I don't read the Bible like a flat line. I don't see all of the passages in the Bible sitting equally side by side so that you can pick one and then counter it with another and go back and forth endlessly, endlessly leading you to the barbaric and violent and random nature of life--and God. I read it looking for what the story is doing, what's happening within it. What new perspective is emerging? What new idea is being presented? What sense is being heightened? The stories in the Bible--and the Bible itself--have an arc, a trajectory, a movement and momentum like all great stories have. There are earlier parts in the story, and there are later parts in the story. The story is headed somewhere.