"Because I Said So"

  In class on Tuesday, one of the topics that were discussed (and there were quite a few) was the topic of everyday sayings that have biblical origins. I cannot remember exactly what the examples were that were discussed but in the middle of Dr. Sexson's lecture one just popped into my head. Every child has heard their parents tell them to do something then when the child asked "why?", parents always answer "BECAUSE I SAID SO!". This reminded me of God telling the Israelites to do something and the reasoning given to do it is "I am the Lord your God". God's edicts to the Israelites has significant parallels to the analogy of parents' ordering their children. This seems to signify to me that often people of lesser power are just supposed to obey without question those of more power. This goes against the grain, in the sense that from childhood on we are told to always question everything and to figure things out for ourselves. So do we listen to our parents/elders when they tell us to always ask questions or do we listen to the the commands to do as we are told? This dilemma extends way beyond childhood. The part of the lecture that jogged this brain wave was when Dr. Sexton was telling us about the assignment that was coming up in a few weeks and asked if we thought his plans sound sufficient. However, before even giving the class an opportunity to consider, he told us not to worry about he decided that was how he was going to do it and that's the way it is going to be (my wording may not be absolutely correct but you get the gist of the conversation). I am not trying to question that he has the right to plan the course however he wants to do it. Personally I think that the project sounds interesting but that is not the point that I am trying to make. The two things that I want people to take from this     blog is that it is often hard to know if we are supposed to ask questions or not and that this dilemma has origins from the very beginning of the Bible.
  Plotz also commented on God's use of the phrase "I am the Lord" as a way to establish dominance over the people of Israel. He related it to a much bigger scale than I did however. He related God's dominance to the power of governments and God's edicts to a sort of Constitution. If the people did not follow these edicts, God would enforce punishment; just like the government will enforce punishments against people who break laws; just like Professor Sexson will fail someone if they do not do the assignment as he specifies; and just like a parent would punish a child who did not do as they were told. This establishes that obviously we need these types of edicts and rules if they have been around since the beginning of time but it does not help to explain at what times the followers are supposed to question the leaders without inciting further punishments. What if Moses had questioned God after every order He gave on Mount Sinai? God probably would have lost patience and punished him as He punished countless others for not following directions correctly.
  After considering this train of thought extensively over the past few days, I am no closer to figuring out when followers are supposed to question leaders. I have however started to look for biblical origins for more and more sayings and traditions in my everyday life. This has lead me to become more aware of my actions and to question why I or people around me do or say things in a certain way. Most of the things that I have examined do have biblical origins and it will be interesting to see what other things I find to relate to the Bible as the semester goes on and I continue in my quest to finish reading the Bible by the end of the semester.