Scripture that makes you go hmm....

A fellow pastor friend asked this, and I thought I'd pass it along to you. I'll answer in subsequent posts.



I've been wrestling with some passages lately and would like your take on them:

Esther not only married someone outside her faith & people, but likely had sex with him before marriage (Esther 2:12ff)

Jacob worshipped idols (or at least permitted them to be worshipped in his home) even after encountering God at Bethel and Peniel (Genesis 35:2)

Tamar dressed up like a pagan shrine prostitute to deceive her father-in-law into having sex with her (Gen 38:13ff), and she was considered righteous by doing so (Gen 38:26)

Paul used the Greek equivalent of "bullsh-t" to emphasize the contrast between worldly gains and knowing Christ (Phil 3:8)

1 Samuel includes a quote from Saul saying their equivalent of “son of a bitch” (20:30)

Ruth, at best, put herself in a sexually compromised situation with Boaz where Boaz told her not to tell anyone about it. At worst, given the connotations of the Hebrew words, she exposed his genetalia and approached him seductively (Ruth 3:1-14); and she was heralded as a righteous woman (3:11)

Job self-mutilated and abused himself (Job 2:8)

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego studied the pagan astrology and sorcery of Babylon (Dan 1:4, 17) and had learned it much more than anyone else (1:20). Surprisingly, they did not object to this but did object to the non-kosher food.

There is an ambiguous sentence in Hebrew that could be a gloss over Ehud worshiping idols after killing Elgon (Judges 3:26)

David did many things that neither God nor the narrator put into question: He lied to the high priest Ahimelech (1Sam 21:2), as well as to King Saul (20:6) and the King of Philistia (27:10);

he took Michal from her husband just because he had been engaged to her (2 Sam 3:14f);

he massacred women & children outside of God’s command (1Sam 27:9);

he killed two-thirds of all Moabites (2 Sam 8:2) even though he had earlier trusted them (1Sam 22:3);

he danced immodestly in front of other women (2 Sam 6).

An unnamed prophet tells one of “the sons of the prophets” to strike him, and upon the refusal condemned the “son” to death. The prophet then found someone else to wound him so he could deceive King Ahab (1 Kgs 20:35-40)

The church in Corinth baptized for the dead and were not rebuked (1 Cor 15:29)

How would you explain these "ungodly" characteristics when they are not addressed or glossed over by the Bible?