God Behaving Badly (Expanded Edition)

Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist?

By: David T. Lamb

Narrated by: Al Kessel

Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

God has a bad reputation.

Many think of God as wrathful and angry, smiting people right and left for no apparent reason. The Old Testament in particular seems at times to portray God as capricious and malevolent, wiping out armies and nations, punishing enemies with extreme prejudice. But wait. The story is more complicated than that. Alongside troubling passages of God's punishment and judgment are pictures of God's love, forgiveness, goodness, and slowness to anger. How do we make sense of the seeming contradiction? Can God be trusted or not?

David Lamb unpacks the complexity of the Old Testament to explore the character of God. He provides historical and cultural background to shed light on problematic passages and bring underlying themes to the fore. Without minimizing the sometimes harsh realities of the biblical record, Lamb assembles an overall portrait that gives coherence to our understanding of God in both the Old and New Testaments. This expanded edition includes an updated preface, afterword, and appendix addressing the story of Noah and the flood.

©2022 eChristian (P)2022 eChristian

A Mixed Bag

I have to give the book credit first by saying that God Behaving Badly does a much better job taking concerns over apparent brutality by God in the Bible seriously than many books in Christian apologetics. Lamb uses his wealth of knowledge on the Old Testament to provide exegetical insight which often presents a workable explanation. I would have preferred a wider exploration of potential interpretations, but there really isn't any wrong with Lamb speaking for himself and giving preference to how he answers these questions.

That said, Lamb makes some hermeneutical choices I don't personally agree with. He seems to prefer a literal reading where I think it is more important to highlight the writing norms of the different periods in which the Bible was written. Where the Bible seems to contradict, he prefers to synthesize the two passages, interpreting them in a way where they can both technically be correct. I don't think defending his textual philosophy was really the point of the book, but I think it is important to know this going in, because often this preference leaves some holes in Lamb's conclusions.

Overall, I think it's a decent book. I don't agree with Lamb on many of his conclusions, but I think it is important to read and attempt to understand ideas that you don't necessarily agree with.

Very disappointing

I was intrigued by this book’s title and reviews on it and was hoping for a more rigorous and frankly honest examination of the difficult passages in the Old Testament that are had to reconcile with the God we have come to know through Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the author, like many others on this topic, takes a very defensive approach with some pretty contorted defenses that border on obfuscation. To be fair, I don’t know how you can do otherwise if you believe the Old Testament is the word of God - as opposed to a book written by imperfect men - inspired by God but not always getting it right.

Not the best book on the subject

There are much stronger answers to the objects about God’s character out there. This book is full of weak arguments and is painfully long because of all the boring anecdotes and corny humor as filler. I would recommend gotquestions ministry over this.