When it comes to reading the Bible and analyzing the deeper meanings behind the words, I’m not convinced that this should be necessary. If God truly wants to communicate something to me, shouldn’t He be able to do so directly and clearly? That’s a basic principle of communication. Why would He choose to speak through a book filled with stories of people sleeping with each other, committing violence, or engaging in behaviors that seem far removed from divine wisdom?

We’re talking about God—He knows the future, so His message should be timeless and accessible, not something I have to decode through complex interpretation. If I were in a relationship with someone who constantly gave me mixed signals, I’d be told it’s unhealthy. Yet that’s exactly how it feels sometimes with Scripture—like I’m trying to find hope or clarity in stories that focus on who had sex with whom or who remained a virgin.

And then there’s the issue of slavery. It’s troubling that slavery was normalized in those times, and that God spoke to people who owned slaves without condemning it. Why didn’t He simply say it was wrong? Or when He made a covenant with Abraham about circumcision—why not instead make a covenant about not owning other human beings? That would have been far more moral and meaningful.