The Rules Of Divine Engagement

The other night a friend of mine asked – we find that the Rambam teaches that if God speaks to a prophet and tells him something negative which will occur and it does not occur, this doesn’t disqualify us from trusting that this man is a prophet, as God changed his mind – “but if God told him what will happen, won’t it happen?!”

He, as hopefully you will be, shocked at my reply, God lied!

You see, many of us assume God to be righteous, hence, we assume righteousness to be exactly as we would assume a righteous person, namely, kind, compassionate, never lying!

But let’s analyze that for a moment – there are numerous instances in the Torah – the most famous where God lied that Sara said to herself, that Abraham cannot have children – reporting it, that she said about HERSELF she cannot have children! – as God desired from Abraham not to get upset at Sarah!

So what’s up with that? God, Lying!

And the answer is simple!

Imagine you have a small child and you wish to encourage them to do something good, like eat – so you say to them, you know, if you eat this food, all the angels will be so happy – so the child thinking that he will now change the universe does the right thing!

All the prophecies were meant to teach the Jewish people a method of living justly, kindly, and relative to God, we are far less intelligent then little children, so, to God, the key is not his integrity, rather his desire to educate us! Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom – let your email find you!