Cary.Melvin said:
Why does it seem in the Old Testament that God was a wrathful god? A God who ordered Israel to exterminate entire groups of people and punished his people harshly when they disobeyed him? And in the New Testament God was a God of forgiveness and mercy?
Did God Change? Did the Jews have twisted view of God? How do the Old and New Testamant square with each other?
Greetings Cary,
I would begin by saying that we must uphold that God is immutable, and therefore the same God from Genesis through Revelation. Malachi 3:6
"For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
That being said, there are some differences as the story of salvation is unfolded through Gods covenant dealings with men, and therefore different virtues may be accentuated at different epochs of redemptive history. For instance, in the Old Testament, we learn what man would receive and deserve if left to his own devices. We are given the flood narrative in order to learn what every generation would receive if God dealt with us according to merit rather than grace. Note that
after the flood, God makes the following promise to Noah:
21 And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. (Genesis 8:21). That is, the same problems that existed in Genesis 6:5 continued to exist after Noah, but for the sake of His covenant and mercy, God would not destroy the earth. There is much mercy here.
Along these lines, the entire history of Gods relationship with Israel is one that vividly brings out His mercy, compassion, and longsuffering. It is Israel, not God, who continually transgresses the covenant. Think of the endearing metaphor that we are given in Ezekiel 16, where God finds this helpless newborn infant that He cleans with pity and compassion and then nurtures into maturity. He then marries Himself to this bride whom He has adorned in beauty, and yet for all this, the bride gets enamored with her own beauty and becomes an adulteress. Now, although this brings about His displeasure and chastisement, does He completely abandon her? By no means, He continues to remember His covenant and provide atonement for her. The same picture of longsuffering and mercy is given once again in Hosea, where the prophet is told to marry a harlot to picture the relationship between Israel and Jehovah. There are simply too many Scriptures for me to cite that present God as compassionate and longsuffering,
showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Him and keep His commandments (Deut. 5:10) in the Old Testament. It is chiefly seen in His relationship with Israel, while His righteous judgements against ungodly nations is also pictured as representative of what will happen to all those on the Day of Judgment who remain outside the Kingdom of God.
Likewise, there are plenty of places in the New Testament where people are dealt with on the order of justice. The judgment of death upon Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 is reminiscent of the judgments upon Nadab and Abihu and Uzzah for failing to regard the Lord with the appropriate holiness. The members of the church at Corinth received judgment in the form of sickness and death due to their disrespectful behavior at the Lords Supper (1 Corinthians 11). The Book of Revelation contains some harsh words and threats to some of the churches if they do not straighten up their acts. We also see in Revelation that God continues to trumpet sounds of judgment and pour out His wrath on men in history, and to show this John actually uses a lot of Old Testament imagery.
So, the virtues of God are all manifested throughout the entirety of redemptive history. There are occasions when particular virtues are accentuated more than others due to the progressive and climactic unfolding of redemptive history, but they are all there. Remember that the story of the Bible is an unfolding drama that climaxes in the resurrection of our Lord. The Old Testament is supposed to leave us in somewhat of a desperate condition upon reading it. We are supposed to be at the brink of despair at that moment when John the Baptist dawns a ray of light crying out, Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight! Finally, after thousands of years of failure and disappointment, the true Israel of God, the lamb of God who is worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, the Son of God Himself becomes incarnate and lays down His life for the sheep and is raised for our justification. The agony and misery borne throughout the Old Testament prepares us for the glory and wonder of the Lord Jesus Christ!
This is a subject that is difficult to capture in few words, but I hope that it gives you some things to chew on. Sincerely in Christ,
~Jason
