In the Old Testament, we read about the relationship between God and His chosen people Israel (those, who are born of the seed of Jacob; Israel). We read about God’s love for His people, His goodness, long-suffering, protection, promises, and provision. But we also read about His holiness and righteousness. Therefore, we also read about His disappointments, angriness, and His judgments. Many consider God in the Old Testament as a strict God, who immediately punished, when a person committed a sin. They have created this image of a strict God through the sermons they heard, nurture, or by reading the Old Testament from a carnal mindset.
They bear this image of a strict God and have developed a (tormenting) fear for God instead of a fear of God (awe of God). They are afraid of God and are led by this fear for God. Because they are afraid of God they are afraid to miss a church service, because they think that by missing a church service, God will be angry at them and they could lose their salvation. And so they go to church out of fear and observe religious traditions, which they have adopted from their parents or through inspiration by a traditional spirit.
Instead of having a fear (an awe) of God and love Him and serve Him out of love, they serve God out of fear, because they have created a wrong image of God. Because if they would read the Bible as the new creation through the Holy Spirit, then their image of God would be different.
The relation between God and His people Israel
The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy (Psalm 103:6-8)
God revealed His greatness and majesty to His people and revealed Himself as their God, through the redemption of His people from slavery in Egypt. God revealed His nature and made His will known to His people by giving them the law. During the time in the wilderness, God looked after His people. He protected His people and provided their needs.
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine: And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which though shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words, which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord (Exodus 19:4-8)
Although the people said wholeheartedly ‘yes’ to the conditions of the covenant and promised to obey the voice of the Lord, it didn’t take long, before the people turned away and became unfaithful to Him and left His words.
Because of the fact, that the people were raised in Egypt and were familiar with the Egyptian culture, gods and rituals, they had created an image of God, which didn’t correspond with the reality. Therefore they were constantly disappointed in their God and murmured and complained because God didn’t meet their expectations. As a result many didn’t want to submit to God and His Word (Read also: ‘The expectation of people‘).
They wanted the same things as the pagan nations and wanted to live the same life and do the same pagan practices. Therefore many were rebellious and did those things, which God had forbidden to do and were an abomination to God.
In order to prevent that the evil would propagate and affect the others of the congregation and to prevent that the whole congregation would be lost, God removed the evil out of the congregation.
A strict God or a rebellious people?
The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works (Psalm 145:17)
Is God a strict God, because of that? No, but God is a righteous God, who stayed loyal to the law of His covenant. God is righteous and He can’t deny His holy and righteous nature.
In the Old Covenant God was dealing with a carnal people, whose spirit was under the authority of death and therefore the people could only walk after the flesh.
God was dealing with a prideful, stiff-necked and rebellious people, who often went their own way and refused to submit to God and His Word and refused to keep the covenant.
Yes, they wanted to receive the blessings of the covenant, but they didn’t want to observe the conditions for the blessings. They wanted to live like the pagan nations, but receive the wages of the saints.
A strict father or a rebellious child?
When a father has a child, who refuses to listen and goes his own way and do things, which the father has forbidden to do, then the father shall discipline and punish the child, because the child refused to listen.
Because every family has its own rules, which every family member should keep. When a family member choses to disobey the rules, then there will be consequences.
When the child tells others about the punishment, they will probably develop an image of a strict father, instead of a rebellious child. If they visit the child, it could be that they will be afraid for the strict father. While in reality, it could be that the father isn’t strict by nature. But because of the rebellious behavior of the child the father was forced to take action, which he didn’t like and maybe found difficult to do, but was necessary and the best for the child.
Therefore, you can say that the child has a strict father or you can look at the cause of the behavior of the father and say that the father has a rebellious child. It’s just how you look at it.
This applies to all the areas in life, where you are dealing with covenants and rules, like in society in general, at school, work, marriage, family, sports, traffic, etc. If you don’t want to observe the rules and rebel against the rules than there will be consequences
Rules are needed to give structure, clarity, and to keep order for both parties. Because if there wouldn’t be any rules, then it would be one big mess.
A strict teacher or a rebellious pupil?
If you go to school and obey the rules, everything will be fine. But if you do things, which are forbidden and you are caught, then probably you will be disciplined and punished for your actions.
A strict boss or a rebellious employee?
The same applies to work. When you are a person of integrity and you do you work according to your contract and live by the standards and rules of the company, then you are fine. But when you lack integrity and do things in secret, which go against the standards and rules of the company and it will be noticed, then you will also have to bear the consequences.
People may say, that you have a strict boss, but you can also say that the boss has a rebellious employee, who is not willing to listen and do things which are not right.
And that was also the case with God and His carnal people. Many didn’t want to listen to God despite His commandments and the many warnings through His prophets and did those things, which were evil in the eyes of God, causing God to act according to His holiness and righteousness.
Do you look at God from a carnal mind or a spiritual mind?
When you look at God as the old man and from a carnal mind that thinks like the world, then you will probably take offense at God, His Word and the things, which God did. You shall not understand the things, which are written in the Word. Therefore you shall consider God as a strict God and a cruel God and maybe develop a tormenting fear for God and become afraid of God.
You shall not be able to love God, because of the tormenting fear and incomprehension in your heart. Therefore you shall, just like the world, don’t obey and keep His words and do His will, but reject them.
