Unworthy Attributes of God in the Old Testament — Fatigue, Weakness, Ignorance, Regret, and Forgetfulness
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How to Navigate This Note First — God Described as Tired and in Need of Rest — Genesis 2:2-3 Second — God Described as Weak — Genesis 32, Isaiah 63, Judges 1 Third — God Submits to Human Rebuke and Receives Commands — Exodus 32, Numbers 10, 1 Kings 20 Fourth — Ignorance and Lack of Knowledge — 1 Corinthians, Genesis 9, Exodus 13 Fifth — Regret Over Past Decisions — Jeremiah 7 and 1 Samuel 15 Sixth — Forgetfulness — Genesis 8 and Genesis 9 Seventh — Physical and Anthropomorphic Descriptions — nostrils, fire from the mouth, riding on clouds, shaving with a razor
The Old Testament ascribes to God Almighty a series of attributes that no sound mind can accept as befitting the Creator of existence: fatigue that requires a day of rest, physical weakness overcome by a human wrestler, submission to human rebuke, ignorance of where His creatures are hiding, regret over decisions He has already made, forgetfulness of those He has placed under His protection, and a body with nostrils that exhale smoke, a mouth that breathes fire, and limbs that ride cherubs and swift clouds. These passages are not obscure or peripheral. They appear in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Judges, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Samuel, Kings, and the Psalms — the foundational texts of the Old Testament. What follows is a category-by-category examination of these descriptions, quoted directly from the Biblical text.
First — God Described as Tired and in Need of Rest
Genesis 2:2-3 And God finished on the seventh day all his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work that he had done.
How does one describe God Almighty as tired and in need of rest, and then claim to revere Him? Rest is a property of bodies that exhaust their energy. The Creator of energy cannot exhaust it. The Creator of time cannot be constrained by a day within it. If God required rest on the seventh day, then He is subject to fatigue — and a being subject to fatigue is dependent on recovery, which is a form of need, and need is incompatible with divinity.
Second — God Described as Weak
God Wrestled by a Man and Unable to Prevail — Genesis 32
Genesis 32:24-26 And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. And when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he struck the socket of his thigh, and Jacob’s hip was dislocated as he wrestled with him. And he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
The text states that God wrestled with Jacob throughout the night and could not prevail against him. He was unable to overcome a human being in a physical contest. Is the Creator not able to create? Is the One who sustains the heavens and the earth unable to subdue a man He has made? The description of God requesting release — “Let me go, for the day has broken” — places God in the position of one who is constrained, who is held against his will, and who must negotiate with his own creature. What weakness is this?
God in Need of a Helper — Isaiah 63
Isaiah 63:5 Then I looked, but there was no helper; I was astonished because there was no one to support him.
Does God need someone to help or support Him? The verse attributes to God a moment of looking for a helper and finding none, and then astonishment at the absence of support. A God who looks for help and is astonished when none comes is a God who is dependent, surprised, and limited — none of which is compatible with the divine nature.
God Powerless Before Iron Chariots — Judges 1:19
Judges 1:19 And the Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the mountain; but he did not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
The text states this without apology: the Lord was with Judah, and yet the inhabitants of the valley were not driven out — because they had iron chariots. The implication is that iron technology constituted an obstacle that even divine assistance could not overcome. Does God appear powerless before the tools of His own creation?
Third — God Submits to Human Rebuke and Receives Commands
Exodus 32:9-10 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation.”
The verse records God asking Moses for permission to act: “Let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them.” This is God requesting Moses’s non-interference before He proceeds with a decision — not commanding, but seeking clearance from a servant.
Numbers 10:35-36 And when the ark set out, Moses would say, “Arise, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered; and let those who hate you flee before you.” And when it set down, he would say, “Return, O Lord, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.”
Here Moses issues commands to God — “Arise, O Lord” and “Return, O Lord” — directing divine movement with the movement of the ark. God is depicted as one who rises when told to rise and returns when told to return.
1 Kings 17:20 And he cried out to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, have you also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn by putting her son to death?”
The prophet rebukes God for the death of a widow’s son, accusing Him of bringing evil upon her. The text presents God as the recipient of human accusation, a position of submission and accountability to His own servants.
How submissive and obedient to servants — and how patient in bearing their rebuke — is the God depicted in these passages. A God who asks permission, receives directional commands, and stands rebuked by His own prophets is not the self-sufficient, sovereign, eternally independent Creator that reason and sound religion demand.
