A Complex Picture
I've noticed a trend on social media - and this trend is really nothing new. But I've seen people who've left the faith and then start 'evangelizing' for their new 'anti-faith' belief. And one of the rationales they use to justify their lack of faith is the old argument that the God of the Bible is inconsistent and cruel.
They point out in the Old Testament, we see God as a fearsome, all powerful God who destroys nations; He causes earthquakes and floods and He even orders His people to slaughter their enemies. In the New Testament, we kind of see a different picture. We see God in the person of Jesus teaching love and compassion and forgiveness and turning the other cheek.
Many I've seen seem to take inspiration from Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist who authored a book entitled, “The God Delusion”. In it, as he reflects on the depiction of God in the Bible, he wrote, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
That’s quite a gutsy condemnation, one that a believer would utterly oppose. ...But, as you read the Old Testament, have you ever had— perhaps much less antagonist and adversarial— but have you maybe had similar concerns or questions? Why does God appear to be so mean and angry in the Old Testament but then so nice and loving in the New?
I’d like to suggest that the difference we see in God’s nature between the Old and the New Testaments doesn’t have to do with God as much as it does with man. It’s my hope that as we look at this a bit, that will become a little more clear. I want to start by looking at a story from the Old Testament about an encounter between the prophet…
I. Elijah and God
For context - just previous to the passage we're going to look at today, Elijah had challenged the prophets of the false god Baal. Many of the Israelites had rebelled against God and had also turned to idol worship. At Elijah’s request, God performed a powerful miracle sending down fire from Heaven to burn up a sacrificed bull, and even the altar and the surrounding trench filled with water. Then God delivered all the false prophets into the hands of the Israelites and they were slaughtered.
Now the Queen, Jezebel, didn’t take too kindly to having her false religion mocked and her prophets killed – so, she swore that she would have Elijah killed. Even after God’s incredible display of power of fire from Heaven, this threat still scared Elijah and he ran for his life. The video we showed earlier illustrated the passage where we pick up the story in 1 Kings 19:9-14 (NIV)...
There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (10) He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too." (11) The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. (12) After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. (13) When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
(14) He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."
It's a bit sad that this passage starts and ends the same way. God asks Elijah what he's doing there, Elijah tells him he fears for his life, God does this incredible display of wind, an earthquake and fire and then gently asks him again – ‘what are you doing here’. Then Elijah gives him the exact same answer as before, as if God didn’t hear him the first time.
God was powerfully demonstrating to Elijah, you serve the One true God who can do this miraculous, authoritative display of power over the elements – and you're worried about some mere human threatening your life? One thing that is very clear from this passage is…
A. God is powerful
Our God is a powerful God, and when He chooses, He can demonstrate a portion of that power in order to get our attention. God wanted to clearly communicate to Elijah just who he was dealing with. God is powerful – and God's power can be terrifying! I like to imagine that Elijah’s answer before and after God’s display of power, even though they were the same words, perhaps had a different feel to them afterwards.
Elijah’s first answer to God may have been a bit aggravated and terse - "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too." I’d like to imagine that his second response was a bit more humble - "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."
How could you not be affected by a demonstration of raw power like that? God is powerful and that power is a bit scary. But also notice that God, despite His overwhelming power, spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper. It reminds me of what was written in Psalms 46:8-11 (NIV)...
Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth. (9) He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. (10) "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." (11) The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
God is powerful, but we can also calmly rest knowing that He can handle anything. In addition to God’s power, we also need to take away from this that…
B. God is also gentle
Notice in the story that when the Lord passed by, Elijah had to hide in the cover of a cave for protection. It was after the wind, the earthquake and the fire that God then met Elijah in a gentle whisper. God is both powerful and gentle.
By way of analogy, when you go outside on a bright summer day, the sunlight warms your skin, it helps you see clearly and grows crops for food. However, the sun can also scorch planets and violently throw off solar flares with its internal nuclear reactions. If you're too close, it destroys; in the right circumstances, it sustains life. God’s holiness works similarly - it's dangerous apart from Him, but life-giving within His care.
It’s not a perfect analogy, but that kind of helps us understand what Elijah’s experience with God was like. God’s raw unbridled power shattered rocks and would have killed Elijah if he would have experienced its full force. But God lovingly, graciously restrained His power so He could speak directly with Elijah.
Same God, both powerful and gentle, depending on what His purpose was. So why do we see this powerful, angry God all throughout most of the Old Testament and then a different side in the New? Why…
II. The ‘change’ in character
Well, if we really pay attention, this ‘angry God,’ ‘happy God’ thing didn’t really just make this shift after the Old Testament. If we look closely and go all the way back to the beginning of the story, we see a more complete picture. Let’s look back at Genesis 1:27-31 (NIV)...
