Drew,

I can’t help feeling a bit sorry for Uzzah. There he was, walking along hot and tired, chatting to his mates. An ox stumbles; Uzzah tries to stop the Ark from getting damaged, doesn’t want it to get scratched. He reaches out to help and he gets struck down by God. I know God is almighty and can do what he wants and maybe Uzzah had done other things to deserve God’s wrath. But the way the Bible puts it Uzzah sounds like an innocent man only trying to help. The nature of God in th Old Testament seems to conflict with the mesage of love and forgiveness in the New. Can they be reconciled? Jesus allowed people to touch him, even healed them. I’m thinking of that woman whose haemorrhage was cured when she touched Jesus cloak. I can’t imagine Jesus cutting down Uzzah for touching him. Has the Old Testament got God wrong? Is he as vengeful and bloodthirsty as it suggests? Maybe the New Testament is too loving and forgiving and God is stern and demands respect above love? Am I talking nonsense, Drew?

Jack

Jack-in-the-Email,

You’re not talking nonsense. I feel sorry for Uzzah, too: literally trying to lend a helping hand; but I guess when God says “don’t touch,” he means it. Sometimes I feel like if I do something I may get arbitrarily zapped like Uzzah or worse yet get eaten from the inside out by worms like Herod in Acts 12; but then I remember that God isn’t arbitrary or capricious. He gave specific, explicit instructions for handling the ark, and Herod, well, he was just stupid for accepting deification from his people.

Should we then marvel if people are judged on the spot? We should marvel like the Psalmist when justice is delayed and cry out for the day, as Martin Luther King impassioned in his famous sermon quoting the prophet Amos, saying: “let justice roll down like waters” (Amos 5:24). The topic of justice is a nice segue into your email concerning the two seemingly opposing views of God presented in the Old and New Testaments.

A lot of people want to pit the Old Testament against the New Testament, but I would like to argue that they’re not at odds but complimentary. Is there reconciling to do between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament? Are there two gods at hand? If one has a cursory knowledge of the Bible and/or his view of the “Gods” of the Bible is taken from hearsay, I can understand that he may feel that there is a noticeable inconsistency when comparing the two Testaments; but after becoming familiar with the Bible as a whole, this inconsistency in the mind of the reader should decrease. What the Old Testament contains, the New Testament also contains. It is the error of Marcion to insist that two separate “Gods” exist in the Scriptures because the Testaments seemingly present two opposing views.

“But there is the wrath of God poured out on people in the Old Testament such as in the case of Uzzah, something Jesus would not condone.”
Consider the case of Herod in the New Testament who was smitten by the Angel of the Lord and eaten by worms. Consider Jesus depicted in the final book of the New Testament, Revelation, coming with a robe dipped in blood to judge the earth.

“The God of Jesus seems so loving but this aspect of God isn’t presented in the Old Testament.”
Consider the Psalms which are songs addressed to God: “your steadfast love is better than life” (Psalm 63:3). Also, the Law contains provision for the widow and and the poor and the foreigner that should find themselves in Israel. In fact, the golden rule comes originally not from Jesus in the Gospels but from Leviticus (book of law in the Old Testament): “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).

The New Testament affirms the God of the Old Testament. Indeed he is the same, not two different, and both Testaments testify to him. It is necessary when thinking of God not too allow yourself to concentrate on only one attribute. Yes, God is love but God is also a righteous judge. These two attributes are not at odds. If we feel he needs reconciled to himself, we lack understanding and knowledge of the whole person of God.

I can see where one would think that the wrath of God in the Old Testament in opposed to the love of God in the New Testament, but I would encourage that person to read the Bible and see that both the love of God is presented in the Old Testament and the wrath of God in the New Testament.

“Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!”
Psalm 67:3-5