The Old Testament God

¹⁶ But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, (Deut 20:15)

We’ve all heard critics say the God of the Bible is inconsistent because the Old Testament God was vengeful, but the New Testament presents a loving and merciful God.  I thought it would be good to look at this.

Yes, Deut. 20:15 sounds harsh to say the least.  “. . ., you shall save alive nothing that breathes.” God chooses to punish evil because He is just.  He destroyed the Canaanites and others not just because he wanted to make room for His people but also because of the chance of contamination as well:

¹⁷ but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, ¹⁸ that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God. (Deut 20:17-18)

The gods of these peoples were immoral and destructive.  Both male and female prostitution was just one of the practices of Baal worshippers.  Molech (Lev. 20:5), one of these gods, was a god to whom many of these people sacrificed their children burning them to death.  The oldest example of Molech was a bronze figure with outstretched arms.  He would be heated to bright red, then children would be placed in his arms and horribly burned to death.

Another practice was to bury a newborn child under the steps to the house to assure a blessing from these gods.  In their past, the Israelites were enticed by these gods and walked away from YHWH committing spiritual adultery. 

God wants His people to stay away from the draw of false teachings, immorality, and spiritual corruption.  He always has.  He strikes out against those who would lead His people astray but is also loving toward those who seek Him. He tells us this continually in the Old Testament:

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. (Ps. 145:17)

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. (Isa. 30:18)

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;  23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  (Lam. 3:22-23)

Why is this important?

The God of the Old Testament is the same God described in the New.  He still desires to bless those who seek Him and is still angry with those who seek to destroy or mislead His people.  He hasn’t changed. The New Testament God is the same:

⁵ This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— ⁶ since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, ⁷ and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels ⁸ in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,  (2 Thess 1:5-9)

That’s the God of the Old and New Testaments.  While He loves us and is merciful, He is also just.  Those who will not turn to Him risk eternal punishment.