Hard Bible Question #3 comes from my father dearest. Dad, you know I ramble, but I hope this answers your question!
"How do you reconcile the mean OT God with the loving NT God?"
Simply put: They are the same God. God of the OT has always
been one of love, but also of justice and righteousness. Over and over again
does He call the Israelites to a certain standard of living, not simply in deed
by the Law and 10 Commandments, but to trust Him, follow Him, obey Him. And
over and over again do the Israelites disobey, distrust, doubt, reject, and
follow other gods, and sometimes even when God is right in front of them (see
Exodus). And God tells them to come back to Him over and over again and they
don’t, and after a while, He disciplines them, just as any good parent does to
their child.
But it isn’t simply a matter of discipline; God is Good. Not
that He is good as in good as a characteristic; everything and anything we know
of defined as “Good” is of God. God IS Goodness itself, Justice itself.
Righteousness itself. Such a being cannot, by the laws of nature He created,
mix with unrighteousness. Good cannot mix with Evil/Bad and still be called
Good. Consider such things a stain. A pure white blanket, one splattered with
ink, is not pure anymore. It can be one droplet of ink (a “small sin,” as we
call it, or “no big deal,” like a white lie or a small theft) or a whole bucket
of ink (a “large sin,” or how we’d classify rape or murder etc), but where
Righteousness is concerned, a stain is a stain is a stain, regardless of how
large or small. This is why our sin (intentional wrongdoing even though we know
it's wrong) and even incidental sin/mistakes separate us from God; because He
is all-good and we are not (we fail even to live up to our own standards of good,
let alone God’s… See my answer to Hard Bible Questions #2). And yes, on
Judgement Day, all evil will have to answer for its actions. But that is a good
thing. It is not good to let evil go unchecked or rectified. That, by definition,
is unjust.
Some also say that the idea of the “Cost of sin is death” seems
a little high, but when folks wrong US, who are mere mortals, we will say
things that they deserve to die or suffer, or be burned, or shot, or run over, whatever
punishment we think fits the crime at the time (I’d heard some doozies which
made me question even the morals of those hurting). We need to remember that
the punishment to the crime is not ONLY the matter of the crime itself, but TO
WHOM the crime is done unto. I.E. If I hit you, that’s bad and I’ll get in
trouble. If I hit the KING, I could die for it. Now if I hit GOD… how much worse
is THAT? Except, “in His mercy” God stepped into our place via Jesus so Justice
could still be rendered while we were still forgiven.
But back to the Old Testament. In many of the situations in
the OT, i.e. with the god Molek, children were being outright sacrificed among
other evil acts. Now, while some say “not all” people in the society were doing
such things (and other evil acts across different societies), the fact of the
matter is that in many cases, even if someone wasn’t doing the act themselves,
they didn’t try to stop it; they didn’t stand up against it. They knew it, they
saw it, and they did nothing, or even worse, pretended like it wasn’t happening.
And that in and of itself is evil, even if they don’t “pull the trigger,” to
use modern analogy mixed with an OT example.
But! When people focus on the God of the OT, they tend to
only pay attention to when an “entire people” are decimated, but they don’t
usually take into context the behaviors and mannerisms of those people and the
fact that the entire people engaged in evil acts (again, such as brutal child
sacrifice to the god Molek). This is ironic in the sense where, today, folks
call God out for permitting evil to exist in the world and demand that He step
in to stop it, correct it, or punish it, yet when they read about it in the OT
or elsewhere, they shun Him for being an “evil” god. “Why doesn’t your God do
anything about the evil in the world?” straight to “Why would your God do this
if He was good?” Seems He is, for lack of a better phrase, “damned if He does
and damned if He doesn’t,” and folks seem to negate the fact that He only
eradicated evil peoples after giving them quite a long time to turn themselves
around. He was very patient; it isn’t like He flew off the handle one day.
Furthermore, there are several examples in the OT where God
is shown to demonstrate exceptional mercy and patience with the rebellious
Israelites and even Gentile societies, Edomites, among others. And there is
even a section in Genesis where Abraham ensures that God will not smite a city
even if there is only one righteous person within it. Additionally, many of the
warnings God gave were not necessarily punishments, but warnings against the
consequences of one’s actions. When applied to context of the times and how
people traditionally interacted with their gods, it is not difficult or hard to
twist it to recognize it as akin to a parent telling their child “Don’t touch
the stove, or you will get burned.” It is not the same as “Do not touch the
stove or I will burn you.” God in the OT says the first (or you will get
burned) but folks often interpret what He says as the second (I will burn you).
Although, I’ll admit there are some times where God DOES say “do this or else I’ll
do that,” but a good way to apply it contextually to how we think is: “Don’t
cheat on me or I will leave you.” But even then, while God says such things, He
also immediately says, “Don’t cheat on me or I will leave you… but *if you turn
back to Me* all is forgiven as though it never was and I will give you all the
blessings I have already given you in the past and more.”
Critics of the OT often tend to forget about this merciful part of God, when, in our human lives, if, for example, someone cheats on us one time, we leave them and often crap on their name, or I’ve even heard some people I know profess a desire for their former partner to die or get a disease or get disfigured or suffer for eternity for one slight. But God patiently called us to love only Him, then is patient when we start going astray, not once, but over and over again, and not even in secret, but while being blatant and unapologetic. And being that God is Good and Just and Righteous and Pure, the only way we can be with Him is to be the same (because again Good and Evil cannot mix and Good still be called Good; see my response to my Hard Bible Questions #2). God’s answer was coming down and doing it Himself, by stepping into our place as not only Judge but Jury, and even the Convicted. And all we need to do is recognize who we are in comparison to God (good relatively to each other, but to an all-Good God, we can never be clean enough to survive being in His presence), accept His gift on our behalf (“propitiation,” a standing in in our place), and follow Him/make Him the Lord of our lives.
Lastly, sometimes there are simply consequences for actions.
Which I know is very unpalatable to hear, but it is the truth. We have free
will and we sin (do wrong even though we know we should not), and there are
side effects to such actions, good, bad, or otherwise, and unfortunately, we
are not the only ones who suffer the consequences of our free will. Others also
suffer or benefit from our actions.
Anyhow. That’s how I reconcile the OT/NT God. I see them
both (i.e. Him, one God) as a loving, just, good, merciful God having an
abundance of patience for his wayward children who do nothing but ask Him for
things then revile Him and “cheat” on Him, who forget His good gifts even
immediately after receiving them, is patient to give people time to repent and
turn away from their sin, who will still punish evil (which it is good for evil
to be punished), and yet will also provide a way for us to do the impossible through
His Son Jesus Christ.
I hope that answers your question. I went over this so many
times because I started getting into the weeds. I left it as long as I did,
because I think it’s important to understand the nature of God and how He can
be the same person in both the OT and NT. Let me know any follow-up questions
you have!
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