GOD of the Old Testament vs. GOD of the New Testament Part III

The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)

 ¹ Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. ² And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. ³ Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. ⁴ And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
⁵ But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. ⁶ And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. ⁷ Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸ So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

God had commanded man to populate the earth (Gen. 1:28; Gen. 9:1). That’s kind’a hard if you bunch up in one city. God could have dealt harshly with the people; He could have sent disease, or an enemy, or any number of horrible things to scatter them. But as is God’s nature, He chose to be merciful and do the unexpected. 

God created man to multiply and cover the earth. What is so hard about that?  

While we’re on the subject, have you ever had plans to do something that just didn’t work out? Maybe, like me, you find out later that was God’s hand guiding you somewhere else.

Like the hand of a loving parent guides their toddler lest he fall, so also God guides us lest we fall (in sin).

An interesting note: This site later became Babylon (Iraq). Babel is also where we get the word “Babble,” meaning incoherent chatter. 

GOD of the Old Testament vs. GOD of the New Testament Part II

Part II

Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-15)

⁶ So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? ⁷ If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
⁸ Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Gen. 4:6-8

How did God respond?

Cain was angry and the Lord spoke to him warning him that sin was ready to pounce on him but Cain ignored God and sin indeed did pounce. God had tried to reach Cain’s cold, hard heart before he did something horrible. God knew before hand what Cain would do but he spared his life anyway.  

⁹ Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
¹⁰ And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. ¹¹ So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”
¹³ And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! ¹⁴ Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”
¹⁵ And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.

Does that sound like a tyrant bent on killing any who disobey Him?

As atrocious as Cain’s behavior was, God still had mercy on him. God did not ignore his sin but still had compassion on him. Notice here that Cain never showed any remorse for his sin. He only showed concern for himself.

I don’t know why God chose to let him live, or why He didn’t let him live in fear of his life; all I know is God did not withhold mercy from this sinful man.

Continued…

GOD of the Old Testament vs. GOD of the New Testament

Is The God Of The Old Testament A Tyrant?

Lately I hear this argument quite frequently. The God of the O.T. orders everyone to be stoned for minor offenses, and for His people to murder men, women and children to take their land. If you didn’t do exactly as He said, He had you killed.

I think the beginning of the problem here is the pre supposed assumption of God as a tyrant and the search for passages that would support such a claim. I think to find the truth one has to start before these “acts” of so-called malice.

Let’s go back to Genesis

God gave “everything” to Adam and Eve with the exception of the one tree. That sounds like a loving Father to me. He didn’t make this beautiful garden and give them a small portion of it, He gave them all of it with the exception of “one” single tree. He also informed them of the consequences of eating of that tree (Gen. 2:17).

“If God really loved them, why did He make that tree?” you might ask. If God did not give them the “choice” to decide, that would not be love! Would we want to marry someone against their will? Why? We want to be loved in return by choice. If a person holds another person captive who does not share their affection, we lock that person up; it’s called kidnapping. So if GOD made us love Him and didn’t give us this choice, would He really love us? Would we really love Him? No!

It is some what difficult to explain this to a person who doesn’t know or understand the nature of GOD; they just don’t get it. It takes the Holy Spirit to open our eyes.

In Genesis when God told Adam he would die if he ate from the tree, He didn’t mean at that very moment. GOD could have killed Adam and Eve and started over. How could anyone blame Him if He did? Were they not warned?

Again, this clearly shows a GOD of love and mercy.

After eating from the tree, they saw their nakedness and were ashamed (Gen. 3:7). So what did GOD do? He made them skins to cover their nakedness.

Now this is another subject but this is the first death in history. An innocent animal had to be killed to cover man’s sin.

So we have man, who sins against GOD, and GOD doesn’t kill him, instead He clothes him. That sounds like love and compassion to me.

  Continued…