Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
The Problem of Evil
The Old Testament both raises and attempts to answer the
question of how God can be good and all-powerful yet allow evil
to exist in the world. From Adam and Eve’s first disobedient act
in the garden, each biblical book affirms that human evil is the
inevitable result of human disobedience, not of God’s malice or
neglect. The first chapters of Genesis depict God as disappointed
or “grieved” by human wickedness, suggesting that the humans, rather
than God, are responsible for human evil (Genesis 6:6).
Later books, such as Judges and Kings, show God’s repeated attempts
to sway the Israelites from the effects of their evil. These stories
emphasize the human capacity to reject God’s help, implying that
the responsibility for evil lies with humanity. Judges echoes with
the ominous phrase, “The Israelites again did what was evil in the
sight of the Lord . . .” (Judges 3:12).
The most troublesome challenge to God’s goodness, however,
is the existence of natural evil, which is the undeserved destruction and
pain humans often experience. God repeatedly instructs the Israelites
to destroy entire cities, killing men, women, and children in the
process. The Book of Job directly questions God’s implication in
natural evil. God punishes Job harshly for no other reason than
to prove to Satan that Job is religiously faithful. In the end,
God declares to Job that God’s powerful ways are beyond human understanding
and should not be questioned. The book implies that God sometimes
uses natural evil as a rhetorical device—as a means of displaying
his power or of proving a point in a world already tainted by human
corruption.
The Possibility of Redemption
God typically responds to human behavior with retributive
justice, meaning that people get what they deserve. God punishes
the evil and blesses the righteous. The theme of mercy and redemption, which
develops throughout the biblical stories, contrasts with this standard
of retribution.
Redemption appears in two forms in the Old Testament.
Sometimes, one person forgives another by simply forgetting or ignoring
the other’s offense. When Jacob returns to his homeland after cheating
his brother, we expect hatred and vengeance from Esau. Instead, Esau welcomes
Jacob with a joyful embrace, reversing Jacob’s expectations no less
than Jacob has already reversed Esau’s fate. Similarly, King David
treats his enemies with kindness and mercy, a policy that often seems
shortsighted in its dismissal of traditional justice.
Another form of redemption involves the intervention
of a third party as a mediator or sacrifice to quell God’s anger
with the wrongdoers. Moses’s frantic prayers at Mount Sinai frequently
cause God to “change his mind” and relent from destroying the Israelites
(Exodus 32:14). In
the Book of Judges, Samson sacrifices his life to redeem the Israelites
from the Philistine oppression brought on by Israel’s incessant
evil. These human acts of redemption mirror God’s promise in the
religious laws to forgive the people’s sins on the basis of ritual
animal sacrifices and offerings.
The Virtue of Faith
In the Old Testament, faith is a resilient belief in the
one true God and an unshakable obedience to his will. The models
of biblical faith are not those who are supported by organized religion
but those who choose to trust in God at the most unpopular times.
Part of the virtue of true faith is the ability to believe in God
when he remains unseen. The Israelites betray their complete lack
of faith when they complain after God repeatedly shows himself and
displays miracles during the exodus from Egypt.
Noah, Abraham, and Elijah represent the three
main heroes of faith in The Old Testament. Each demonstrates his
faith in God by performing seemingly irrational tasks after God
has been absent from humankind for an extended period of time. God
has not spoken to humans for many generations when Noah obediently
builds a large, strange boat in preparation for a monumental flood.
Abraham similarly dismisses the idols and gods of his region
in favor of a belief that an unseen and unnamed deity will provide
a promised land for his descendants. Centuries later, the prophet
Elijah attempts to rejuvenate faith in God after Israel has worshipped
idols for decades. Like Noah and Abraham, Elijah develops
a faith based on his ability to communicate directly with God.
