I am really enjoying the horizons opened up by reading the Scriptures as progressive revelation since I have struggled more and more over the years to not approach this Book with fear after being instructed by others who treat it so high-handedly and rigidly with the ensuing mental gymnastics. We begin to hear more true things as we realize that it says nothing without choosing an interpretative key; as we discover that the various writers were themselves wrestling and playing with new and varied interpretations of Israel’s history, groping to make sense out of the story and find out where God was acting within so many ever-shifting cultural limitations. It will take me a long time yet to rid myself of filters and play around but a good starting place is looking for the victims that prepare the way…in their silence and exploring what lies beneath the stories of violence supposedly “sanctioned” by God as the stories are told.