One very common argument against God, is the He, especially in the Old Testament, is a wretched, wrathful, jealous, murderous and so many other type of negative things. That a god like that, not only cannot be love, but cannot be worth serving. As if that proves that all evidence that supports there being a designer, suddenly cannot have merit.
First, this falls short in several way. As I talked in my post about worthiness, you have to remember that God being who He is, the creator, designer, giver of life, deserves our servitude. Even if these things were true. It's not a dictating tyrant, who steals a country then demands complete submission. Rather, it's more as if someone built an entire city for you, then demanded you put garbage bags in the bins rather than strew is out on the streets. He gave everything, so using what He gave us with respect and wisdom is a small price to ask. And punishments where he limits or takes away what He gave, makes sense.
Then there is the issue of sin. Unlike after Pentecost, the Spirit of God was not yet given freely to all people. Sin wasn't something that was discerned on a personal level. Rather, rules had to be physically delivered, from God to Moses and the prophets, then to the people. They did not know what was good and what was not. Just as children have to be taught right and wrong. Yes, there would be cultural morality. Things such as murder and stealing might be frowned upon. But Israel lived in a time when child sacrifice, mutilations and even ritualistic cannibalism was still occurring in surrounding nations. These atrocities were seen as "good" and right to their peoples. Indeed, even with the Law, rape, murder, incest, adultery, idolatry, are all recorded to have happened among the people of God. And without the Spirit, there wasn't the dread of what sin does to your life. And so God needed a physical representation of the severity of sin. The list is extensive, but a common theme is death. There were several crimes that had the wrong-doer stoned rather than punished in another way. Why was God so severe?
Well, because the punishment of sin is even moreso. The idea needed to be realized just had terrible these things were. Not only that, but the Israelites needed to cut the sin out of their camp. They didn't have prisons as we do now. And exiles would have simply been a long, more torturous death. So it became necessary.
When we think about the steep cost of a single sin, we need to understand the steep price God paid to redeem us from sin. He sent His own son, who was blameless, sinless, perfect in every way. Christ died a horrible physical death and suffered spiritual torment in Hades that we do not fully know. All so we don't have to. When we read the Old Testament, it should not be with a revulsion of what God did, but rather of how wicked sin is. We should see the extreme punishments and recognize we deserve each and every one of them, several times over.
Yet God chose grace instead. He has given us a way to redeem ourselves from sin. And even better, He has sent the Spirit to guide us, so we can avoid it in the future. No longer do we have to wait for a word to be delivered to a prophet and hope we hear it in time. We can go to the throne room, on our own. The Spirit even prays for us, when we are in need.
The God of the Old Testament isn't a cruel God. He isn't one we need to ignore or hide. Rather, He is ultimate justice and judgement. He needs to be shown, because an even harsher punishment comes on Judgement Day for all who don't accept the grace given through Christ. And then we can show how He made a way to save us from it all. Blessing us in this life and in the one to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment