Ezra: The Post Mortem
Ezra: What was it all about?
Here, once again, we have God forcing someone to do his bidding. If he can do that, why then is there so much trouble in the world? I’m also a little confused as to why God needs so much gold and silver all the time. What good is it to him? Why all the counting of things? As I asked in Ezra 2, does it make you more virtuous if you can count higher than others? Why do we need to know how many camels somebody had? All these things may have been necessary to fill out the book, but they mean nothing. There were no morals actions taken or words spoken in Ezra. Building God a house he doesn’t even live in isn’t moral. It’s ridiculous. Why would he want it?
In Ezra 1 God wants his house built and causes it to get underway, but in Ezra 4 they stop and don’t start again till there was a new King. What the hell? Was God having a break and couldn’t keep them at it? He doesn’t seem to be the all-powerful deity they try to make him out to be.
Another point is that it was God’s fault that so many of his people were captured and taken away. So then, why is it such a problem that they married people from the country they were taken to? It could be looked on as God having sent them there. If so, then what did he expect them to do? Then to ask them to give up their spouses and any children born of them, just because they married ‘outside their people’ is freaking ridiculous. If marrying anyone other than another Israelite is wrong, how do we end up with Polish Popes? German Popes? How can God allow this blasphemy? These Popes are supposed to be God’s ‘man on earth’, his spokesperson. If you accept the word of the bible, this can’t be so. He wouldn’t allow it. Why doesn’t he strike these interlopers down? Where is his much lauded wrath when it would do some good and show the people that he really existed? As Yosemite Sam once said, “What a maroon!”