It is important to separate what man has to say from what God has to say.
God desires all human beings to be consistently righteous.
Human beings have difficulty seeing beyond their nose.
Let us start back when writing text was the privilege of the few.
What was the main purpose of writing text, then?
Writing text then was meant to serve the powerful and servants of the powerful.
Writing was an instrument of power.
When claims are made about a collection of text, it is reasonable to ask what the motivation is for writing a given content within a collection of text.
Pagan priests come to mind.
In ancient kingdoms, pagan priests are the servants of the powerful.
They were the kingdom elite with special skills separating them from common denizens of the kingdom.
How spiritual and how secular was the Pagan priests?
Pagan priests were in power long before the first words of the Old Testament were written.
Shouldn't there be sufficient evidence before accepting a claim that one account or description of a common notion is superior to another account or description of the same notion?
That is, what was the original purpose that a given content was written rather than a significant time has elapsed so the written content should be accepted due to its age.
Human beings mimic what was created before they were born.
Christian thinking was influenced by what was accepted before Christ became human.
How are Christian spiritual leaders different from pagan priests loyal to a king?
That is, how much are they human beings surrounded by power and how much are they attendant to God's will separate from their own self-interest?
Human beings are endowed with creativity and know how to manipulate.
Hebrew scribes learned metaphor expression from the pagan priests.
A huge and looming statue of a Pagan god is impressive but tales of exploits of gods is greater.
That huge pagan statue can't move an inch except in someone's imagination.
It is normal in human nature to exaggerate or use metaphor in order to make a point.
In viewing scripture, avoid a literal interpretation for the following reasons:
The human culture in which text is written changes over time.
Some depictions of a described event are metaphor not meant to be thought of literally.
All human beings have biases: especially against anyone in opposition.
If you've experienced the small voice, ask if the writer of the content has had that experience.
Does the scriptural content serve some secular purpose such as to be loyal to your rulers.
For example, God never condoned slavery: only owners of slaves did.
Finally, how often did (original)writers of text substitute their words for God's word?