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (28) God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (29) Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
(30) And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground - everything that has the breath of life in it - I give every green plant for food." And it was so. (31) God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning - the sixth day.
God and His creation were in perfect harmony. If you read the first two chapters of Genesis – this is the peaceful, happy picture you see. God walked together in the garden with His creation; they enjoyed perfect fellowship. At the beginning of the Old Testament, this picture of a ‘happy, gentle God’ is what we see. It’s not until chapter three when things appear to change from our vantage point.
It’s then that we find Eve being deceived by the serpent and she and Adam disobeying God’s command. Let’s pick it up at Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV)...
To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. (18) It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. (19) By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."
To tell the truth - we're not told, and I can't tell, if this was said in anger or with a heartbroken sadness. Everything was perfect; we see the picture of a loving, gentle God until the entrance of…
A. Sin
It was after man’s sin that we seem to see this change in God’s character. But as I stated before, I don’t think it has as much to do with God changing as it is God reacting to man’s sin. I don’t claim to fully understand it, but because of how pure, how Holy and perfect God is, in His very nature He can’t tolerate sin. It goes against everything He is. Sin, disobedience, rebellion – it's intolerable to God at His very core.
In the very beginning, we see God reacting with His perfect, sinless creation. Then sin enters the picture and we go from that 'gentle, life giving sunlight' to that 'devastating solar flare'. God intended to always have that perfect relationship with mankind, but man broke that relationship by his disobedience. But even as we frequently see God’s anger in the Old Testament, God wasn’t going to let it stay that way. God was always working to reestablish that perfect relationship.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 6:23 (NIV)...
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Man may have brought about the first sin, but God provided…
B. The cure for sin
When Adam and Eve were sinless, when they were perfect – God could relate to them in the loving way that He had intended. When they disobeyed, they became 'unholy' with sin and God couldn’t have fellowship with un-holiness, with people covered with sin. God had to devise a way to erase that sin, and only He was powerful enough to do something like that! Let’s jump back to the beginning of the story again, these are passages we just explored at Christmas time, and re-read them from John 1:1-4 (NIV)...
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was with God in the beginning. (3) Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (4) In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
And then let’s skip ahead to vs. 14…
John 1:14 (NIV)
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus wasn’t just a mild, softer version of God. Jesus was, and is, God in every way! But Jesus, to use the imperfect analogy again, is more like that 'refreshing, live giving sunlight' rather than the 'solar flare' that's too strong for us. God made a way for Him to be able to restore that original fellowship that He had intended in the first place! Jesus came, in the person of God Himself, to wash away our sins with His own blood so that once again God and man can have perfect fellowship for eternity!
There aren’t 'two gods' – the one of the Old Testament and one in the New. The entire Bible is a story of God losing His perfect creation to sin and then coming to earth to bring us back to Him at any cost!
I find it interesting to note some similarities in the way that God related to man in the Old and New Testaments even despite sin. If you notice in the story about Elijah and God, after God restrained His immense power of the wind and earthquake and fire – He reached out to Elijah with a gentle whisper; through His Word. He also reaches out to us today, through His Word become flesh.
I believe any perceived differences in God between the Old and New Testaments are more in our limited understanding of God than in Him.
So What?
I referenced the author Richard Dawkins earlier. Mr. Dawkins is a very educated scholar who knows a lot about God, but Mr. Dawkins doesn’t know God. He doesn't really understand God’s Word. He and I have both read the same Bible and come away with very different conclusions. I freely admit that I don't fully understand all of what we see in the Old Testament - but I also freely admit that my lack of understanding doesn't diminish God in any way.
The difference between Richard Dawkins and myself is simple - Mr. Dawkins has never really experienced God. Mr. Dawkins doesn't have a relationship with God - so rather than seeing the life giving sunlight, all he can focus on is the solar flares.
Our God, The one true God, is both an immensely powerful and an endlessly loving God! He hates sin and disobedience! But He loves you, and He loves me, despite our sin! We’ve seen how God responds to sin in the Old Testament with anger and destruction and we’ve seen how He responds in the New Testament by loving us so much He came down from Heaven Himself to bring us home! How do you respond to sin?
Do we make excuses, rationalize and say it’s not that big of a deal? I think all the bloodshed of the Old Testament begs to differ. God wants each of us to give ourselves completely to Him so that He can make us holy and sinless.
And how do we respond to that? Is it just by sitting here on a Sunday – or are we trying to live each day following Jesus? Are we telling others about what God did for us in the person of Jesus? Maybe you need to experience that still small voice again by spending time in God’s presence, quietly reading His Word and praying. The God of the universe desires to meet with you. The invitation is there – what’s your response?