Fourth — Ignorance and Lack of Knowledge
1 Corinthians 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
The verse attributes foolishness and weakness to God — even if comparatively. No degree of divine foolishness or weakness is consistent with absolute divine perfection. A God who has even a relative foolishness has a limit to His wisdom.
Genesis 3:9-11 Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you, Adam?” And he said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
God calls out to Adam asking where he is. God asks who told Adam he was naked. God asks whether Adam has eaten from the forbidden tree. These are the questions of one who does not know — who must ask in order to find out. The All-Knowing God of Islamic theology does not search for His creatures in a garden calling their name. He does not require answers from those He has created in order to learn what He already knows.
Exodus 12:13 And the blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, so that the plague of destruction will not be upon you when I strike the land of Egypt.
Does the Lord need to see blood on the doorposts in order to know that the occupants of a house are Jews? If He must look at a physical sign in order to distinguish between houses, then His knowledge is limited to external observation — the condition of a finite creature, not the attribute of an infinite God.
Fifth — Regret Over Past Decisions
Jeremiah 18:7-10 Sometimes I speak concerning a nation and a kingdom, to pluck up and to tear down and to destroy; and when that nation, against whom I have spoken, turns from its evil, then I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to it. And sometimes I speak concerning a nation and a kingdom, to build and to plant; and when it does evil in my sight, and does not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good which I said I would do to it.
1 Samuel 15:10-11 And the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have made Saul king.
Regret is the emotional state of one who made a decision in the past that he now wishes he had not made. It presupposes that the one who regrets did not fully know the outcome of his decision at the time he made it — otherwise he would not have made it. A God who regrets making Saul king did not know, at the time of Saul’s appointment, what Saul would become. A God who revises His decrees concerning nations based on what those nations subsequently do is a God whose original decrees were made in partial ignorance of the future. Regret and foreknowledge cannot coexist.
Sixth — Forgetfulness
Genesis 8:1 Then God remembered Noah, and all the beasts, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark.
Genesis 9:15-16 And when the bow is in the cloud, I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
The first verse states that God “remembered” Noah — implying a prior state in which Noah was not in God’s active awareness, a state of divine forgetting. The second verse states that God requires the visual stimulus of seeing the rainbow in order to remember His own everlasting covenant. A God who must look at a sign in the sky to prompt His own memory of a covenant He Himself established is a God whose knowledge is discontinuous, dependent on external reminders, and therefore finite. The does not forget. The does not need a rainbow to remember.
Seventh — Physical and Anthropomorphic Descriptions
The Old Testament attributes to God a physical body with organs that function as human organs function — nostrils that exhale, a mouth that breathes fire, feet, limbs, and the capacity for locomotion through the sky.
Psalms 18:8 Smoke went up out of his nostrils, and fire from his mouth devoured coals that were kindled by it.
Psalms 18:10 He rode on a cherub and flew, and soared on the wings of the wind.
Isaiah 19:1 An oracle concerning Egypt: Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud, and is coming to Egypt.
Isaiah 7:20 In that day the Lord will shave with a hired razor beyond the River the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of his feet, and the beard will also be plucked off.
God exhales smoke from nostrils. God breathes fire from a mouth. God rides on cherubs and soars on the wings of the wind. God rides on a swift cloud toward Egypt. God shaves the king of Assyria with a hired razor. These are not the descriptions of the Lord of the Worlds. They are the descriptions of a being subject to space, requiring transportation, equipped with a respiratory system, and capable of wielding a blade. Whoever has a sound mind will not accept such descriptions for God. These descriptions do not merely anthropomorphize the divine — they subordinate it entirely to the physical world it is supposed to have created.
Conclusion — What These Descriptions Reveal The God described in the Old Testament passages examined here is tired, weak, ignorant, regretful, forgetful, physically embodied, dependent on signs and helpers, subject to human commands, open to rebuke from prophets, unable to overcome iron chariots, and in need of a rainbow as a mnemonic device for His own covenants. Not one of these attributes is compatible with the God of pure monotheism — the One who is self-sufficient, eternally knowledgeable, all-powerful, never surprised, never tired, never forgetful, and beyond all comparison with His creation. Islam’s declaration is clear: there is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing. Sound reason demands nothing less of the divine nature — and sound reason is all that is needed to judge these Biblical descriptions for what they are.