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How strange that the Old Testament God is slammed by so many people, who obviously don’t know that we are talking about the same God! In fact, the God we meet in the Old Testament, is actually the member of the Godhead who became Jesus in the New Testament (Son of God, the Word). Jesus was the One who spoke the words of creation in Genesis 1, although the Father and the Holy Spirit were present also. He was the One who met with Moses at the burning bush, and also the One who travelled with the Israelites through the desert for forty years. These are just a few examples (see passages below), but there are many others. It almost seems as if God the Father, from before creation, told the Son that the earth was His domain.
Genesis 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
John 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Colossians 1 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
Hebrews 1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
If we study the above passages, there is no other conclusion that we can come to, but that Jesus, the Son of God, the Word, was the Creator of all things.
Exodus 3 2 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.
13 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”
14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”15 Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’
John 8 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
57 Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
Exodus 13:21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night.
1 Corinthians 10 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
Again, as we study the above passages, and many others, we have to conclude that Jesus was the One who was the Angel of the Lord, the I AM, the God of the Old Testament.
The only reason we find for the different behaviour towards Israel, is that they were a nation of slaves, used to obey without thinking, immature in their understanding of God. He therefore had to have a set of rules for them, and very harsh punishment if the rules were broken. But as they grew in their knowledge of God, God’s patience and forgiveness becomes more evident, as Jesus Himself shows in the New Testament.
Finally, God created people in His image, with the power of free choice, because He did not want to have relationships with robots, who could only do the right thing. Who can love a robot? God wanted our love, but only if we chose to give it to Him freely, not because we are forced. As to punishment, God does not do that at all. God draws us to Himself by love alone, not force or coercion, always giving us the choice. But all of our choices have consequences, which are clearly spelt out. For example, in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam and Eve thousands of fruit and nut trees, and kept only one out for Himself. He told them clearly that if they ate of the tree, they would die. Please note that He did not say that He would kill them if they ate of the fruit, but if they rebelled and rejected His commands, they would be walking away from the One Who Gave Them Life, which means that they would choose death. Turning away from the Lifegiver always has death as a natural result, not a punishment. God wants every human being to choose Him, and He gives salvation and eternal life as a free gift to each of us who choose to receive it. But He is also very clear as to the natural result of rejecting His offer, eternal death (perish) in hell, as we see below. This is not punishment, but the natural result of a wrong choice.
Genesis 1 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
1 Timothy 2 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is … not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Peter 3:11 Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
Joshua 24:15 “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this
Day whom you will serve …”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
I would be very wary of someone who is teaching you about Christianity, but does not know that the Old Testament God and Jesus is one and the same.
Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.”
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
I trust that this makes sense to you. God bless!
