It often occurs to me that the most objective part of the Old Testament we can connect with is the Psalms. Throughout history, comment on society, government and politics etc has been most likely to be deemed acceptable through the Arts. Want to complain publicly about the government? Particularly in an authoritarian country? Go under the radar. Sleight of hand- write a pop song, a poem, slightly tongue in cheek and oblique…. The band “Pussycat Dolls” are a good example of this in Russia. To my mind, the Psalms are in this way perhaps the most objective comment we can access on the way ancient people connected with God.
It has always been a matter of great concern for me that the God of the Old Testament would seem to be entirely different from the God of the New. Paternalistic, authoritarian and controlling, condemning and expecting. Not as comforting as that of the- perhaps more maternal, loving God we read of in the New Testament. And yet Jesus absolutely fulfilled the prophecies from the Old Testament, the New Testament only stands on the shoulders of the ancient books of the Bible- and exists to fulfil them.
