I always hear this or something like it said;
"God was a tyrant/unloving/unmerciful in the
Old Testament, and yet He was full of Grace/Love/Mercy in the New."
This, and statements like it, is nothing more then biblical ignorance. First and foremost God doesn't change..
"And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent."
[-1 Samuel 15:29-]
"For I am the LORD, I do not change"
[-Malachi 3:6-]
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
[-Hebrews 13:8-]
God not being full of love and grace in the "old" is absolutely false. This statement that He has changed or was any different then He has always been can be proven false in so many different ways. For instances, do you think God was oblivious to the fact that the Israelites would backslide? Do you think He was surprised when they started worshipping idols and false gods?
Do you think He was like: "…hmmm…I did not think they would turn from me, I totally didn't see this coming."
If you think so, well you are wrong..check out Deuteronomy 31
And the LORD said to Moses: "Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go [to be] among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.
"Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, 'Have not these evils come upon us because our God [is] not among us?'
"And I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.
"Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel. "When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant.
"Then it shall be, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants, for I know the inclination of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which I swore [to give them]."
Deuteronomy 31:16-21
"For I know the inclination of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land which I swore to give them." hmm..doesn't sound like God is oblivious to the fact that the Israelites would turn away from Him.
God knew before they even set foot in the land He promised them, that they would eventually turn away.
Yet God still fulfilled His promise to His chosen people, and knowing they would turn away still showed mercy and forgiveness. In Deuteronomy 30 The LORD says;
"Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call [them] to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you,
"and you return to the LORD your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the LORD your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you.
Deuteronomy 30:1-3
Return to ME, God was willing and is willing to forgive because He is loving and merciful. Look at Jeremiah chapter 3
"They say, 'If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man's, May he return to her again?' Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 3:1
If a man divorces his wife and she becomes another man's, there is no returning back to the first man,
She is considered unclean. Israel had turned to so many different idols and gods, she had many "lovers"…like a whore….YET God being as loving and merciful as He is simply says "Return to Me"
The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: "Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.
"And I said, after she had done all these [things], 'Return to Me.'
Jeremiah 3:6-7
Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: 'Return, backsliding Israel,' says the LORD; 'I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I [am] merciful,' says the LORD; 'I will not remain angry forever.
Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the LORD your God, And have scattered your charms To alien deities under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,' says the LORD.
"Return, O backsliding children," says the LORD; "for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
Jeremiah 3:12-14
What a tyrant God is…so unmerciful He is, to forgive an adulterous nation who turned their backs to Him, but not their faces. God had and absolutely has mercy, he asks you to return to Him, even after all of Israel's backsliding, all their abominations and idolatry God wanted them back! and He still does! Even after all your backsliding all your abominations and idolatry and sinfulness God still wants you, Yeshua Hamashiach-Jesus Christ the son, God in the flesh coming and taking the wrath we deserve is the ultimate proof of that.
Thank God for the breath of life in your otherwise dead lungs, each day amongst this completely wicked world He holds back the return of the SON is a testament of His mercy. Each day we wake is a chance of repentance, every time a non-believer wakes God is showing His mercy! seeking repentance He simply says "Return to me!"
"We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.
"Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, '[If] you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations;
'but [if] you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, [yet] I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.'
Nehemiah 1:7-9
