The God of the Old Testament: Love or Vengeance?: An Alternative Historical View of God’s Love for All Mankind

By G. David Bedney

Have you ever wondered why in the Old Testament God wiped out an entire population in a global flood except for one family? Or why, when giving the land of Canaan to the children of Israel, He commanded the destruction of the entire Canaanite nation? Does this sound to you like a loving God, or does He seem more like a vengeful tyrant or egomaniac, demanding service and worship? 

On the other hand, there’s the God of the New Testament—Jesus, the Messiah. He is loving and patient, caring and selfless—not at all like the God of the Old Testament, right? He even gave His life for the people He loves. So how do we reconcile this picture of God, as seen in the life of Jesus, with the picture of God in the Old Testament? Are there two different Gods? Or perhaps this shows two different sides of the same God—with the Old Testament displaying God’s justice and vengeance toward the sinner, while the New Testament shows His mercy and forgiveness.

In this book, the author seeks to offer the reader an alternative perspective, one that is biblically and historically founded in recorded Old Testament events, revealing God’s unconditional love for His creation throughout the Old Testament. As we explore Old Testament stories, it should become quite clear that the God of the Old Testament is just as loving, patient, and longsuffering—if not more so—as the God of the New Testament, Jesus Christ Himself! As you review the evidence contained herein, you may be surprised that you come to the same conclusion, understanding the consistent and amazing love of God throughout the history…and the future of humankind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 27, 2024
• ISBN: 9798888324462

Book preview

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The God of the Old Testament: Love or Vengeance?

An Alternative Historical View of God's Love for All Mankind

G. David Bedney

ISBN 979-8-88832-445-5 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88832-446-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by G. David Bedney

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

Who Is God?

Chapter 1

God, the Creator

Chapter 2

God, the Forgiver

Chapter 3

Sodom and Gomorrah

God and the Egyptian Nation

Chapter 4

The Egyptians, Part 1

Chapter 5

The Egyptians, Part 2

Chapter 6

The Egyptians, Part 3

God and the Philistine Nation

Chapter 7

The Philistines, Part 1

Chapter 8

The Philistines, Part 2

Chapter 9

The Philistines, Part 3

Chapter 10

The Philistines, Part 4

Afterword

Notes

About the Author

Introduction

This book was born out of my personal search for and journey with God. Personal choices and experiences led me to question not only His love but also His grace and willingness to forgive. I realized that I and many others who carry the name Christian had accepted a misconception of God that negatively affected my relationship with Him through the years. This realization prompted my quest for the truth about the character of God.

As I studied the stories and accounts found in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, I noticed consistently an incredible amount of patience from God and a willingness to forgive anyone—yes, anyone—who truly desired it! Even as I reread the edits for this manuscript, they spoke words of love and encouragement to my heart, giving me the courage to continue this earthly trek in subjection to His guidance. Consequently, as I have shared my findings with others in casual conversation, many have expressed surprise and even wonderment at the concepts revealed.

Truth be told, everyone in this world wants to be loved. I know that there are a lot of people who are especially searching for some Supreme Being who will love and accept them unconditionally, not necessarily giving them whatever they want but, yes, providing for their every need—whether emotional or otherwise. Unfortunately, the concept of God that we, as Christians, have offered to the world has been unattractive and woefully inaccurate, even a poor and very unfair representation of the God of heaven.

It is for this reason and more that I now share with you just a few examples of the unconditional love offered by the God of the biblical Old Testament. The New Testament plainly states that God is love (1 John 4:8), and unless there are two different Gods between the Old and the New Testament, this love must be displayed throughout the entire Bible.

If you sincerely desire to know such a God, please keep reading. He will reveal Himself to you. He can fully be trusted when He says,

You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV)

Section 1

Who Is God?

Chapter 1

God, the Creator

Chapter Concepts/Questions: What is love? Why is God… God, and why did He create humans? After Adam and Eve sinned, did He leave them to their own demise (i.e., you made your bed; now sleep in it)? Who is Satan, and why is there a conflict between him and God? Are we alone in this universe? How do I earn back God's love?

God is love! All of my life I've heard this. And it even plainly says so in the Bible:

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:8, 16; italics mine)

Yet for many years now, I have heard comments from people, like "How can God be love? Look at the stories in the Bible and how He had entire nations killed. How can that be love? Or when looking at Jesus, who is believed to be God, and how He acted, many say, Well, the God of the Old Testament is vengeful and severe, but the God of the New Testament (i.e., Jesus) is kind, loving and forgiving or The Old Testament and the New Testament show two different sides of God—the Old Testament shows His vengeance and justice, while the New Testament shows His mercy and grace."

Granted, from a superficial read, these comments sound plausible. But I must say that because of my own personal experiences in life and personal Bible study, I no longer agree with either of these views. I have come to see that the God of the Old Testament is just as loving as the God of the New Testament—or even more so, if that's possible. I just believe that we have not taken the time to properly probe into and reflect on the Old Testament accounts to a sufficient degree so as to understand the reasons why the events of the Old Testament had to conclude in the way that they did—and yes, I did say had to!

