Sunday, 25 October 2015

Torah and Canon: 2nd Edition,
James A. Sanders, Cascade Books, 2005, page 88

Sanders concludes the sub-heading "Judement and Transformation" in section 2 - The Propehts - with this insightful comment about what normal folk expect:

Normal folk, in their right minds, know that hope is in having things turn out the way they should. And normal folk believe in a god who will simply make things turn out that way. For normal folk it is not a question of what G-d ought to do, that is clear: he will do what we know is right for him to do, id we simply trust and obey and in prayer tell him what he should do. And multiple sacrifices would entice him to stay on track, a belief all the prophets of judgement condemned. Nobody in his right mind could possibly believe that a decent G-d would want us to die in order to give us new life, or to take away the old institutions he first gave us in order to give new ones. For many people, prayer is the way to tell G-d to make things right in the way we think is right. But as has been wisely said, there are more tears shed over answered prayer than over unanswered prayer.

I couldn't begin to comment.