Was God Merciful And Loving In The Old Testament?

I believe those who read the Old Testament, especially for non-Christians, might ask why God was so harsh and judgemental to the people in the Old Testament. Jesus portrayed God the Father as a loving God because Jesus said that those who saw Him saw the Father.

John 14:7-9 New King James Version (NKJV)
⁷ “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

⁸ Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Jesus is telling us that what He did on earth was what God the Father wanted to do and the words that He spoke were the words God the Father wanted to speak. You can never find Jesus in the four gospels reminding people of their sins or condemning any sinners when they came to Him. Rather, He showed them grace and mercy by forgiving them and even healed those who were sick. If God is so loving and merciful, why did He command Israel to kill all the men and women and everyone in the cities they conquered?

I was puzzled and asked the Lord but no word from Him then I felt to do a Google search. I do not believe most of the stuff I searched on the net and seldom felt the resonation in my spirit. However the Holy Spirit cause Deuteronomy 18 caught my eyes during the search. The explanation did not give me the satisfaction but I knew that Deuteronomy 18 is the beginning of the understanding that God will give me.

Deuteronomy 18:9-14 New King James Version (NKJV)
⁹ “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. ¹² For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. ¹³ You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you.

Verse 14 is the verse that actually caught my eyes. The nations Israel destroyed were people who involved with the power of darkness. I shall share a little of spiritual realm and things. The only spiritual beings are the angels and the fallen angels (Satan and the demons), all other forms of spiritual beings seen by men are created by the devil to deceive men.

Revelation 16:13-14 New King James Version (NKJV)
¹³ And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴ For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

Revelation tells us that demons are spirit beings.

1 Kings 22:19-23 New King James Version (NKJV)
¹⁹ Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. ²⁰ And the Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. ²¹ Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ ²² The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’ ²³ Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.”

The word of God tells us that there are spirit beings in heaven and they are among the host of heaven. I believe they are the angels of God. Jesus told us that a spirit does not have bone and flesh.

Luke 24:39 New King James Version (NKJV)
³⁹ Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.

Therefore if anyone, especially non-Christians, sees a spirit, he is seeing a demon. Angels will not allow us to see them unless God has a mission for them to accomplish then they would be visible to men. Demons can transform themselves and possess men (this is why Jesus was casting out demons from men in Israel in the gospels).

God and two angels transformed into men in Genesis 18 to meet Abraham. Although it is not written that the other two men were angels, but we can conclude that they were. Genesis 18 verse one says that the LORD appeared to Abraham and he saw three men. Surely one of the men was the LORD, and then the other two were angels. I remember Pastor Joseph Prince of New Creation Church mentioned that the two angels were likely to be Michael and Gabriel; the two archangels. I believe so.

For example, if a king is going on for a mission, would he bring anyone of low rank with him? I doubt so. Even for a company CEO, if he is to visit a department, surely, at least senior managers will accompany him. Ok, if angels of God can transform themselves to human beings, so can the demons. The demons can also transform into other beings to deceive men into believing the spirits of the dead roaming on the earth, thus creating fear to men in the lunar seventh month. There’s a common factor for all kinds of believers; regardless of religion or even atheist, they believe in ghost. Even Christians that I know of also believe that there are ghosts. As for me, they are the demons and demons are fearful of Christians because of Jesus (in us).

Black magic is real. But it has no effect on real Christians. Why do I say real Christians? There are people professing to be Christians but in their hearts they do not believe or accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. A true Christian has God the Holy Spirit dwelling in him therefore when evil spirits come before him, all he has to do is to shout the name of Jesus and they will flee. Our Lord Jesus has given us the authority over the power of darkness (Luke 10:19) and we can cast them out in the name of Jesus Christ (Mark 16:17).

Now back to the topic. Since the nations Israel were destroying involved with the power of darkness, God had to destroy them. Satan was using those nations to stop the salvation plan of God. When God cursed Satan after Adam ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He prophesied that the seed of Eve would destroy him. Therefore in order to prevent the prophecy of God to happen, Satan had to destroy mankind, especially those whom He used. Satan also used men to destroy men, because he knew God loves men and would want to spare them, and it would hurt Him to see men perish.