Is God really a loving God? Does what we read about in Scripture confirm or deny this statement? To begin with, we need to understand what love is and even what it is not. Undoubtedly, most people are familiar with the different kinds of love. In case you haven't heard, simply put, they are (1) eros (erotic, passionate love); (2) philia (love of friends and admirers); (3) storge (love of parents for children); (4) pragma (mature, enduring love); (5) philautia (healthy self-love or self-compassion); (6) ludas (teasing, playful love); and (7) agape (universal, unconditional, selfless love).¹

Well, the love of God that is defined in 1 John is the seventh one described above, known as agape (pronounced ag-ah'-pay), and is most often considered to be the love that God has for all of creation. It is viewed as an unconditional love. Simply put, it is a love that is not dependent upon what the person who is loved does, says, thinks, or even how they respond to the love that is given. Regardless of any of these, God loves them and treats them as such.

Different aspects of this love will be better understood as we progress through this writing. If you wish to read a summary of this kind of love, you can read through a passage in the Bible that gives a pretty clear view of it. It's found in the thirteenth chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians. But keep in mind that this type of love is not just a nice, gooey feeling, nor is it always happy about what the other person is doing. It's not shown by giving someone whatever they want when they want it! True love does not allow someone to do whatever they want whenever they want without restraint or consequence; and it is not overly permissive. But in spite of all this, it still continues because it attaches no conditions for its existence upon the one who is loved.

God is…

Before we go too far into this subject of God's love, I think we have to ask some very basic questions like, "Why do we consider God to be God in the first place? What qualities or attributes give Him the right to possess this title? And how does this demonstrate His love from the get-go?

The very first verse in the very first book of the Bible (Genesis 1:1 NKJV) says this: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The first four words are very clear: In the beginning, God. So where did God come from? Okay, now I'm going to digress for a moment and state the obvious; some of you likely don't even believe in God at all—at least you don't think you do. Your experiences in life and even your education have taught you such.

I'm not going to take time to address Darwinism and evolutionary theory. In my opinion as a scientist (with an MD degree) who has studied the intricacies of the human body, it takes just as much faith, if not more, to believe that all of life began with a major explosion millions of years ago and has evolved from chaos into the detailed organisms of life (i.e., plant or animal) that we see today than to simply believe that a Supreme Being (i.e., God) planned and created all of it from the power of His might! (e.g., just look at the detailed structure and function of the human eye and ear alone!) But you do with that what you will!

I have actually come to see a strong correlation between true science and the validity of the Bible. When studied for itself, the Bible actually makes much more logical sense. Stay with me while we explore a bit further.

So this Supreme Being, God, did He have a beginning? Actually, Scripture answers this question. God has always been present! Most people have heard of Moses—the person whom God sent to free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. Well, when God told Moses to go to Egypt, Moses would tell them that the God of your fathers has sent me to you. But knowing his people, Moses asked God what he should say when they should ask What is His name? God's response to Moses was simply, tell them I Am has sent me to you (Exodus 3:13, 14 NKJV).

To adequately define this phrase would take up more than a chapter in itself. To simplify, when God said I Am, He was actually introducing Himself using a name with which Israel was not yet very familiar—Yahweh, or more accurately without the vowels, YHWH. One interpretation of this name is The Self-Existent One. In other words, God has always existed; He had no beginning and will have no end:

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God (Psalm 90:2 NKJV; italics mine).

In modern terms, from eternity past through eternity future, God is! This concept is certainly beyond our comprehension; it's mind-boggling! According to Genesis 21:33, He is the Everlasting God. He declares of Himself, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,' says the Lord, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty' (Revelation 1:8 NKJV).

Can any other being make and support such a claim? Part of the support for this claim comes when we actually consider the vast expanse of the universe in which we live. If, in fact, this universe is the product of design and not mere chance (as Darwinism claims), it would certainly take an All-Powerful Being to execute such a plan, wouldn't it? And He would have to be called nothing less than God! This very thought caused the psalmist to exclaim,

When I consider Thy heavens, the works of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou visitest him? (Psalm 8:3, 4 KJV)

I'll have more to say about this amazing universe near the end of this chapter.

God's original design for mankind.

That first verse also declares God to be the Creator of the heavens and the earth—everything. This claim is made throughout Scripture (see Exodus 20:11, Isaiah 42:5, Isaiah 45:18, John 1:1–3, Colossians 1:16, Revelation 10:6). And why did He create all of these things? Revelation 4:11 says, For Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. There it is; everything was created for His pleasure.

So what is His pleasure? Does God have some selfish, self-centered agenda where, if we don't please Him, He will abuse and torture us? Was everyone and everything in our world created so that we might suffer pain, frustration, sickness and, ultimately, death? Are we pawns on a chessboard for God to simply move in one direction or another, just to see what will happen next, without consideration for our thoughts and feelings? Absolutely not! Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV) clarifies this by stating plainly, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Even Jesus, who the Bible identifies as God Himself in human form (see Mark 14:62 NKJV), reiterates this point in John 10:10 when He says, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Even in the creation story in the book of Genesis, God repeats the phrase it was good after everything that He created, and all of it He made for our joy and pleasure.

