12/06/21 HE CHANGES NOT

12/06/21 HE CHANGES NOT 

The one and only true God of the Old Testament is the same one and only true God of the New Testament.

This same God is loving, merciful, kind, forgiving, long suffering, slow to anger, redemptive in both Testaments.

This same God is just, jealous, holy, righteous, He judges and condemns sin and sinners in both Testaments.

Most people, who know anything about the Bible, would probably acknowledge that the God of the New Testament is loving, redemptive, and kind. However, the devil has corrupted the image of God in the Old Testament in the minds of people, including people who call themselves, "Bible-believing Christians," into a god of wrath. It is true that God does have wrath and that He exercises wrath in specific situations, in both the Old and New Testaments, but that does not preclude God's love, kindness, mercy, patients.

This post is not a study concerning the nature of God, but simply to point out that God's goodness was revealed and declared in the Old Testament. Here are a few passages, offered as "proof texts."

Right away I have upset some people because many of the folks who want to portray God in the Old Testament as different from God in the New Testament do not like Scripture text to be used as proof of Biblical truth, even when the text is consistent with the context. They would rather depend on human interpretation than Divine revelation.

God is slow to anger and He abounds in love (see asterisks *)

Exodus 34:6-9

6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, * longsuffering, and * abundant in goodness and truth,

7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

Numbers 14:18-19

18 * The LORD is longsuffering, and * of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

Nehemiah 9:16-21

16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,

17 And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, * slow to anger, and *of great kindness, and forsookest them not.

18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;

19 Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.

20 Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.

21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.

Psalms 86:13-15

13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.

14 O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them.

15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, * longsuffering, and * plenteous in mercy and truth.

Psalms 103:1-18

1 A Psalm of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

6 The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, * slow to anger, and * plenteous in mercy.

9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.

10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

18 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.