Bible Question:
I am becoming increasingly baffled by God as He is portrayed in the O.T. Why did he condone slavery, polygamy, and war? If He is the God of love, why did He so ruthlessly destroy so many nations? Why did He want His holy temple to be a slaughterhouse? The number of animals sacrificed daily must have been mind-boggling. I love Jesus with deep gratitude and adoration, but I fear this God of the O.T. The more I study the O.T., the more wary I feel about God, and I know it shouldn't be that way. What am I doing wrong? Skip |
Bible Answer: Dear skip, Your problem is that you do not understand the Old Testament Scriptures and/or have a full understanding of your salvation. When you look at Genesis 1 and 2 you see creation as God had intended. His crowning glory was man. Man was at peace with all of creation and God also gave him a woman...a wife, so to speak, a helpmate. Every man, woman and child that has ever been born into this earth was in the genes of these two persons and they fell from grace. God had warned and tested the free will He gave them by saying they were free to eat the fruit of every tree of the garden EXCEPT for ONE. They disobeyed. Since we were all in their genes, we all fell and are part of that sinful nature. It is born in us all. This is evidenced in the very next story of Cain and Abel, it is evidenced in the story of Lamuel, it is evidenced in the tower of babel and it is evidenced in the story of Noah and the ark. But right from the beginning, God began to teach man about what it takes to cover sin and about what constitutes life. "The life is in the blood" (Gen.9:4, Lev. 17:11) As soon as Adam and Eve sinned, they covered themselves out of guilt and shame - but that was not acceptable to God. No, He covered them with animal skins. This means that the animal had to die to cover them. It required its blood as a substitute for their blood. The blood is all important. That is why Jesus had to die and shed his blood. Even though they were under a curse (Genesis 3) God immediately gives them hope in Genesis 3:15 with the promise of the seed of the woman who would be the perfect substitute. They did not understand then, but it was about the God-man, the Messiah, the Christ, God with us, Immanuel...the one and only perfect sacrifice who would shed his blood once for all time and be that substitute. Meanwhile, God did not institute slavery, polygamy or war...man in his fallen nature did that all by himself. And why did God destroy so many nations? In I Cor. 5:5-6 we see that a little leaven destroys the whole lump. Sin is that way. When God sent the Israelites into the Promised land, He did so only at a time when the Canaanites were fully ripe in idolatry and violence. He did not want them to be contaminated with it. They, because of their own disobedience, ever really destroyed them all and they DID become contaminated with the idolatry of those nations. If you go back to the beginning that is what God was doing with the Flood, and with the tower of babel. He separated us by languages and different cultures, mountains and rivers when he caused man in is many languages to flee from one another, because outside of obedience to Him, it would only make our rebellion and our cruelty all the more powerful if we could do this in unity. (read Genesis 11). Yes, His holy temple became a slaughterhouse. The reason for this is so we would recognize the stench of OUR SIN. If we did not sin, this would not have been required. Oh there is so much more. Suffice to say, the blood is the most important thing about our whole faith...the Blood of Jesus Christ and the entire Bible, Old Testament and New is all about the Blood that bought our eternal life. I hope this is helpful. Itiswritten. |