The Bible is a wonderful book. Its pages reveal the epic story of God’s redemption of humankind and the long, bitter conflict against evil. Yet it’s also a book that seems strange to us. While God’s Word was written for us, it wasn’t written to us. It’s been my experience, as a Bible reader, seminarian and graduate student, and even as a biblical studies professor, that most people don’t know what to do with the odd, perplexing, and perhaps frightening passages in Scripture. We tend