I Get It Now

I never understood it when I heard people talk about the God of the Old Testament being different from the God of the New Testament. Well, I recently took a deeper dive into the Old Testament, and I’m starting to understand where the impression comes from. It started for me in the early chapters of the Book of Joshua, as the Israelites were set to attack Jericho.

On the seventh day, they marched around the walls, which were estimated to be up to 30 feet high and 20 feet thick, and the people gave a shout as God instructed them. Down came the giant wall.

There are people convinced it's not the same God in the Old and New Testaments. I understand where the view comes from.

The story picks up in Chapter 6 of the NIV, which says “the wall collapsed, every man charged straight in, and they took the city. They destroyed with the sword every living thing in it, including men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkeys.” Everyone and everything with a heartbeat was cut down.

But let’s fast forward to the New Testament, which describes a “loving God,” right? Got Questions says from the beginning, “God assigned exceedingly great value to human life.” He told Noah that He would “demand an accounting for the life of another human being because God made humankind in His own image.” (Genesis 9:5-6).

Not only that, but there’s also the sixth commandment: “You shall not murder.”

Okay, I’m noticing the conflicting picture. So, I did what any journalist would do. I dug further.

My NIV Full Life Study Bible describes the conflict this way: ‘Believers who live under the new covenant wonder how ordering the mass destruction of human beings is consistent with the revelation of God’s love, righteousness, and hatred of evil elsewhere in the Bible.”

I’ve mentioned before, but it bears repeating that while God is Holy and Loving, He is also Just and Righteous. He cannot and will not tolerate sin forever. In fact, He hates evil.

John 3:1 – “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!

Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Psalm 11:5 – “The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.”

What you may not have known is that the Canaanites were desperately wicked. God annihilated the people of Jericho and the other inhabitants of the land of Canaan because they’d given themselves over to moral depravity.

Archaeology actually proves this. Discoveries have shown that the Canaanites were involved in all kinds of idolatry, cult prostitution, violence, and spiritism. But the most depraved of all was the fact that they were sacrificing their children to their Gods. They were killing their own kids. God doesn’t tolerate that.

The Canaanites were totally given over to depravity and were encouraging other tribes and peoples to follow in their footsteps. But God didn’t kill them all, remember. He spared Rahab the prostitute and everyone in her house after she hid the spies that Joshua sent into Canaan to spy out the land when Israel was ready to enter the promised land.

A good definition of the modern description of "love."

Bible skeptics often ask why it’s acceptable for God to kill or command the slaughter of large numbers of people. Got Questions says the answer isn’t complicated. He’s the Creator of the Universe and the Author of Life, who alone possesses the right to give life or take it away.

When people commit evil, God has the authority and the right to carry out His punishment, and in the case of that level of depravity, the penalty can be death. Romans 1: 32 has a good description of the Canaanites and what they were doing to deserve the ultimate punishment.

“Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such (evil, depraved) things deserve to die, they not only do them, but they approve of those who also practice those things.” (ESV)

They were not only horribly depraved, but they were determined to spread that corruption to other tribes and people. Left unchecked, it would have spread like cancer. God won’t leave that unchecked for long.

The next time someone says the God of the Old Testament was “bloodthirsty,” gently remind them that He is indeed a loving God, but He’s also a just God that will not tolerate sin forever. There is always a reason for the things He does.

Would it have been more “loving” to let the Canaanites live? Our modern definition of the word “love” seems to think so. Anyone who tells you that God is loving without being righteous is lying to you or simply hasn’t read the Bible. Love isn’t “touchy-feely,” and it doesn’t always “feel good,” does it?

I keep getting the old DC Talk song called “Love is a Verb” playing in my head. You show love is real by the things you do, and not just by what you say or feel. One thing I have learned in 55 years of life is that human emotions and feelings are fickle. They can change at the drop of a hat and often for no logical reason. Why would you want to base your relationship with God and your very life on things that can change in an instant?

Let’s take that current definition of love a step further. What would the consequences have been if God had just “loved” the Canaanites and tolerated their horrible lifestyles? Depravity spreads. There is no value for human life at all. Plus, more children die horrible deaths because of the very people who brought them into the world.

That does not sound loving at all. He is loving. The Bible says God is love.

John 4:16: "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him."

The Bible also says God is holy and righteous. He says it outright: “The wages of sin is death.” It also says, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing” (Habakkuk 1:13)

Yahweh is the God of the Old Testament, and it’s still Him in the New Testament as well. He is love, holy, and He is righteous.