A pastor friend maintains that God in the Old Testament is one of wrath. More judgment than love. Less easy to be around, I guess. We’ve had rip-roaring debates, but he remains unmovable. He’s not alone in categorizing God in the Old Testament as different from the way Jesus acts in the New. God’s Son comes across as more accepting, more flexible than His Father. Or so it seems to some. But not to me.

For God is the same in both testaments. He’s consistent from Genesis to Revelation. Forget that stuff about the wrathful One here and the forgiving One there. As if we worship two separate but not equal gods. God forbid.

Here’s what Jesus says–‘For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him’ (John 3: 17). Note that when the Nazarene, our Lord, says this that none, underscore none, of the New Testament has been written. Only the First Testament, the old one, which was Jesus’ Bible, may I add. The Father sends His own Son as our Savior. Can you imagine such love?

For Jesus yearns for us to know Him. To be forgiven and given a new life. A new name, so to speak. Second, third, and fourth chances to start over for Him. On top of that, He makes a home for us in heaven. A security found nowhere else.

But if someone thumbs their nose at God and wants nothing more to do with Him, He’ll honor that and remove Himself from their lives. What remains is a handful of ashes. Disappointment forever. Regrets unending. An unsavory nothing-burger.

Does God in the Old Testament relish such a final judgment? That wrathful God who tosses salt willy-nilly in their wounds? Here’s a verse from that part of the Bible as found in Ezekiel–‘But if the wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; he shall not die. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?’ (Ez. 18: 21-23). Chew on that for a while.

Our God yearns, most of all, to save, help, and love us. It’s a seamless story, fixed and unchanging all through your Bible.

P.S.–My concordance lists more words for ‘love’ in the Old Testament than in the New!

Thank you, God, for your consistent love and forgiveness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.