It’s Not That He’s Mean, It’s Just That He Can’t Lie
I, you, we have encountered people who see God of the Old Testament as being a mean, murdering, and harsh God. And sure, I can understand where they’re coming from, especially if they haven’t read the whole Bible in context, with historical and linguistic analysis.
If you haven’t read the Bible in its entirety, with historical and linguistic analysis God will seem like a mean, murdering, and harsh God.
Looking at three examples:
1). Priests in the OT:
When the priests went behind the Holies of Holies, they wore bells around their waist and a long rope around their ankles that stretched from the Holies of Holies to the outer courtyard. If the priest’s sins were not atoned for properly, or he did a wrong step in the process of his priestly duties in the Holies of Holies he would die. Why would he die? Because the Shekinah Glory “the glory of God” that surrounded the Arc of the Covenant is so magnificent. To do something wrong in the presence of God naturally brought death because GOD IS HOLY. And because no one but the priest could go to the Holies of Holies, if he died, his body would be pulled out with the long rope.
It seems cruel that God would kill a priest if his sins weren’t properly atoned. Or, if he missed a step in his priestly duties, that he should die because of it. Priests were only human, right? Thing is, God gave instructions to Aaron (Leviticus 10) on how priests were to conduct themselves. Back to this in a second…
2). Lot’s wife and salt:
When God destroyed the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt because she turned around and looked at the city while God destroyed it (Genesis 19:26).
But the angels told Lot that he or his family should not look back at the city being destroyed:
“So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he [the angel] said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed (Genesis 19: 17).”
Back to this in a second…
Er and Onan:
3). God killed Judah’s children, Er and Onan- Jacob’s grandsons. Go read Genesis 38. I won’t go into a long summary but basically, Judah had 3 sons. They were wicked. A woman named Tamar (probably a Canaanite) was married Judah’s oldest son, Er. He was wicked and God killed him. They didn’t have children. So, Tamar was given in marriage to Judah’s second son, Onan. He was wicked too. Onan didn’t fulfill his duty of having a child to preserve Er’s name. The Bible said he willingly poured his semen on the ground to not allow Tamar to conceive. Tamar was sent home to wait until the third brother, Shelah, was of age to marry but Judah had secret motives to not allow Shelah to marry Tamar.
Why did God kill Er and Onan? He killed Er because he was wicked, but God killed Onan because you will find in Deuteronomy 25: 5-10 that God, under the Old Covenant required “levirate marriages.” What is that you ask? It’s when a dead man’s closest relation (usually a younger brother) is required to marry the widow to produce an heir for the dead man. Onan contemptuously refused to fulfill what God had commanded in Deuteronomy 25: 5-10. Back to this in a second…
These are just 3 examples where God killed 4 people. But let me point out something to you. God had given these people rules, under the Old Covenant, so it’s not like He killed them just to kill them. Numbers 23:19 states: “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
When God has said something, He cannot lie. When God killed someone in the Old Testament it was for a reason and more often than not, He had set a precedent beforehand through a precept that the dead person(s) didn’t follow- hence they were killed.
Thank God you and I live in this dispensation, and the grace of Jesus covers us. But there are things in Scripture that God has said, and that goes for us today, and if we don’t follow we will reap the consequences. For example: if a man mistreats his wife, his prayers will be hindered (1 Peter 3:7). If we don’t confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead we won’t experience eternal life (Romans 10:9). If you don’t honor your parents, your days on earth will be cut short (Exodus 20:12). These are examples of sowing and reaping. It’s a universal law, if we sow disobedience we will reap some sort of consequence.
It’s not that God is mean, a murderer, and harsh. He cannot lie. So if He set forth a precedent He will stick to it. Again I say, He cannot lie. If we don’t follow His precepts we will reap the consequences.
When I step back and think about this, it makes me love and respect God all the more. There are consequences to my behavior and if I disobey Him I will pay for my disobedience. Just like priests who did not follow their priestly duties, just like Lot’s wife who died, and just like Er and Onan- all of these people disobeyed God’s precepts and reaped consequences that He had set in motion before they sinned.
Our God is righteous and there is no false ways in Him. It’s we that must decide to follow his commands or not. And, it’s very reassuring to know that our God is stable, unwavering, able, true, and holds tight to His precepts. It means that we can put all our trust in Him.