Portrait of God in the OT

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so many miss the forest for the trees. especially the trees they don't like. here is a more comprehensive survey, if you are still hanging with my metaphor...

The Old Testament shows God as emphasizing:
  • Justice - One of the overriding concerns of the Law of Moses is whether justice is done.
  • Beauty - Both the beauty of creation and the emphasis on beauty in the tabernacle and Temple show God's love for beauty.
  • Purity - Moses' Law covered spiritual purity, emphasizing the worth of the person and praiseworthy aspects of redeemed humanity. It also covered physical purity to the extent that the Law of Moses is one of the earliest instances of modern infection control on record, far ahead of its time.
  • Holiness - the Law of Moses emphasizes not only God's holiness, but God's transforming effect on his people to make them holy as well.
  • Blessings - God's emphasis included physical blessings such as rest and spiritual blessings of his favor and goodwill.
  • Forgiveness - The Law emphasized forgiveness by making regular provision for it by way of daily rituals, annual festivals, and regular cycles of additional forgiveness where debts were forgiven, slaves were freed, and all various economic inequities were restored. Again, the ancient code has the advantage on our modern codes in the regular cycle of forgiving long-term debt so that people are not haunted by debt for their whole lives.
  • Wisdom - The Old Testament has wisdom literature in the book of Proverbs, but also elsewhere portrays wisdom as an attribute of God and one of the spiritual blessings evident in the faithful, even the simple.
  • Compassion - One of God's most defining aspects was held to be his compassion, part of God's own self-identification as he revealed himself to Moses.
  • Mercy - God likewise singled out mercy as one of his identifying attributes when he revealed himself to Moses. God's mercy is seen time and again in his laws, his promise of redemption, and in his patient interactions with sinful people.

Comments

Weekend Fisher said…
I'm glad you liked the material. The reason I wrote that is that I was becoming increasingly frustrated at the injustice being done towards God, and tolerated against "the OT God" (as if he weren't the same yesterday, today, and forever). God is good all the time.

Take care & God bless
November 24, 2006
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