Congruity

I have a confession to make. Pulled out of the closet of doubt. I've spent most of my life trying to find the right equation that makes the God of the old testament--with His wrath, and His rules, and His sacrificial demands--equal the God of the new testament--with His love and mercy and grace and "not works but faith." Maybe I'm crazy but I've secretly thought that God was slightly Jeckyll/Hyde...if God can have a multi-personality disorder. Well after 20+ years of either wrestling the issue or sequestering it in the corner of my mind, a light has turned on. And I found it's switch in one of the last places I expected. The book of Jeremiah.

 No offense to Jeremiah,  but his whole book is filled with repeated prophecies of the fall of Judah and it's eventual salvation. Very BC God to me. "You're not listening so I'm going to bring destruction."  For 13 chapters I read this. Then, in Chapter 14 something clicked. God is talking about how his people greatly love to wander and how He will not accept their sacrifices, and it hit me. It's not about doing. It's not about getting the sacrifice exactly right. It's not about going through all the right motions. It's about the heart. And I could almost hear Jesus' talking to his disciples about hating someone equaling murder in the heart. "It's not about rule following guys, it's about your heart." And I realized what I've missed from the beginning. It was never about rule following. It has always been about the heart. (Isaiah 1:11, Amos 5:21-22, Hosea 6:6, 1Samuel 15:22, Psalm 50:9-10, Jeremiah 17:5**)  

I was so excited when I realized this and wasn't expecting the light to penetrate further, but a few days later I was reading Jeremiah 24... You know how in Romans Paul says that God works everything to the good of those who love Him? Well another side to my problem of trying to rectify the Old and New Testament God was this idea. I mean in the old testament, God many times allowed other nations to come and take over Israel and Judah because of their sins and I always kind of felt like it was throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Surely not every single person was in rebellion? What about the prophets He sent to the people to warn them of the coming disaster? How could it be just to take the innocent away with the guilty? Well right there in Jeremiah 24:4-7 God says that he will be with those innocent(good) ones.He will make them prosper and He will bring them home. Wow. He has always been about working things for the good of those who love Him.

All of this to say, maybe I've had this thing wrong the whole time. Maybe God has been the same since the beginning and for ages has been trying to get across the same message. He is Just, but He is also full of mercy and grace. He's not a Rule Nazi or Bi-polar.He cares about relationship and has deep abiding love for us, His creation.  He was, and is, and will always be who He is. The one truly constant thing in this ever-changing world.