Sometimes I wonder if the God of the New Testament and the God of the Old Testament have ever met. They seem to be two totally different beings. The God of the New Testament tells people to turn the other cheek when they are struck. The God of the Old Testament says things like “Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'"(I Samuel 15:3). So is this God different? The answer is yes and no. The God of the Old and New Testament is the same God, nothing about his attributes or character has changed. He is just as loving, just as merciful, just as holy and just as truthful and he hates ungodliness just as much. However, we would be wrong to assume that God has always dealt with all people at all times, exactly the same. This is clearly not the case. God deals with broken man in ways they can understand and in the way his will is best accomplished. The Old Testament is essentially the story of God’s nation, Israel, and his covenants with them. The New Testament is the story of God’s covenant with his people the church.
Before we accuse God of being different we need to examine his dealings with the people of the Old and New Covenant. In the Old Testament God is described as hating sin, just like he is in the New Testament. He is however; also called compassionate, slow to anger, gracious and loving in both the Old and New Testament. In fact the breadth of the Old Testament follows a familiar pattern. The Jews would reject God and go their own way. God would remind them of all he had done for them. They would repent of their sin. God would restore the relationship as if nothing had happened. Does this sound familiar? It is the exact same pattern we find in the New Testament with believers, in fact it is the exact same pattern that often characterizes our relationship with God. God is longsuffering with his people in the Old Testament, he cares when they don’t have food to eat, and he gives them water when they are thirsty. He is deeply and intimately involved in loving his people even when they don’t deserve it (which is most of the time). The truth is there is essentially no difference in God between the Old and New Testaments. But the question remains as to why God seems so different. The answer is the incarnation.
The New Covenant is a covenant characterized by grace. God was gracious in the Old Covenant as well, however his grace was not seen like it is in the new. In the New Testament we have a tangible representation of God’s love for us that we just don’t have in the Old. We have a God who we can touch, and see and who was tempted like we were (Heb 4:15). In fact the Bible tells us that the wrath of God was poured out on him and that he bore our sin. However, we would be foolish to forget that this God who would suffer for us isn’t a New Testament phenomenon; he was promised to us in the very first book of the Old Testament. So the difference isn’t God’s love. God does not love his people in the New Testament and hate them in the Old. No, the difference is how God would be glorified. In the Old Testament God’s glory is brought about by his people, by his nation staying obedient and staying set apart from the world. God would do anything he could to protect this and preserve his glory, after all he is the only one worthy of it. In the New testament God is primarily glorified through his son Jesus Christ. That is why the wrath of God which we see placed on the pagans in the Old Testament is put on Christ in the new. It is what brought ultimate glory to God.
So the problem with God is not that he changed. He was seeking the same thing in both testaments. God is always after his glory.
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