God is Consistent

The God revealed in both the Old and New Testaments are one and the same God.  To claim otherwise is to ignore the ample evidence of God's holiness, righteousness, goodness, grace, justice, love, and vengeance portrayed consistently throughout scripture.  One aspect of God's character is He does not change.  He says plainly to His people in Malachi 3:5-6, "And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien -- because they do not fear Me," says the LORD of hosts. ⁶ "For I am the LORD, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob."  Men change, but God does not change.

God had made a covenant with His people to which He remained true, despite their departure from Him.  They were disobedient, unholy, and filled with unbelief.  God's people demanded to have a king established over them in his place, and He granted their request.  The majority of these kings were wicked, idolatrous, and did not fear the LORD.  God chastened His people to test them, to move them repentance, so they might return and be restored.  In both the Old and New Testament, people are very much the same.  God reached out to them with open arms, inviting them to trust in Him alone, but they were not willing!  Though they rebelled and broke their promise made with God, He still looked upon them favourably.  Even when wicked Johoahaz sat on the throne, God remembered and kept His promise to them - though not entirely for their sakes.  2 Kings 13:22-23 reads, "And Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. ²³ But the LORD was gracious to them, had compassion on them, and regarded them, because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not yet destroy them or cast them from His presence."

What would you give to receive God's grace, compassion, that He would regard you, neither destroy you or cast you from His presence?  These are blessings and benefits we could never earn.  Yet Jesus has freely offered all who will repent and trust in Him a new covenant sealed with His own shed blood on the cross:  He will be our God and Saviour if we will repent, trust Him, deny ourselves, and follow Him.  Even as God ministered grace to the children of Israel who had forsaken Him for the sake of His covenant, so God expresses love and favour to us because of the new covenant He has established through Jesus Christ.  If you believe God is a make-believe entity contrived by man, this promise means nothing to you.  But realise Jesus was not a mere man.  He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin in fulfillment of scripture, lived a sinless life according to the Law, performed signs and wonders confirmed in the sight of multitudes, died on a cross, and rose from the dead in glory three days later.  The facts have not been changed, and there has been no revision of history.  None of these things were done in a shadowy corner.  The vast historical and biblical evidence is staggering.  If Jesus indeed came to earth with His claim of divinity, said the things He said, did the things He did, rose from the grave, and ascended to the Father, then Jesus is truly the Son of God.  And if Jesus is the Son of God, He has a Father who has made Him the judge of all living and the dead.

This was Paul's conclusion as he held forth the reality of the one true God in Acts 17:24-31.  God has appointed as Judge the same one through whom we receive eternal life.  "God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. ²⁵ Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. ²⁶ And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, ²⁷ so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸ for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.' ²⁹ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. ³⁰ Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹ because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."

God has not changed.  He still holds out an invitation to forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ.  He is gracious towards you, has compassion on you, and regards you - even if you have suffered oppression from your foolish wanderings and unbelief.  Turn your eyes and heart to Christ, for it is through Him alone we receive of God's everlasting covenant.