08 Nov It is What It Is (Discovering the true character of God…because He is not a car-wrecking, cancer causing Creator, but a loving, life giving Lord!) part 15
This week we continue with 11 Characteristics concerning the Character of God:
4. Will the real God please stand up? (John 10:10)
Here we began to look at Six Nice Nature Necessities:
- In the Old Covenant, sin had not yet been dealt with
This month let’s continue to discover the true nature and character of God:
2. In the Old Covenant, God only acted harshly in judgment.
In the Old Covenant, God did respond quite harshly towards mankind. However, He did this only in judgment with those who directly opposed the plan of God (see Genesis 6 in the account of Noah) or the people of God (Pharaoh for example). I liken this to chemotherapy or amputation. While it certainly may seem harsh at the time, it is designed to save the rest of the body. Extreme measures are taken but the foundation of both is love.
People often misquote the Bible and you’ll hear them say what they think is one of the Ten Commandments “Thou shalt not kill.” Let me ask you a question, what is the definition of a hypocrite? If you answered someone who says one thing and does another…you would be correct! Well, if God told us “Don’t kill”, yet He killed …wouldn’t that make Him a hypocrite? If you can take your Sunday school glasses off for just a moment and answer honestly, you would have no other answer (based on the premise) than to say “Yes, that appears to make Him a hypocrite.”
Now don’t panic, the aforementioned was based on a premise and that premise is faulty! God never said, “Thou shalt not kill.” “Yes He did Pastor, I saw Charlton Heston say it on The Ten Commandments movie.” Now before you argue with me, let’s look a little deeper.
The Hebrew word translated “kill” is the word for “murder”. The Bible clearly tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:3, “A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up.” Here the Scripture tells us there is a “time to kill”. Times like self-defense. Times like a just war. Even times like justly prosecuted capital punishment. However there is never a time to murder.
The Bible defines murder as “hands that shed innocent blood” (see Proverbs 6). Therefore God is not a hypocrite which is one of the many things that separate Him from us. He always says what He means and does what He says (Heb. 6:18)! God only responded harshly in judgment of the guilty. His true nature and character has always been a heart of love to protect the innocent!
Your God’s true nature and character is not a car-wrecking, cancer-causing Creator but a loving, life-giving Lord!
Join us next week as we continue our series…