Introduction to Divine Dilemmas

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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 .

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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

Questioning God's Old Testament Actions

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, 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 .

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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

God's Response: Justice and Patience

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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

Jesus Reveals God's Consistent Character

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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 .

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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 .

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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

Accepting the Mystery of Faith

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helped you with this .

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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 .