Questioning God about Biblical Inconsistencies

Contradictions and inconsistencies in the Bible passages provoke confusion, at the very least, and a lot of bad press for God in today’s everyone-gets-published online world. Usually I can understand what the various chapters and verses mean, but putting them in the historical context can sometimes stretch and twist my human CPU (Consistency Processing Unit). Are there really contradictions and inconsistencies or am I missing something?

I’d been confronted by one such challenge when I read about Samuel at the home of Jessie, David’s father. God had sent Samuel to anoint one of Jessie’s eight sons as the new king in Israel. He’d be replacing Saul, the first king.

Samuel took one look at Eliab, the oldest brother, and figured he’d found his man. The tall, ruggedly good-looking Hebrew would make a fine king. God didn’t agree, adding His own explanation.

“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (I. Sam 16:7)

“Okay, I get that looks-can-be-deceiving thing,” I said to the Lord, “but I’m seeing an inconsistency here, God.” I flipped the pages back a few chapters—which in my case, actually means hitting the rewind button on my teensy electronic Bible—and pointed to I. Samuel 10:23-24. “Look at this description of the man You chose for Samuel to anoint as Israel’s first king.”

^“They ran and brought him (Saul) out, and as he stood among the people he was a head taller than any of the others. Samuel said to all the people, ‘Do you see the man the Lord has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.’

“Then the people shouted, ‘Long live the king!’”

Now, if you’re thinking this giant of a man possessed the strength and bravery of the warrior one might want in a king when your country battled against all of those enemy-ites, just scroll up a couple of verses. Saul tried to keep from being chosen and skip the anointing ceremony completely.

“Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan, and Matri’s clan was taken. Finally Saul son of Kish was taken. But when they looked for him, he was not to be found. So they inquired further of the Lord, ‘Has the man come here yet?’

And the Lord said, ‘Yes, he has hidden himself among the supplies.’” (I. Samuel 10:21-22)

“Lord, what kind of king is this? Did you look at the heart of this giant Hebrew when you selected him from all of the men in Israel? I’m sorry, God, but he looks like a coward to me. If he’s afraid of an old man who wants to pour a bit of oil over his head, what is he likely to do in the heat of a real battle?”

I had to admit that I looked at Saul’s outer appearance, and had no idea of what lurked in the reaches of his cowardly-lion’s heart. So, I read on.

It didn’t take long before I believed I had evidence enough to make a case against God’s choice. Saul’s record didn’t mirror what I would consider the heart of a king, appointed by God on the basis of said heart.

Saul acted like a terrible tyrant, arrogant and selfishly insisting on his own way. If ever a man believed himself to have no boundaries, it was Saul. When he tired of waiting for Samuel, Saul even entered into the duties expressly appointed for a priest. Saul had murder in his heart, not one whit of humility or thought of the good for his people. How could Saul have been God’s choice?

My big mistake in questioning God’s choice on the basis of Saul’s heart is that I assumed God’d choose a righteous man, one Who’d follow God’s instructions to keep them all out of trouble. If the king obeyed God, the people wouldn’t ever lose any battles; the people’s fields and vines would always produce a bumper crop; and the kids would all grow up to serve God just as completely as their parents did, right?

Indeed, but God created human beings, not robots. God gave us all free will, so we can choose to obey God or not. Sometimes we do; sometimes we don’t. When we don’t, there are consequences. That part hasn’t changed with the passage of millennia.

In Saul’s case, God chose him because he knew Saul would be the tyrant God promised the people.

You see, God had been leading the people for a long time, using righteous judges. As long as the righteous judge lived, the people obeyed God and all went well. However, when the man or woman died who’d been the judge, the people went their own way and refused to obey God’s laws.

Instead of obeying God and enjoying peace and security in the land and in the economy, they disobeyed. Of course, as God had promised, He lifted His protection. Left on their own, their enemies overtook them, stealing their womenfolk and livelihood at every turn.

They wanted nothing to do with repenting and letting God set things right with their enemies, but insisted on a king of their own. After all, their enemies each had a king to rule them and go to war to defend them. Why couldn’t they have a king, too?

God chose the man who had just the right heart to demonstrate to God’s people why He had wanted them to choose God—for their own good. There’s no inconsistency in God’s choice at all. Saul proved the best choice for the lesson God wanted to teach His people, which wasn’t what I had in mind at all, of course.

David, on the other hand, was exactly what I had in mind. God didn’t look at the young shepherd boy who spent most of his day in the fields, the youngest of Jessie’s sons. God had listened for years to the beautiful songs of worship coming from the harp and heart of the shepherd boy. He loved God and God knew it. The Almighty chose David because he had a heart to follow the Lord. David made a wonderful king.

God still wants us to choose Him to be our King, obeying Him that we will know His protection, provision and direction in all aspects of our life. God doesn’t mind when we question Him over what we believe to be inconsistencies or contradictions in His Word.

The Lord will answer our questions, using His Word to unearth the answers and sort out the suspected inconsistencies. God is all about truth.

An exciting extra for me has been that I’m learning to let my thoughts be God’s thoughts as I search—not assuming that I know why God did something, but trying to discover just why He did that in the first place. What might God have been thinking? What did God want to teach His people?

I love exploring God’s Word, especially when I have a problem area I’m trying to sort out. I know God wants me to find that golden nugget and I never tire of the search.

Have you discovered any golden nuggets you’d like to pass along? Feel free to share.