Exodus

Since the world seems to be full of people competing to destroy mankind for the glory of God, I decided to begin reading religious works. Currently I am reading The New Oxford Annotated Bible (so I can know what a cubit is, or what it means to be redeemed by a sheep).

I have made it through Genesis and am now in Exodus. My early impression is that there aren't any good people in the Bible so far, simply obedient ones. Nearly every character, from Noah to Moses, seems driven to do what God tells them for fear of punishment or else motivated by greed (If I do X I obtain Y).

Another early impression I have is that people seem to pick and choose which words of God they wish to obey rather than obeying them all. Can you exercise a line-item veto of the Covenant?

For instance, when the Lord talks to Moses about altars He says:

You need make for me only an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your offerings of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. But if you make for me an altar of stone, do not build it of hewn stones; for if you use a chisel upon it you profane it. You shall not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.

Exodus 20.24 - 20.26

Yet every Church I have been in has a raised altar made of hewn stone which is approached by steps. Are the Church leaders guilty of disobeying the words of the God of Moses?

What about:

"Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work..."

Exodus 20.8

By working on the Sabbath do you condemn your children to the third and fourth generation to the punishment of a jealous God? (Exodus 20.5)

By these two simple examples I suppose you see my point. Most of us, even the religious, ignore the words of God at our pleasure (if not these, then others). I do so because I doubt the veracity of the Bible and the people that relate it, but what about the cultural moralists among us? How can they, for instance, work on Saturday, worship at a hewn altar, and then point their fingers at Sponge Bob's transgressions? Don't their own actions dethrone their moral position?

I suppose the answer is that pious people prioritize the words of God and then do the best they can with what they have, which is human form. I suppose they are confident they have their priorities right with God before they go about using the Bible as a wedge and their pulpits for persecution.

I wish I knew which words of God to safely ignore. Maybe if I keep reading I'll figure it out. If I do I'll be sure and pass it on. Until then I shall ignore them all and do the best I can with what I have.