The Wrong God

God is wrong. He's wrong a lot of the time. Unbelievers obviously think so, but so do believers.

Take, for instance, the account where God ordered the annihilation of the Amalekites -- men, women, and children, and even animals. He was wrong. That couldn't have been right. It didn't happen. It didn't happen as written. Maybe the Israelites made it up. Maybe it was just a myth written by a misguided people. Or maybe it was an angry God and we no longer have that angry God. Because that was wrong.

The Bible says God required blood sacrifices. Come on, blood sacrifices? Killing animals to appease an angry deity? What kind of prehistoric mumbo jumbo is that? It makes God out to be petty, senseless. Killing animals to appease Him? That can't be. He was wrong.

A sizable number of Christians actually believe that God was wrong in the Old Testament but corrected Himself in the New. They might not put it that way, but the idea is there. The God of the Old Testament was an angry God but the God of the New Testament is a loving Father. I've actually heard Christians tell me that Jesus had a different view in the New Testament than His Father did in the Old Testament, and those things that we find unconscionable in the Old are renounced by Christ in the New. Clearly, God was wrong.

Maybe it's not grand biblical concepts. Maybe it's everyday living. When God took that child to be with Him, He was wrong. When God let me lose that job or that spouse or that loved one, He was wrong. God could have healed or saved or rescued, but He didn't. He was wrong. I've asked and begged and beat the throne of God and He hasn't answered my prayer. He was wrong. If He would only listen to me, He could avoid being wrong like that.

When we think like that -- that God apparently is wrong on this point or that action -- we have the wrong god. We have the lesser god, the god of our own making, the god who isn't there. The God of the Bible doesn't need our help or advice. He doesn't bend to our wills or fail because of our shortcomings. The God of the Bible is always right, always good, always successful, always perfect. He didn't make a mistake with the Amalekites; we do when we accuse Him of it. He didn't err in requiring sacrifices for sin; we do when we think sin is so mild. He didn't correct Himself in the New Testament; we are wrong when we think the Old Testament God was mistaken. And in everyday living, God doesn't deviate from being God -- always right, always good, always successful, always perfect. That's us, again, who are wrong when we think otherwise. Now if only we could get on board with that God. It would certainly shift our perspective on all of life.