quietthinker
Well-Known Member
The OT record we have has been written by folk with a particular view of how God operates (his character)....and they act accordingly.....often barbarically.Myself I do not see the word sovereign (applied to God) as meaning domination at all......to me it means He gives man and devil a lot of leeway to carry out their own will, but that still the Lord in His greatness remains sovereign over all that He allows man and devil to do.......He has foreknown and gone before everything and woven it all somehow into His ultimate purposes. And He has the power/authority to sovereignly intervene, eg, if we pray and ask, or if in His will and wisdom He is disallowing something or solving a problem etc.
But we need to know that the God of the old testament hasn't gone anywhere.....He still exists.......remember how He judged the Canaanites when their transgression had come to the full. Look how He judged Israel.....and then later judged Babylon. There is no shadow of turning with Him and He doesn't change. Look how He even judged Ananias and Sapphira. It's just that in God's mercy Jesus came to run interference (intercession) for those who would be willing to adhere to Him. We are still in that age of grace and mercy, His time of longsuffering which we are to account as salvation.......but that will come to an end at some point. Look for transgression to come to the full as that seems to be the pattern of scripture......the devil given a leash long enough to hang himself with essentially.....the harvest ripening of both sin and righteousness......weeds as well as good fruit maturing......and then judgment will fall.
Mar 4:29
“But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Wheat and tares in the end of the world. End of the human race......it's not going to be a pretty picture if the examples of scripture and historical accounts are anything to go on, I don't even want to think about it.....and only those in the Lambs book of Life, who inherit eternal life, will go on into eternity. (And those who are alive and remain in that final hour will be rescued off this planet just in the nick of time to avoid being caught in the judgment.)
Jesus also has a view of God's character, in fact Jesus being the Creator who is the only eyewitness of God and the communicator with the Prophets now bends backwards to reveal what God is like, revealing what they thought God was like is a long way from what he actually is like.
None of the OT writers had the view that God's nature is self sacrificing and love is manifest by vulnerability. They thought God was a sword wielding Demagogue who had his favourites which they considered they were.
The question is, who is it we are going to hear? Who were the disciples instructed to hear? The voice from the cloud on the Mountain said to listen to the Son. They had Moses and Elijah for centuries but now the Son has appeared; he is the one the Father is well pleased with; it is the Father who instructs who to hear. Ultimately this shifts how we understand/see Almighty God....Sovereign, if you like.
What do I think this means in real terms? It means if the words and activity we read about in the OT attributed to God do not align with the character of Jesus, we have every right to question them.
For those with courage and self honesty this inevitably results in paradigm shift ('born again') a far more enlightened view of God than many writers had, including what they attributed to God saying and doing.
The spotlight of scrutiny in the light of Jesus' revelation of The Father is absolutely necessary if the Father's heart is to open in our consciousness.
Without Jesus we have a God itching to get his pound of flesh.