For those involved with black magic and any demonic stuff, he will become evil and it is very difficult for him (or maybe impossible) to turn to the Lord. There was not a verse that those nations involved with occult or any black magic would turn to Israel and surrendered. There’s a nation that deceived Israel into not destroying them and even submitted to Israel.

Joshua 9:22-27 New King James Version (NKJV)
²² Then Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ when you dwell near us? ²³ Now therefore, you are cursed, and none of you shall be freed from being slaves—woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”

²⁴ So they answered Joshua and said, “Because your servants were clearly told that the Lord your God commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you; therefore we were very much afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing.²⁵ And now, here we are, in your hands; do with us as it seems good and right to do to us.” ²⁶ So he did to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they did not kill them. ²⁷ And that day Joshua made them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, in the place which He would choose, even to this day.

The Gibeonites deceived Israel so that they made a promise not to destroy them. But when the plot was uncovered, they were willing to be woodcutters and water carriers for Israel and for the service of Yahweh their God. I believe the Gibeonites were not deeply involved in demonic stuffs like the other nations. This is because when the neighbouring nations heard the Gibeonites submitted to Israel, they wanted to destroy them.

Joshua 10:3-5 New King James Version (NKJV)
³ Therefore Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir king of Eglon, saying,⁴ “Come up to me and help me, that we may attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.” ⁵ Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, gathered together and went up, they and all their armies, and camped before Gibeon and made war against it.

The other five nations were angry that Gibeon made peace with Israel. I wondered why the other five nations did not do the same. I believe because their hearts were given to the devil and they were full of evil therefore they could not submit themselves to Yahweh like the Gibeonites. I believe if the five kings submitted themselves with a willing heart to Israel, God would spare their lives. They would be serving Yahweh and worship Him too. But they could not, because the devil had a hold in their lives. Therefore God had to destroy these nations; every men and women, including the young and old. We can never know what the devil could do with the young and the old; he might use them to do evil things too. God is not so hard-hearted, if those nations also submitted He would surely spare them just like He spared the Gibeonites.

Paul wrote that there is a group of people who have given their lives to the devil and live a destructive life, but they do not realize.

Ephesians 4:17-19 New King James Version (NKJV)
¹⁷ This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, ¹⁸ having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; ¹⁹ who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

I bold verse 19 because it caught my eyes. There are people who will never repent and turn to God and Jesus because the devil has completely deceived them and they gave in and allow Satan to have control over their lives. I shall show you another bible version of verse 19.

Ephesians 4:19Young’s Literal Translation (YLT)
¹⁹ who, having ceased to feel, themselves did give up to the lasciviousness, for the working of all uncleanness in greediness;

This group of people have ceased to feel pain. Actually the Greek word for “being past feeling” is “apalgeo” and it means to cease to feel pain or grief. Wow, this means they have no more feelings not to mention having compassion for people. God already knew that there was this kind of people on the earth, being used by the devil to stop His salvation plan to save all mankind and bring us back to Him to enjoy the abundant life He has for each one of us.

In the Old Testament, God had to destroy those nations Satan used or the devil could wipe out the entire human race. Imagine letting Saddam Hussein to live, means people in Iraq would suffer and many more would be tortured under his hands. If killing a man means saving thousands or even millions, it is the right thing to do. Even killing Osama Bin Laden is the right thing to do and it is good. He caused the death of many innocent lives. Therefore I agree with the killing of evil men to save the lives of innocent people. I pray that you get my meaning.

I am trying to explain why God had to kill the people of those nations. I know that some might ask it is understandable to kill the adults but why also killed the children. Yes, God did command Israel to kill the little ones in the Old Testament. This is a tough topic which many preachers and pastors will avoid to preach or talk about. I prayed and waited upon God and now I shall explain what I understood.

Deuteronomy 20:16-18 New King James Version (NKJV)
¹⁶ “But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, ¹⁷ but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.

