What the God

When reading the Bible, there seems to be a stark contrast between the God of the New Testament who is largely characterized by words like love, grace, forgiveness, goodness and the God of the Old Testament who is best described as pissed off.

Here are a couple of examples of God’s pissed off-ness in the Old Testament:

1. Remember that touching story when God told Noah to build a big boat and everyone thought that Noah was crazy? And remember how all the animals came two-by-two like they were in love, and then God flooded the earth and killed everyone except Noah and his family?!?!?!? That is in Genesis 6 and 7.

2. Deuteronomy 20 contains instructions from God to the Israelites when going to war. They are instructed to make foreign peoples an offer of peace…how nice of them, right? Except that “peace,” according to God, means forced labor. And if they don’t accept the offer of peace they should “put the sword to all men in [the city].” And as for the women, children and livestock…well these are “plunder” for the Israelites. That is, unless it is a city being given them as an inheritance by God. And if that is the case, well, I’ll let the text speak for itself, “do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them.” Gives me the warm fuzzies.

3. Sodom and Gomorrah. ‘Nuff said. (Genesis 19)

4. Joshua 11 tells the story of how awesome Joshua and his army were. He and his band of soldiers took on the armies of several nations and completely destroyed them. Kind of like 300 except with less nakedness (that we know of – it could be that there was much more nakedness…in which case they need to make a movie) and the fact that Joshua ended up winning unlike Leonidas and his wussy band of soldiers. And this was all because, “…it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy” (Joshua 11:20).

5. Here are some commandments taken from Exodus 21

• When buying servants (not as bad as slaves), set them free after they have worked for you for six years. Because anything over that is just rude?
• But the servant can stay if he wants…only after his master pierces his ear with an “awl” which sounds like it is something between a crossbow and a pick axe.
• If you sell your daughter into servanthood – yes, if – then she can’t go free in the 7^th year like the aforementioned servants. It’s business, people.
• If someone intentionally kills someone else, kill them. Yeah, yeah…old news.
• If you attack your parents, you are to be killed.
• If you kidnap someone and either sell them or get caught still possessing the person, you should be put to death. I guess that’s fair.
• If you curse your parents you should be killed. As a child I think that’s crap, but I think I’ll change my mind once I have kids.
• If a man beats his slave and the slave dies he should be punished. But as long as the slave can get up after a day or two, that’s all good.
• Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. Parents really need to start employing more Biblical practices here.
• If you have an unruly bull and you neglect to keep it from goring people, you should be put to death…unless you pay a lot of money. This does not apply if the person gored is a slave. In that case, only the bull dies…everyone knows that.
  

6. Last but not least, the 9 Most Badass Bible verses – the best of which is the story in 2 Kings 2 where Elisha sicks bears on about 40 kids for calling him bald and they get mauled to death. Hilarious. (By the way, if you have an aversion to cussing, I'd suggest not clicking on that link)

So…do you agree that God is pretty pissed off in the Old Testament? These are just a few examples, but the Old Testament is chock full of them!

This of course presents a problem for us, particularly when we consider that according to Malachi 3:6, God does not change. What happened between the Old Testament when God had some sort of fascination will killing and/or exaggerated punishment and the New Testament when he’s all about the love and Jesus dances in meadows with a sheep on his back and his perfectly curled hair blowing in the wind?

In short…nothing.

There is a lot of violence in the Old Testament, but it is not without a great deal of love as well. In fact, it should be noted that God could have easily obliterated humans from the planet back when he flooded it in Noah’s time. He was under no obligation to be merciful to Noah and his family. I suppose that would be a question of whether it better to have died than never to have existed at all.

But, still, why was God so pissed in the Old Testament?

There are at least two possible reasons:

The first is that men (that is humans) were wicked, plain and simple. This may not seem like such a big deal to us, but it is to God. And we should note here that we are in no position to determine what is actually wicked and what is just considered wicked because of our position in history and the philosophy that informs us – this has changed since the beginning of time…what makes us think we are correct now when every generation before us thought the same and we call their actions wrong?

But God is not limited to either history or philosophy. Even more, he understands the full extent of our wickedness and the consequences thereof. Though it may seem odd to us, it may be that these violent acts are actually acts of mercy, preventing something that would have been worse.

And the second possible reason is that God had a plan. That plan was Jesus Christ. That plan was grace. But that plan would not have been accomplished without (1) the law and (2) a people from which Jesus could be born, complete with their history. Jesus only meant grace, forgiveness, and atonement because the Israelites went through all that they did. What was the atonement without the sacrificial laws? What was salvation through grace alone without salvation through works? What was a deliverer without something to be delivered from? Far from being cruel, this is God’s goodness coming out. Because of his choosing of the Israelites and the Old Testament violence, the whole world can now get in on redemption.

What does this mean?

It means that God is not done being pissed. Nothing changed. God still hates wickedness and unfortunately, we allow it to run rampant. But judgment day is still coming and God’s wrath will be unleashed on the unrepentant. This is not cruel, this is just. Wickedness should be punished, we all know that. What we don’t know, what we are ignorant of, is what is really wicked and what the appropriate punishment for wickedness should be. But God knows that.

But, he is also not done with love. And that is good news indeed.

What do you think? Are there other reasons God might seem different in the NT than in the OT? Do you struggle the with God of the OT?