GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT - Was he harsh?

 


PROLOGUE.

Some non-Christians resort to the Old Testament to prove that the Christian God is harsh.
This view, however, is only half the truth.The whole truth will be revealed in the stories of the Old Testament, which are outlined in the present book. Then we will be moved to exclaim:
“Who is as great a God as our God? You are the God who works wonders” (Psalm 77:13-14).

  HIGHLIGHTS

"If there is a God, He must be compassionate; I have stepped over corpses, yet He still keeps me alive," confessed an atheist. Yes! God was, is, and will always be compassionate. That is His very nature. Thus, He was compassionate even in the Old Testament.

 
He had to deal with a fallen world unlike any before, a world that had sits own psychology, its own DNA. Accordingly, it required a special approach, one that aligned with its psychology.
Its defining trait was hardness of heart. Parents burned their children alive, offering them as sacrifices to their gods.
In such a world, murder was an easy matter. With what ease Cain Killed Abel; With what ease did the meek Moses slay an Egyptian who was mistreating a fellow Israelite.  (...)

  (...) This climate 'forced' God to include in the law that He gave to Moses (the Mosaic Law) some of the harsh customs of that time, such as the custom that fornicators and prostitutes should be stoned to death.  If He had annulled it, it would have been as though He was giving a green light to prostitution.  (...)


At the same time, Ηe was teaching the Israelites:
"Do not hate your neighbor even in your thoughts."  In an era when hatred was natural, God demanded internal purity. (...)


Even slaves were protected: "If you buy a slave, you may keep him for six years. In the seventh year, you must set him free, and not empty-handed—reward him for his labor and send him off with gifts." (...)


God even cared for animals! "Do not yoke an ox and a donkey together to plow your field," because the ox is stronger and the donkey will suffer. "Do not muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain,"  so it can eat freely as it works. Only a merciful God could have said such things at such a time.


   


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