Wow… it seems that God was so harsh and judgmental. If you look on the surface, yes, God looked like a very harsh and judgmental God. But in fact, He wasn’t. The LORD was protecting His people, the children of Israel, for the sake of the salvation of all mankind, because Jesus was to be born of Israel. God didn’t want to destroy all the nations that Israel was supposed to conquer. If the city Israel wanted to make war with, Israel was supposed to proclaim and offer of peace to see if they were willing to submit to the LORD their God. Israel became famous because of the red sea incident and the conquer of Jericho in a miraculous way. Surely, if a city accepted the offer of peace with Israel, this meant, they accepted to believe the LORD their God and would also worship Him.

Deuteronomy 20:10-15 New King James Version (NKJV)
¹⁰ “When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it. ¹¹ And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you. ¹² Now if the city will not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³ And when the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.¹⁴ But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall eat the enemies’ plunder which the Lord your God gives you. ¹⁵ Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.

God is merciful, even in the Old Testament. He even gave the cities Israel wanted to conquer a choice to submit to Him; Israel was just a representative of Yahweh, just like now we are ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). Whoever hears us preaching the gospel and believes, he is hearing and believing Jesus. Therefore, in the Old Testament, those who rejected Israel and fought them, they were actually rejecting God and fighting against Him.

As I mentioned earlier in Ephesians 4:19 that there is a group of people who has ceased to feel pain or grieve, therefore they would not submit to the Yahweh even though they knew He is God of heavens and earth. God had to destroy this group of people otherwise Satan could use them to destroy the plan of God in Israel.

These are the peoples God told Israel to destroy (there is no option for them to surrender because they were completely given to the devil in the form of idolatry): Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. These peoples sacrificed their children in fire to their gods.

Deuteronomy 18:9-11 New King James Version (NKJV)
⁹ “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

I believe these people that God wanted Israel to destroy are controlled by the devil. Witchcraft and sorcerer are real. Therefore people of the world are afraid of black magic and some even keep “little ghosts” to run errand and make money. They are actually involved directly with the demons and have given them the authority of their lives. So I believe the people that God wanted to destroy were people who were beyond salvation because of the hardness of their hearts and the control of the devil in their lives.

There is an incident in the Old Testament that mentioned a man in the children of Israel kept the things of the idolatry and then was stoned to death with his family.

Joshua 7:1 New King James Version (NKJV)
¹ But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.

Why was it so serious that taking the accursed things caused the anger of the Lord to burn against the whole Israel?

Joshua 7:20-25 New King James Version (NKJV)
²⁰ And Achan answered Joshua and said, “Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done: ²¹ When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it.”

²² So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. ²³ And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord. ²⁴ Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the Valley of Achor. ²⁵ And Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.” So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.

Achan and his family, and all that he had all were burned with fire. Why was there a need to even burn his oxen, donkeys and sheep? I strongly believe that the city of Jericho was a city that many practiced witchcraft and other demon stuffs so there were many things used for demon activities. I believe there was some demon power and influence on the accursed things Achan took. Demons can dwell in a place and can also go to animals and person.

When Jesus went to cast out Legion (demons possessed in a man), and they entered into a herd of swine after He cast them out. You may read this in Mark 5 and Luke 8. Demons are contagious and they could dwell in things, animals and men. This is why God wanted the children of Israel to burn all that Achan had because the demons might have dwell in some of his possession.

However not every type of thing of idolatry is demonic. Jacob’s wife, Rachel, stole her father’s household idols but nothing happened (Genesis 31:19).

“Household idols” in Hebrew is traphiym. Traphiym means a family idols or image. This does not involve demonic power. Therefore there was no need to kill her.

“Accursed things” in Hebrew is cherem. Cherem means cursed thing, things which should have been utterly destroyed, appointed to utter destruction, devoted thing. It is not an ordinary thing like what Rachel took.

This is not an easy topic to teach or share. But I thank my God for showing me that He indeed is the same yesterday, today and forever. He was, is and will always be merciful and gracious. The peoples God destroyed was for our good; to protect us from the plan of Satan to destroy mankind.

I shall show you further that indeed there are men who are beyond help and have given themselves completely to evil.

Revelation 13:7-8 New King James Version (NKJV)
⁷ It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. ⁸ All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

There are men on earth who will worship the evil one and give themselves wholly to the devil. It is the truth that indeed some men will not be saved but praise be to God that it is a minority. Satan knew that there are men he could use to hurt God by using men to destroy men and blaspheme the name of Jesus.

