Our Unchangeable God

Jesus Reading the Old Testament

From our Tuesday Morning Bible Study:

Perhaps you have heard statements similar to these:

"God was a God of judgment in the Old Testament but is gracious in the New Testament."

"The Law in the Old Testament was about obedience to the letter of the Law while in the New Testament God wants obedience from the heart."

Whether you have heard those statements of not, there is a general feeling by many people that God was somehow different in the OId Testament. He was harsher in judgment. It is also felt by many that the Old Testament focused more on the letter of the law than the emphasis we see on heartfelt obedience in the New.

Those attitudes are based upon a very superficial reading of the Bible and are not at all supported by the scriptural text. First of all, God gives us a general statement of His unchangeable nature in Malachi:

For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. (Mal. 3:6)

God's character is absolutely consistent. He is incapable of change. In fact, for God to change would be a sign that He was not, in fact, God.

In our Tuesday Bible study, we saw an indication of the unchanging nature of God in the commands of the Law on how the Israelites were to treat their neighbors.

You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. (Lev. 19:17-18)

You will recognize "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" as a quote from Jesus in the New Testament. Most people do not know that He was actually quoting from the Old Testament. In fact, most of Jesus' preaching was from the Old Testament scriptures. Jesus did not come to destroy the Law that had been given but to fulfill it in righteousness. (Matt. 5:17)

God has always been interested in obedience from the heart. Under the Law, God was no more pleased with wicked-hearted Israelites who did their sacrifices than he is today with professing Christians who go to church but are inwardly sinful and rebellious against Him. God expressed his loathing for hypocritical religion in the Old Testament as well as the New.

I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an everflowing stream. (Amos 5:21-24)

I take great comfort in God's unchanging nature and rejoice in the Scripture's complete testimony to it. It means that all of God's promises to His people will be fulfilled. It means that I can turn to any part of God's holy word and find a testimony to God's goodness and grace, as well as to his holiness and judgment.

Rejoice today in the fact that God does not change.

Tony

Audio from the Tuesday Bible Study
The Journey Resumes
Handout

Written for Our Learning

From our Tuesday Morning Bible Study:

Has this happened to you? You make a New Year's resolution to read the Bible through in a year. In January you begin with Genesis. You read Genesis and the first half of Exodus and think, "Wow, this is really good." Then you read the last part of Exodus and get bogged down in the detailed description of the tabernacle construction...but you soldier on. Then, you come to Leviticus with its precise instructions of the various sacrifices...and you quit.

Admittedly, part of the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch) is difficult to read. These parts contain detailed descriptions of the construction of the tabernacle, of garments for priests, and of a sacrificial system that is no longer practiced. Why are these portions in the Bible? What good is it for us today? Can modern Christians in 2009 gain any benefit from reading these passages about a system that has long been obsolete?

The short answer is yes.

There are two reasons why we have these detailed sections in the Bible on sacrifices and tabernacle construction. First of all, the Bible was not only written for people in the 21st century. It was written for God's people living in every century. The first five books were initially written to the children of Israel living in the wilderness almost 3500 years ago. It gave them God's plan for their worship and provided subsequent generations with the historical basis for their faith.

Secondly, and just as importantly, all things in God's word were written for our learning. (Romans 15:4) The description of the tabernacle and the rituals of the Law were filled with types and allusions to the sinful condition of man and the redemption that God purposed to accomplish through Jesus Christ. The tabernacle was a living object lesson to the people of Israel about the plan of God. We read the Old Testament and our faith grows because we see that God's plan did not unfold haphazardly but was in the mind of God from eternity past and was being worked out even even among the Children of Israel in the wilderness.

The next time you try to read through Exodus and Leviticus, I encourage you to read the New Testament book of Hebrews along with it. The writer there does a magnificent job of tying the Old Testament ritual to the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Read it...and let God bless you.

Tony

Audio from Tuesday's Session
The Tabernacle
Handout