But if you look at God as the new creation and from a renewed mind, then you will have a different view on the situations, which are written in the Bible. You shall not look at them from a carnal view, but from a spiritual view.
You shall not consider God, His words and behavior strict and cruel, but you shall see the love of God and His goodness, patience and mercy for His people.
From your renewed mind; the mind of Christ, you shall not consider God as a strict God and a cruel God, but you shall consider the world and the ruler of the world as cruel. You shall walk in the truth and from God, through the Word and the Holy Spirit, you shall see the pride, rebellion, lawlessness and the sinful state of the world.
God is long-suffering and full of love
As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him (Psalms 18:30)
The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honourable and glorious: and His righteousness endures for ever. He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion (Psalms 111:2-4)
When you read the Old Testament as a new creation; the new man, through the Holy Spirit, than you shall find out that God is not a strict God but a righteous God.
God didn’t want to treat His people the way He did.
God wanted the best for His people and wanted His people to love Him and that they listened to Him and obeyed His words and warnings and go His way.
But unfortunately, that wasn’t always the case and because God doesn’t lie, but is trustworthy and faithful and acts according to His words, God dealt with His people after their works.
Those, who lived in the covenant and were rebellious, were responsible for their own deeds. They brought their own mischief upon themselves (Read also: ‘The mischief people bring upon themselves‘).
You can feel sorry for the person or the people and say ‘what a terrible thing of God to do’. But you can also turn it around and say ‘what a foolish and terrible thing, that the person or the people were so rebellious and didn’t want to listen to God’.
God wanted the best for His people, but despite His warnings, many went their own way instead of God’s way (Read also: Is God’s way your way?).
The relation between God and His Son Jesus Christ
In contrast to Jesus, who loved God and submitted Himself to God and His commandments, which are written in the law.
Jesus was also free to do what He wanted to do. But Jesus His Godly nature chose to not walk after the flesh and live a life for Himself, but He chose to walk after the Spirit and live for God and do His will.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:5-8)
Because of His love for His Father, Jesus submitted to the Father and went His way that led to the cross. So that, through His death and resurrection from the death, many sons of God would be born in Him, who would belong to God’s people and would live after the Spirit, after His will.
The New Covenant
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away (Hebrew 8:13)
Despite the fact, that the Old Covenant is replaced by a New Covenant, the will of God and His holiness and righteousness remained the same and still applies in the New Covenant
The commandments of the law, which represented the will of God and were written on tablets of stone and given to His people and applied in the New Covenant are now put into the mind and written in the hearts of the new creation, by the abiding of the Holy Spirit (Read also: ‘What happened 50 days after Passover?’ and ‘Why did God write His commandments on tables of stone?’)
In the Old Covenant the people, who belonged to God’s people through natural birth, had a choice to obey God and to keep His law or become disobedient to God and His law.
In the New Covenant, the new creation, who has entered the Kingdom of God through regeneration, has a choice to stay obedient to God and His words and to walk after the Spirit or to disobey God and His words and walk after the flesh and return to the kingdom of darkness. Because ‘once saved always saved’ is a false doctrine, which derived from a carnal mind of the old man (Read also: ‘Once saved always saved?’)
The relation between God and His sons
You have freely chosen to enter into the covenant with God, by faith in Jesus Christ and regeneration in Him. You have said ‘yes’ to do God’s will and to live a life after the Spirit and you said ‘no’ to the will of the devil and to live a life after the flesh.
God didn’t force you to, you have made that decision voluntarily. But if you don’t want to keep and do the commandments of Jesus and don’t want to live after the will of the Father, then you will leave the covenant through your works.
You have entered the New Covenant by grace and not by your works, but your works will cause you to either stay in the covenant or leave the covenant.
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.)
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end (Hebrew 3:7-14)
Many think that in the New Covenant you can keep living after the flesh and do whatever you want to do and make your own rules.
Of course you may do what you want to do, since you have been given a free will from God. But your walk and your works shall reveal your true nature and determine the way you will go and your works shall lead you to your final destination.
If you submit to God and listen to the Word and the Holy Spirit, then you shall live as the new man in the Kingdom of God being led by your new Godly nature, walking after the will of God and fulfilling the law (the moral part of the law, which represents the will of God) just like Jesus (Read also: ‘Is man able to fulfill the law of God’).
But if you are not willing to submit to God and don’t listen to the Word and the Holy Spirit, but reject Them and keep walking after the flesh, then you shall live like the old man in the kingdom of darkness being led by your fallen nature, in which sin and death reigns, and you shall keep walking after the will of the devil.
God’s will stands forever
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)
God has revealed His will in His Word. Therefore, it is very clear what God likes and dislikes and what is good and what is evil. His will is clear and stands forever. No one can change anything about it.
Just like in the Old Covenant God warned His people about the consequences if His people wouldn’t repent and submit to Him and listen to His words, but reject His words, God still warns in the New Covenant His people through His Word and His Holy Spirit.
Because God loves man and doesn’t anyone to perish because of his or her works (1 Timothy 2:4)
God so loved the world that He gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem mankind by the blood of Jesus from the power of sin and death and release them from the captivity of the kingdom of darkness.
But every person makes his or her own choice to either accept the love of God and by faith in Jesus Christ and through regeneration and sanctification put off the old man and put on the new man and walk after the Spirit or reject the love of God and keep living after the flesh as the world.
‘Be the salt of the earth’
