The Old Testament God: He Saves

 

The entirety of the Old Testament testifies to who God is and what His plans for humankind were and are. He is not the singularly angry and vengeful God that so many people think of when they think of the Old Testament. He does become angry. He will repay wrong done to the innocent. But without understanding the entirety that God is, you cannot accurately understand a smaller part of Him.

The beginning of Genesis starts out establishing that God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). He created light (1:3), the skies (1:6-8), the dry land from the gathering of the waters (1:9-10), all vegetation (1:11-12), the sun, moon, and stars (1:14-18), all living creatures (1:20, 24), and humankind (1:26).

Not only did God create all this, when He created it, He declared it was good (1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). Everything He had made was “very good” (Genesis 1:31).

Also from the very beginning of the creation of humankind, God had a purpose for us. Man and woman were to “be fruitful” and “multiply and fill the earth” and “subdue it,” having dominion over all animals in the sea, sky and on land (Genesis 1:28). The seed-bearing plants were given to them as food and every green plant given to the animals for food. Man was to work or cultivate the garden for his food while also watching, keeping, preserving it (Genesis 2:15).

God gave us a choice.  God created everything, including humankind, “very good.” He gave us a purpose. And He gave us a choice. The choice was one of whether or not to listen to or obey what God said. God commanded man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:16-17).

God created us to be relational. He did not leave man by himself, but created woman to be a helpmate for him (2:18-24). God also walked in the garden with them and spoke to them (3:8-14).

Man and woman, however, did not listen to and obey God. They went against His Word (Genesis 3:6-12). In response to this, God pronounced curses against them (3:14-19). Everything was going well up to this exchange of disobedience followed by the consequences of that disobedience. This is the point at which sin (adversity) entered our world. It was not a creation of our God, but was caused by the choice to disobey His command. I want to stop for a moment and look more at this event.

Many people refuse to believe in God because they think He should not allow bad things to exist in our world. They argue that if He is good, then He would not allow suffering or evil to continue. This classic argument was presented a long time ago by the prophet Habakkuk in the Old Testament.

“O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you, “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted” (Habakkuk 1:2-4).

God answers Habakkuk and says, “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told” (Habakkuk 1:5). God went on to explain He was going to use an even more evil people to bring judgment upon the evil Habakkuk was complaining about.

Habakkuk was not alone in His questioning of God. Job also brought the same complaint before Him. Job clearly lays out the life he spent seeking and following after God and God’s righteousness (Job 29-31 as one example in the Book of Job). Then after great calamity comes upon him, he pleads for the right to present his case before God in court (Job 9). God finally answers Job and questions Job’s ability to understand the things of God (Job 38-40). At the end of His initial answer to Job, God says, “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it” (Job 40:2).

To both Job and Habakkuk, God ultimately gave the same answer. And He gives us the same answer today. He is sovereign and doing His work. We do not know and cannot understand the work of God or what the end will be. Our job is to trust in Him and in His goodness and to listen to and obey His voice.

Back to the pivotal event in Genesis where everything went wrong. Both man and woman chose to listen to someone other than God. In doing so, they chose to disobey what God had commanded them. The penalty for this was death (Genesis 2:17). Some may want to argue this is too harsh. How could a good God make death the penalty for a single act of disobedience?

A good God MUST make death the penalty for disobedience. If God is entirely good with no evil or badness to be found in Him, then anything which opposes what He says or what His will is, is by nature bad or evil. A good God could not allow evil to continue, so He must destroy it.

But God had made man and woman very good. Then He gave them the free will to choose to obey His voice or not. And this human choice was what brought adversity into the world. Did He only create them to then destroy His creation? Would a good God destroy what was created good?

According to human wisdom, this seems to put God in a bind. He would have to either destroy what He had made good because it had become corrupted or He could let evil go unpunished, compromising His own goodness and holiness. Thankfully, God’s wisdom and knowledge is far above that of humanity, even in its collective state.

He created a way to save us.

He offered humanity a path to redemption, a way an atonement could be provided for their sin (disobedience). The price God required was a blood sacrifice (Leviticus 16); a life to substitute for the death that had entered the world. Repeatedly in the Old Testament, God states that the life is in the blood (Genesis 9:4-5, Leviticus 17:10-14).

And indeed, God Himself demonstrated this path to redemption at the very beginning with Adam and Eve. After they disobeyed God, their eyes were opened and they were ashamed at their nakedness (uncleanness before God) (Genesis 3:7). They attempted to cover their own shame by sewing together fig leaves (3:7). But it was not what God required. The disobedience was not something Adam and Eve could find their own way out of. He required a blood sacrifice to cover their sin. So God made clothing of skins for them (which would have meant the death of animals) as an atonement for their sin and clothed them to cover their nakedness (Genesis 3:21).

The symbolism of this act is prolific throughout the rest of Scripture and is the most important message of the Bible. God covering our shame. God providing an atonement for our sin. God saving us so He could continue His relationship with us. God covering, atoning, and saving; not us, not any man. God, in His goodness, providing another way than our destruction. In future posts, I’ll talk more about this way. Because although we must go to God, look to Him, trust in Him, listen to His voice, obey Him – none of this is sufficient to earn our own salvation. There aren’t enough fig leaves in the entire world to sew together to cover the sin of even a single person. Similarly, there aren’t enough animal sacrifices to cover the sins of one person. There is nothing humankind can do to save themselves. God Himself MUST provide the sacrifice. He provides the Way to redemption, and there is no other way we can take.

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Summary of points:

• God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
• Everything He made was “very good.”
• God has a purpose for us.
• God gives us a choice.
• God created us to be relational, and to be in a relationship with Him.
• Sin was not a creation of our God, but was caused by disobedience to His command.
• He is sovereign and doing His work. We do not know and cannot understand the work of God or what the end will be.
• A good God MUST make death the penalty for disobedience.
• God offers us a path to redemption.
• God Himself MUST provide the sacrifice.