Why is there such a difference between the Old Testament wrathful God and the New Testament compassionate and forgiving God?
Question: Why is there such a difference between the Old Testament wrathful God and the New Testament compassionate and forgiving God?
Answer: I contend that there isn’t such a difference, and that the wrathful expressions of the Old Testament and the New Testament are the compassionate response of God to evil perpetrated against His loved ones.
For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not relent. They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. (2:6,7)
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!” (4:1)
There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground. There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth. (5:7,10)
Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy. (5:15)
Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”— skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. The LORD has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.” (8:4-7)
Micah
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (6:8)
It incurs the vociferous punishment of God, makes Him sick of our hypocritical religious practices, and has drawn His most severe calls to repentance. What is it? Injustice! Taking advantage of those who are most easily taken advantage of – the poor, the widowed, the orphaned, the foreigner! People who have no ability to fend for themselves!
The prophecies of the Old Testament are full of such charges and warnings of impending doom for those who mistreat the ones God loves. Why would God be so particularly compassionate toward the poor, the widows, the orphans and foreigners? Why does He love the underdog? I think it is because they have the least to commend themselves to anyone else and are the most perfect examples of the spiritual neediness that we all have. They may also be those most likely to have open and dependent hearts for God, desperately needing Him like no others seem to.
Do you share God’s heart for the oppressed? James accurately reflects the Old Testament emphasis when he says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27) His heart has not changed from one Testament to another.
We also see in the Old Testament a provisional threat from God to the people of Nineveh of their destruction, which the prophet Jonah doesn’t want to preach because he knows God is giving Nineveh a chance to repent (see the book of Jonah). There are many such provisional threats made in God’s dealings with His people and the other nations. He longs to see repentance more than He longs to judge.
And much of the Old Testament is taken up with the history of His people Israel, who have His revelation and special attention, but often fails to obey Him, doing injustice against her own people and worshiping other gods. His stern judgments are intended to turn her back to the truth. God clearly foretold at the beginning of Israel’s nationhood the punishments that would come, punishments that would increase in severity as the Israelites’ sin increased (see Leviticus 26). The time it took, the patience God had, lasted almost nine hundred years before He enacted the final judgment, exiling Israel from His land.
God is still concerned about injustice and will still judge those who perpetrate it. Jesus, whom God has appointed as the judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42), will sit in judgment over all at what has been called the Great White Throne judgment (Revelation 20), casting all unbelievers into the Lake of Fire. Jesus is no less concerned about and disgusted by human injustice as His Father is.
About the Author
Randall Johnson
A full-time pastor since 1979, Randall originally graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM) in 1979 and from Reformed Theological Seminary (DMin) in 1998. He is married with four grown children and a pile of epic grandchildren.
