delivery to the promised land. There were all sorts of miracles, what happened? God revealed Himself in so many different ways a person would be a fool to not believe.

Manna from heaven, the food of angels, is a figurative expression meaning words, teaching, from God.

Think of the stories of Jesus where Lazarus was raised from the dead and came out of the tomb in broad daylight and in full view of everyone there yet many if not most people there did not believe in Jesus.

How could that be unless, like the expression manna from heaven, being raised from the dead is a figurative expression that has literally nothing whatever to do with a corpse coming back to life and coming out of a tomb because Jesus told him to.

Knowing that Jesus compared the pharisees and their beliefs and practices to whitewashed tombs and unmarked graves is it really that hard to make a connection and understand what rising from the dead is really all about?

That would explain why many eye witnesses failed to believe.

all the pieces fit perfectly.

Interesting points. Think about the story of Lazarus if it happened today. Most people would look at it through whatever biased lens they measure life. Things like, well he obviously really was dead after all would be said. They would then believe as they do today, unless there is a explanation that they can explain through science then it never really happened. We see this with the apostles and their reaction to Jesus' death. They ran for cover, they hid, they denied, and it took placing his hands in the wounds for Thomas to finally believe, THEN they were transformed. They had previously seen all the miracle, seen the healing and were in the inner circle yet they denied Him.

Manna, was apparently not just a metaphor it was one of the three things placed in the Ark of the Covenant. Manna certainly can be seen as symbol, much like the cross, but it as the cross were real.

Jesus rebelled against those who taught their salvation was based on what they did. Jesus transformed faith from "do" to "done."

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Given God can loose its temper (and flood the planet, etc.) my hypothesis is God took off for other projects in the universe. Why we see no overt interactions between Him and people any more like we did when the Bible was being written.

"I've had it with you humans! I gave you Torah and you broke away elevating one of yourselves to godhood. Well fine, go with that, see how well ya do."

 

[hobelim]

Interesting points. Think about the story of Lazarus if it happened today. Most people would look at it through whatever biased lens they measure life. Things like, well he obviously really was dead after all would be said. They would then believe as they do today, unless there is a explanation that they can explain through science then it never really happened. We see this with the apostles and their reaction to Jesus' death. They ran for cover, they hid, they denied, and it took placing his hands in the wounds for Thomas to finally believe, THEN they were transformed. They had previously seen all the miracle, seen the healing and were in the inner circle yet they denied Him.

Just like when it happened, if the story of Lazarus happened today, there would not be one single person standing around watching who would confuse a dead person coming back to life after a physical death with a person renouncing false religious beliefs and practices that had them as trapped as dead men in a tomb.

If Lazarus rose from a physical death, then like now, not one single person would have denied it, but if Lazarus rose from the tomb of Pharisaic beliefs and practices, like a person escaping having been brainwashed by a cult, it wouldn't be any mystery why the people still in the tomb thought nothing spectacular happened.

All the pieces fit perfectly.

The same is true for every described miracle of Jesus from turning water into wine to restoring sight to the blind, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, the multiplication of the loaves, etc..

Without comprehending the hidden meaning conveyed in the miracle stories understanding the truth is impossible.