🤔 the value of having a vengeful, wrathful, violent God is that it is a stark contrast to human nature. In that contrast, we're relieved of the burden of that mode of problem solving.

It is that extreme gulf between man and God that gives rise to the awe of God, within which is the subset of the awe of the unknown and the fear of the uncontrolled. The most obvious thing in the world is the suffering of being here. Happiness is a mere moment sandwiched between prolonged periods of extreme suffering. Every living thing is torn to pieces and consumed by some other living thing, and every living being in the world is driven to violence by the desperation of hunger.

Saying that God is Good is defiance of the world. Saying that God is Cruel is release from your own cruelty. Asserting that God is loving is revolutionary and defiant, and I think that's the point. Our job is to defy suffering and illusion through love. Submission to God is thus defiance of tyrants. The defiance of both the tyranny of being and the tyranny of criminal authorities is the aperture through the wall of suffering, through which love can transmute the world.

It is thus impossible for disobedience to be a sin, although it remains possible for it to be sinful.

Where does it come from? Rage or awe?

Where does it lead? Suffering or relief?

Who does it serve? Yourself or others?

☕