Problem: Here God declares “I will not go up in your midst.” Yet later God did go with them in a mighty and victorious way, leading them to victory under Joshua (see Josh. 1–11).
10
Feb
2019
10
Feb
2019
Exodus 32:14—Does God change His mind?
Problem: While Moses was upon the mountain receiving the Law from God, the people were at the foot of the mountain worshiping the golden calf which they had constructed (32:4–6). When God instructed Moses to go down to them, He told Moses that He would “consume them” and make a great nation from Moses (32:10). When Moses heard this, he pleaded with God to turn from His anger. Verse 14 states, “So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.” This implies that God changed His mind. However, in 1 Samuel 15:29 God says that “He is not a man, that He should relent,” and in Malachi 3:6 God says, “For I am the Lord, I do not change.” Also, in Hebrews, God demonstrated the “immutability of His counsel” (Heb. 6:17) by swearing an oath. Does God change His mind or doesn’t He?
10
Feb
2019
Exodus 31:18—Does God have fingers?
Problem: This verse says that the Ten Commandments were “written with the finger of God.” But, elsewhere the Bible insists that “God is spirit” (John 4:24) and that spirits do not have “flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39). How, then, can God have fingers?
05
Feb
2019
Exodus 25:18ff—If it is wrong to make graven images, why did God command Moses to make one?
Problem: God clearly commanded in Exodus 20:4: “You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath.” Yet here Moses is instructed by God to “make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work” (v. 18). If making images of any heavenly object is wrong, then why did God command Moses to make some on the ark of the covenant?
05
Feb
2019
Exodus 24:10—Can God be seen?
05
Feb
2019
Exodus 24:9–11—How could these people see God when God said in Exodus 33:20, “no man shall see me and live”?
Problem: Exodus 24:9–11 records that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel ascended the mountain of God and “saw the God of Israel.” However, Exodus 19:12–13 says that the people could not even touch the base of the mountain without being put to death. And in Exodus 33:20 God says that no one can see Him and live. How could these people go up the mountain and see God and yet live?
01
Feb
2019
Exodus 24:4—How could Moses have written this when modern scholars say several different authors (JEPD) are responsible for it?
Problem: Modern critical scholars following Julius Wellhausen (19th century) claim that the first five books of the OT were written by various persons known as J (Jehovist), E (Elohimist), P (priestly), and D (deuteronomist), depending on which sections reflect the literary characteristics of these supposed authors. However, this verse declares that “Moses wrote all the words of the Lord.” Indeed, many other verses in the Bible attribute this book to Moses (see points 6–9 below).
01
Feb
2019
Exodus 23:19—Why is boiling a kid in its mother’s milk prohibited?
Problem: This verse commands: “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” What does this mean and why were the Israelites commanded not to do this?
01
Feb
2019
Exodus 21:29–30—Why was capital punishment commuted in the case of some murders?
Problem: Numbers 35:31 commands that “you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death.” However, Exodus 21 says if the guilty one has “imposed on him a sum of money, then he shall pay to redeem his life, whatever is imposed on him” (v. 30). But these are contrary instructions about punishing murderers.
01
Feb
2019
Exodus 21:22–23—Does this passage show that unborn children are of less value than adults?
Problem: According to some translations of the Bible, this text teaches that when fighting men cause a woman to have a “miscarriage” they “shall be fined” (v. 22, rsv). But, if the fighting men caused the death of the woman, the penalty was capital punishment (v. 23). Doesn’t this prove that the unborn was not considered a human being, as the mother was?