Ezekiel 20:23-25
Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries, because they had not executed my ordinances, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their ancestors’ idols.Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live.
How does an inerrant, infallible Bible contain statutes given by God that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live?
I think the reason is to teach us that we are not God. The impossibility of living up to the statutes and ordinances bends us towards repentance over and over again. This repentance is what humbles us (hopefully) into submission to the Lord. This is not to say that this is an immediate and total submission, but a process of reformation. The failures of the people in the bible are meant to represent the failures that each of us have in our own journey. The fact that people do fail and are punished can bring us feelings of guilt and shame, but if we look at it as part of a greater process it can also give us hope and comfort that we are part of a congregation that is not inerrant or infallible (the human race). The Bible is the Word of the Lord, but it is a word written to people and through people. It is meant to help us realize that we fail as God, and are put here with the intent of coming under God.
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