The Unchanging, Good God

Understanding context is very important.  Many times we have come into a conversation at the "wrong time" and were left confused or perhaps offended by what we heard because we didn't understand what was said before we arrived.  This can be applied to situations as well.  Imagine walking into a room and to your shock see masked people in white coats removing organs from a living human being.  To people ignorant of surgery, this would seem the most inexcusable, barbaric butchery.  What could seem cruel and horrific was a procedure done by trained, experienced professionals to promote the health of a consenting patient.

I believe this illustration of the one who unwittingly stumbles into an operating theatre is fitting for many people who read the Bible and are appalled by God's judgments and actions.  Even Christians can be confused and almost embarrassed God would judge people and nations that result in death.  Perhaps they had only been exposed to a view of God that emphasises His love, mercy and grace without comprehension of His righteousness, justice and wrath which complement one another.  They have come into a conversation without knowing God's revelation of Himself in truth; they have wandered into passages they cannot understand because they are not mixed with faith that God is good, His ways perfect, and He is our Peace.

No Christian needs to defend or apologise for anything God has done, for His righteous, loving and just ways are higher than ours.  When God chose to use the Canaanites, Philistines or Babylonians to judge His people by oppressing them or killing them in battle, He was wise in doing so.  There were also times God used the children of Israel as His instrument to judge other nations long in sin.  Know that this was never without warnings and opportunities to repent and submit to God.  The Law commanded the Hebrews give a proclamation of peace before attacking if their enemies would willingly surrender (Deut. 20:10).  Some might be aghast God would kill the firstborn of man and beast in Egypt with what would surely happen if they would not let His people go.  God said to Moses in Exodus 4:22-23, "Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD: "Israel is My son, My firstborn. ²³ So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn."

Even as faith in God was required for Pharaoh to hear and heed the word of the LORD, so it is for those who read the Bible to obtain understanding and wisdom from it.  Those who are not convinced God is good, gracious, just and merciful will balk to receive the truth of scripture.  Refusal to submit to God's ways as right and our own perceptions and judgments as infinitely inferior will prevent us from walking in the fear of God.  As long as we stand in judgment of God as unnecessarily harsh and brutal, we blind ourselves from God's goodness to show the wickedness of sin.  It is not the licensed, skilled surgeon who has blood on his hands that is in the wrong, but those who call him a butcher because they--in their ignorance--do not agree with his methods.  God was willing to come to earth and shed His blood (Acts 20:28) so we could be forgiven, redeemed and saved, and He is the merciful and just God of the Old Testament as well.