In Summary...

I'm going to say this once last time: I believe the Bible is actually a "Good Book."
Not everything in the Bible is absolutely true in a historical sense.
Not everything in the Bible is morally correct.
Not everything in the Bible is clear and inerrant.
The Bible is not a science text book.
The Bible is not "life's instruction manual."
The Bible is a collection of writings assembled by a community of human beings who felt connected in a covenant bond to the One God, the Creator.  This God got involved in the human story through people like Abram, and Jacob and David.  The people were given rules to help them navigate the complicated often confusing waters of human social existence.  Those rules were neatly organized into ten "Big" rules and interpreted by the community, through trial and error, into over 600 separate statutes.  Conventional wisdom was that if people followed these rules, God would bless them, if they did not God would curse them, but to tell you the truth that equation was a little iffy.
The rain always seemed to fall on the just and the unjust alike.
And man, were there questions about what happens east of Eden.
What about Ishmael?
What about Canaan?
What about all the people who were killed and dispossessed so that God could keep a promise?
Why does David want what isn't his?
How can such a broken man sing such beautiful songs?
What's with all the idols?  Is God really doing everything he can?
The story gets really complicated, and the questions never stop.
Exile?  Really?  Is that the end?
Restoration!  Will things finally be better?
Rinse, lather, repeat.
It's a beautiful story, it's a horrific story, it's filled with heaven and it's filled with blood and fire.
People sing praises, and people weep in bitter lament, and God is in it all, in the whirlwind and the still small voice of silence.
The questions never end.  People wonder, "what is truth?"
Jesus of Nazareth, born of the house and lineage of David, rooted in the people of the covenant and the stories of Israel.  Raised to read and live the Scripture, born to be the answer, but not the answer that most people wanted.  His answers to all the questions were so terribly simple, and so horribly impossible: love and forgive, forgive and love.
Rinse, lather, repeat.
More questions:
Why didn't he pick better disciples?
Why do bad things still happen?
Why do we still have all these questions?
Why aren't things simple and easy now?
Why can't we just figure everything out once and for all?
Isn't Jesus the way, and the truth and the life?
Shouldn't that solve all this mess for us?
Why does God so insistently let us muck about and make such a mess of things?
Surely there's a better plan.
Better than what?
Better than grace?
Really, you think you can beat grace?
Good luck with that.