Speaker 1: 0:01

Hello and welcome to Walk the Walk. Today's podcast is called God. Why Did you Do that? So welcome back. And today we're going to be talking about why God was the way he was in the Old Testament. Now, if you are somebody who has tried to talk to a new believer or a pre-believer about are somebody who has tried to talk to a new believer or a pre-believer about the Bible and about the Old Testament and found yourself struggling because there are just so many things that are hard to explain. This is going to be the podcast for you, god. I need to ask you something, and I'm just going to be real.

Speaker 1: 0:42

Why did you do the things you did in the Old Testament? There were wars, whole cities destroyed, women and children died, women were raped and cut up and sent to the 12 tribes of Israel. How do you explain that to people, god? To be honest, it's hard for me to even understand. If you're so loving, why did it seem like you were so harsh? Tina, I'm glad you asked. You're not the only one. People have wrestled with that for centuries.

Speaker 1: 1:19

But don't mistake my justice for cruelty. What you see in the Old Testament isn't me changing. It's me dealing with a broken world. But, lord, it looks like you just wiped people out, like you didn't even give them a chance. I did Many chances. I sent warnings, I waited years, but some of those nations were doing terrible things sacrificing children, enslaving people, spreading evil without remorse. Would you want a God who just turned away from that and did nothing? No, I guess not. But I just hate the thought of innocent people getting caught up in all of that, and I do too. But, tina, I see the full picture. You see pain in the moment. I see eternity. Every act of judgment was soaked in mercy. Every destruction came after deep patience. I'm holy, and holiness must deal with sin, but then Jesus came and he was gentle, loving, forgiving. That version of you feels so much easier to understand God. Jesus didn't replace me, tina. He revealed me. I didn't change, I just got closer. So you were always like that, even when you sent the flood or brought down walls or sent fire. Yes, even then, the cross wasn't a new plan. It was the plan from the beginning. My justice didn't disappear, it was fulfilled. I took the punishment upon myself. That's not harsh, that's love deeper than you can imagine.

Speaker 1: 3:18

So when someone asks me how can you serve a God who allowed all that in the Old Testament. What do I say? Say this I may not understand everything he did, but I know what he gave. He gave his son his life and he is good. And when I don't fully get it, that's what I know he is good God. That helps a lot.

Speaker 1: 3:51

I don't have all the answers. I trust you and I know you're not afraid of my questions. I welcome your questions and I walk with you through the ones that don't have easy answers. Just keep pointing people to me, to Jesus. Let them see my heart through your life. Thank you, jesus. Thank you, you know, if this conversation helped you with this.

Speaker 1: 4:15

I think the most important thing you need to know is that you will never, ever know all the answers. There are people out there who will try to convince you that they know exactly what's going on, but they don't. What you know is what God wants you to know. If you're beating yourself up because you don't understand something, stop, because he may not want you to understand it, and you know what. There are some things in the Bible that people will not understand, I know one day we watched a video of four very intelligent men explain the same scripture in four different ways and they all felt they were correct. So that just goes to show you. We cannot know everything, but what you can know is that Jesus died on the cross for you and he died for you and he came back for you so that when you die, you get to go to heaven. Until then, keep walking, the walk.