Even right now, Satan is still using men to destroy mankind. This explains the rise of terrorist attacks all over the world. This world is coming to an end; the end of the rule of Satan over the earth and the rule of Jesus will come. For every believer of Jesus Christ, he doesn’t need to be afraid of the Great Tribulation mentioned in the bible, because all of us will be raptured and be in heaven with Christ Jesus our Lord just before the Great Tribulation begins.

2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 1599 Geneva Bible (GNV)
³ Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a departing first, and that that man of sin be disclosed, even the son of perdition.

⁴ Which is an adversary, and exalteth himself against all that is called God, or that is worshipped: so that he doth sit as God in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

I show you Geneva Bible version because other bible versions do not explain correctly for verse 3. The word ‘departing’ is apostaisa in Greek. In NKJV it is interpreted as ‘falling away’ and many bible versions also describe the same way; they describe as men falling away from the faith and going against God. This is inaccurate. Tyndale Bible 1534 by William Tyndale translates it correctly. It also says departure first. Now what does this departure mean if it is not the meaning of falling away from the faith?

This departure means leaving the current body you are in and receive the glorious body from the Lord; which means rapture (Pastor Prince of New Creation Church is the one who helped me to understand). This makes more sense. God will never ever forsake even those who had little or tiny faith. Look at Jesus in the gospel. He never let Peter alone after he denied him three times and was dejected, but He went to appear to him personally to strengthen him.

And Thomas who refused to believe that Jesus was risen even after the disciples told him they saw the risen Lord. He replied that he would not unless he saw and feel the prints in his hands and side. To me, this meant, Thomas had left his faith, because when Jesus was on earth with them, He told them that He would die and suffer at the hands of the men but would rise again on the third day. And the disciples confirmed by telling him they saw the risen Lord, however, Thomas refused to believed.

Many Christians are in the state of Thomas (or even Peter) after they received Christ; due to some reason or some incident, they left the church and went back to their old sinful lifestyle. They even doubt that Jesus is for them unless He appears to them personally. I was like that in the past; I left the church and doubted that the Lord was for me. But in the heart of hearts, I believe that this group of believers who is living in their old sinful lifestyle can never be satisfied and surely they still want to be connected to their God.

Even the believers in Corinth continued to live a sinful life by visiting temple prostitutes, but Paul did not say that they lost their salvation; instead he reminded them that they were the temple of the living God and they ought to honour God with their bodies. In Ephesians 4:17 Paul also encouraged Christians in Ephesus not to live the way the non-believers live because of the sinful lifestyle. This means Christians can still live a sinful lifestyle and yet end up in heaven, but they will not experience the joy and life on earth that Jesus came to give.

The Lord will not wait for His people to depart from their faith then the anti-Christ would appear. Paul wrote in Philippians 3:21 that our Lord Jesus will transform our lowly body into His glorious body (which is called rapture). Paul assured us that we, believers of Jesus Christ, will all be in heaven before the Great Tribulation starts.

I shall not share about this anymore, for this revelation is not about end time rapture. Maybe if the Lord wills, I might pen down this revelation. I want to assure all Christians who sincerely call Jesus “Lord” that you all will be saved from the troubles of this world if you learn to be at rest in the Lord. Be like Jesus sleeping in the boat during a great storm because He knew that God His Father would never allow His boat to be capsized or be filled with water.

God protected the children of Israel in the Old Testament so that Christ could be born out of Virgin Mary. So just believe that He is protecting you even though things may not look good on the surface. Never ever depend on your puny mind because you can never see the whole picture as God. Just trust in Him and guard your heart so you will be at peace. Pray in tongues or sing songs to Him to let His peace so fill your heart and mind.

God is ever merciful and kind. I pray that you will have this revelation afresh every day so you can rejoice in Him daily. For your joy is not of the world; not what you have but your joy is of Him. I pray for the understanding of this revelation be upon you and your eyes of understanding to be enlightened.

Be greatly blessed. Shalom Shalom.

Joshua Gan
God’s beloved whom Jesus loves