WHY IS THE GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SO SEVERE WHILE THE GOD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IS LOVING AND GRACIOUS?
The Law of
Moses ~ seems unnecessarily harsh, calling for an eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth. This seems so primitive and callous.
Contents
3.1. A Loving and Forgiving God in the
Old Testament
3.2. A Just and Wrathful God in the New
Testament
Prolegomenon
It's fairly common to think
that the God of the Old Testament was harsh and vindictive but the God of the
New Testament, as revealed through Jesus, is gentle, loving, and kind. As a
result, people often call out the “eye for an eye” concept in the Law of Moses
as proof that the God of Israel was harsh.
In the New Testament, the Lord
Jesus seems to reflect a more forgiving approach, saying “He who is without sin
among you, let him be the first to throw a stone...” (John 8:7). Nevertheless,
the God who gave the laws through Moses is the same God who gave His one and
only Son for the sins of the world. We need to take a deeper dive to better
understand the alleged law of retaliation and what seems like two very
different portrayals of God in the Old and New Testaments.
1.
THE
LAW OF RETALIATION
This law, frequently called the “law
of retaliation” (lex talionis), is deeply misunderstood. The same “eye for an
eye” commandment is found in Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, and
Deuteronomy 19:16-21. This commandment is part of the Law of Moses, a document
designed to be the constitution of the people of Israel living in the land of
Israel. Therefore, this commandment is talking about governmental authority,
not personal behavior. The Deuteronomy rendering of the law is as follows: “then
both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the
priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. The judges shall
investigate thoroughly. ... Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye
for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Deut. 19:17-18, 21).
1.1.
Judicial,
Not Personal
The misunderstanding about this
statute is that it is often perceived as vengeful and excessive when it was
actually designed to restrain vengeance and excessive punishment. There are two
reasons for this perspective. First, the law required that retribution was to
be judicial, not personal. In Exodus 21:22, it states that fines should be paid
“as the judges decide” while in Deuteronomy 19:18 it says that the dispute is
to be brought to the judges who “shall investigate thoroughly.’
The Law of Moses made no allowance
for personal vendettas, vigilante justice, or individual acts of vengeance.
Disputes and criminal actions were brought to judges and the government was to
carry out punishment. This law did not mean that if someone hurt my eye, I was
permitted to hurt his eye. Rather, the courts would determine appropriate
justice, thereby avoiding long-term feuds like the Hatfields and the McCoys.
1.2.
Equal,
Not Excessive
Second, these laws required that
punishment should be equal to the crime, not excessive. In other words, the
punishment was to fit the crime. If someone was liable for injuring my eye,
the punishment would not be the death penalty. The consequence had to be
equivalent to the injury done. More-over, the context of Exodus is about paying
monetary fines (cf. Ex. 21:19, 22), so it appears that the “eye for an eye,
tooth for a tooth” command was not to be taken literally but referred to the
appropriate financial restitution for an injury. If these words were taken
literally, then it would lead to a blind, toothless society. What good does it
do for a sightless person to have the person who blinded him also become blind?
Rather, the court was to determine the appropriate compensation to help the
person who was disabled.
2. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
The only exception to the financial
application of these laws appears to be the death penalty for deliberate
homicide. Since people are made in the image of God, deliberate murder of someone
required the courts to carry out capital punishment as the only appropriate
justice.
That’s why Genesis 9:6 says,
“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of
God He made man.” Clearly the Law of Moses was not primitive or harsh. Rather,
it provided for ap-propriate justice and restricted the sinful human desire for
excessive vengeance and personal retaliation. One last thought about this
command: this idea is not limited to the Old Testament but a similar concept is
mentioned in the New Testament as well.
In Romans, Paul calls believers to
be subject to legitimate governmental authority (Rom. 13:1-7). Moreover, he
warns the person who does evil to “be afraid; for it [the government] does not
bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings
wrath on the one who practices evil” (Rom. 13:4).
So governmental punishment was not
just part of the Old Testament Law but included in the New Testament, even to
the point of capital punishment. Note that Paul talks about the government
bearing the sword—this would refer to using it to put to death, not to slap
someone's bottom.
3. THE SAME GOD
Just as God affirms governmental
authority in both the Old and New Testaments, He is also portrayed as just and
loving in both. Here are some ways God is both gracious and fierce in both
Testaments.
3.1.
A
Loving and Forgiving God in the Old Testament
In the Old Testament, we see that
God is loving and merciful as He forgives sin. For example, David, who
committed adultery and set up the death of Uriah the Hittite, is shown mercy
when David repents and God forgives him. In Psalm 32:5, David said, “I acknowledged
my sin to You, and I did not hide my guilt; I said, ‘I will confess my
wrongdoings to the Lord’; and You forgave the guilt of my sin” (NASB). The Old
Testament describes God this way: “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and
gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps
lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin...”
(Ex. 34:6-7).
3.2.
A
Just and Wrathful God in the New Testament
And while we may see the sterner
side of God in the Old Testament, those characteristics are evident in the New
Testament as well. Throughout the Bible, God is a God of justice. He holds
people accountable for their sin and sometimes exercises discipline in
seemingly severe ways.
For example, when Ananias and
Sapphira lied about how much they were giving to the congregation, Peter
rebuked Ananias first, saying he had “not lied to men but to God,” and then God
struck him dead. The same then happened to his wife Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11),
reminiscent of instant justice sometimes seen in the Old Testament.
The New Testament also describes
the end of days, when God’s judgment would fall on the earth at the hands of
Jesus, the Lamb of God. This is how people will respond in that day: “They said
to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of
Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day
of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev. 6:16-17).
4. FINAL THOUGHTS
Here’s the main point to remember:
God is always the same. He is perfect and infinite in holiness and justice and
in His love and mercy. These attributes explain the very reason the Lord Jesus
came to redeem humanity. In His holiness and justice, God demanded that all sin
be punished, but in His love, He Himself provided the One who would take that
punishment.
The Lord Jesus died for our sins to
satisfy God’s just anger at sin and then was raised from the dead. God did this
because He loved the world and provided the means of our forgiveness and
eternal life (John 3:16). In this way, God “would be just and the justifier of
the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). That is the essential message of
the Good News: that the holy and just God redeemed us in love through Jesus the
Messiah.
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