To drive this point home with even more permanence, God placed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. I first heard a speaker, Ty Gibson, define this word, so I then confirmed it from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. The word Eden actually means pleasure or delight; so, yes, the garden of Eden is actually really called the garden of Pleasure or the garden of Delight. This was their home from the dawn of creation. But after Adam and Eve made the unfortunate choice not to trust God and eat from the forbidden tree (see Genesis 3), they had to leave their delightful garden home!

God's answer to Adam and Eve's choice.

Most of the readers of this book will likely be familiar with the story of the first two humans created on this earth, often referred to as our first parents, Adam and Eve. For those who are not, here's a brief summary of their experience. God placed two trees in the middle of the garden of Eden (i.e., Genesis 2:9)—one tree from which they were permitted to eat and which would sustain their lives indefinitely (i.e., the tree of life), and the other from which they were forbidden to eat (i.e., the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). In fact, God told them that if they ate from this second tree, they would surely die (Genesis 2:17).

This second tree was placed there essentially as a test of trust. Would the new couple trust God and His love for them, enough to obey Him and not eat from the tree? Unfortunately, Bible history ultimately showed that they would not. They ate its fruit, and sin now entered the picture. However, there are a couple of specifics that I should address before plowing ahead.

First, when Adam and Eve were about to eat from the forbidden tree, God did not rush down and cause interference, saying Hey! What are you two doing? Didn't I tell you not to eat that? Put that down! Back away from the tree! Now don't do that again! No, no. Even though He sees all and is not surprised by what is taking place, it must be by choice that the couple eat or refrain from eating what has been forbidden.

Also, after Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent and had eaten the forbidden fruit, notice God's response. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8 NKJV). No rushing around, no yelling or screaming, just…walking! Don't misunderstand. God already knew what had happened. He wasn't naive! And neither was He caught by surprise. But He did want Adam and Eve to reflect on what they had done; do some post-event introspection. So He called out to Adam and asked, Where are you? Didn't He already know? Of course He knew where Adam was, but He now wanted Adam to recognize where he was.

Adam answered and said, I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid (verse 10). By the way, God's first recorded words were Where are you? So what voice did Adam hear? Perhaps he heard God gently speaking to other creatures—birds and animals—as He walked or (as Ty pointed out from Zephaniah 3:17) softly humming a tune! Since the Bible doesn't say how long there was between creation and the first sin, maybe before sin entered, God had spent a lot of daily time with Adam and Eve, and this was His usual approach as He came nearer.

Adam continued, I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself. Now rather than just pronouncing judgment, God replied to Adam and Eve with questions. He asked Adam, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree? Okay, time to reflect on the consequences of mistrust. God's response implies that the only way you could know that you are naked is either (1) someone told you that you were naked, or (2) you've eaten what you shouldn't have eaten. Because of the power of choice God has provided to everyone, His questions seem to seek further reflection from the guilty ones, which also implies that there will be more information provided by God after His questions are answered. This in itself suggests that God has already provided a way out of this mess that Adam and Eve have just created.

Now Adam started the blame game with God: "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate (verse 12; italics mine). God doesn't become defensive and say, Hey, it's not my fault! You chose to eat and… No. God simply continued with His attempt to stimulate reflection by asking Eve, What is this you have done (verse 13)? Eve's answer, yet another blame: The serpent deceived me, and I ate" (verse 13).

Notice that no question was asked to the serpent, who is identified in Revelation 20:2 as the Devil, or Satan, the originator of all sin, the great angel who rebelled against God in heaven. His eternal choice has already been made; no plan to redeem him can be devised. Therefore, the Creator's judgments are now meted out.

God showed much love and patience with our first parents in their new condition. He simply stated facts about how things will change for them on the earth moving forward and also revealed that He has a plan which, in the long run, will remedy this situation for all who return to and place their trust in Him. But for now, they must leave their delightful garden home as a consequence of their choice.

And why did they have to leave? That seems a bit harsh for just this one incident of mistrust. Is God that exacting that if they made just one little mistake, He would just throw them out like that? Well, actually, the simple answer is…yes! But believe it or not, this is one of the first examples ever displayed of His great love for humans.

A covenant.

At this point in the narrative, most people go straight to the obvious explanation of why they had to leave—you know, the Tree of Life! If they remained in the garden, Adam and Eve would still have had access to this tree, and God had created this tree with fruit that contained the power to perpetuate life indefinitely. So if the two had been allowed to eat fruit from this tree after having sinned, they would have become sinners who now possessed the ability to live forever…in sin…with all of the pain, suffering, and horror that goes with this new state of being. Not an encouraging outlook, if you ask me. So again, this was quite merciful on God's part to have them leave the garden.

But let's assess this from another vantage point. Scripture speaks of a covenant, an agreement between God and humans. The first mention of this covenant is found in Genesis 3:15, after Adam and Eve sinned, where God basically makes a promise that because of sin, He will instill a separation, or enmity, between the serpent's (Satan's) descendants and the woman's descendants (so there is no confusion, the word enmity is defined as the feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to); and at the same time, He promised that this enmity would lead to the bruising of Satan's head—in other words,