UNTIL GRACE...

Guysss!!! I was doing my bible study a few days ago, the book of 2nd Kings 2, about how Elisha cursed the 42 boys who called him baldy and they were mauled to pieces by 2 she-bears. I was SHOCKED! I was like 'eeeei was that really necessary?'. But I told myself God knows best. As I kept reading the next chapters, I came across another shocking chapter, 2nd Kings 7. The story of the personal assistant of the King who had quite the sharp tongue, so backstory;

Syria and Israel are at war, Syria laid siege to the Israelites and as a result, there was food shortage. And it goes on for some time, it gets so bad that 2 women agreed to eat their children (Yes, even me, I was shocked. I tell you, reading this book was like watching a movie, drama after drama). So the King of the Israelites goes to Elisha fuming, as he should be, and was like, ' It's the Lord who brought this trouble on us! Why should I wait any longer for him to do something' ~2 Kings 6:33. But Elisha prophesied to him and told him that 'By this time tomorrow, you will be able to buy in Samaria three kilogrammes of the best wheat or six kilogrammes of barley for one piece of silver'. The assistant of the king, the one with the sharp tongue, responded, 'That can't happen, not even if the Lord himself were to send grain at once!' Hmmm! he got what was coming to him. The very next day at that same time, he was trampled to death by the people at the city gate! ~2nd Kings 7: 20. I was like 'Again! Someone died AGAIN! Eeeei, I need a minute.' 

And I thought about how STRICT God was. One foot out of place, next thing you know, your arm was chopped off. And I asked the same question that most Christians (and even non-Christians) ask themselves: Why was God so harsh in the Old Testament yet so kind and loving and understanding in the New Testament? Did He change? And Guyssss! What the Holy Spirit revealed to me (with the help of ChatGPT, of course) blew my mind. So let's try to answer this very serious question, shall we?

In the Old Testament, covenants were made between God and Man, you know, like God and Moses, God and Abraham etc etc. And there was no mediator, so if you broke a covenant or did something wrong, YOU were the one to pay for it. It's like in a court case, if you have no lawyer, it's YOU speaking up for YOU and if YOU lose, YOU get punished. That was the principle, the rule, the LAW. You see how when reading the OT, especially Leviticus, everything was law this, law that, if you break the law you're punished for it, Ooh, if you eat these animals you were unclean, and so many other stringent rules. It was the law that ruled them. And that's why the punishment was so severe, you break the law, you pay for it. Seems strict, right? But that is the principle of the spirit, even till date; the result of sin is death, first spiritually, then physically, because sin separates us from God, who is life itself. As Romans 6:23 says, 'The wage of sin is death...' And so that was what happened in the Old Testament: when people sinned, they died. End of story.

But then came the Good News, the Gospel. Christ, the Son of God, comes as our saviour. He becomes our lawyer before the Father. But unlike a normal lawyer who just argues your case, this lawyer goes a step further, so that when you are sentenced to death, He takes it upon himself. That's what the Cross was, God Himself taking the punishment His children deserved. That was why the devil was so much against him, because, unlike him, who has already been condemned, we, the children of God, have a lawyer who has already proclaimed victory over us. 

And the most beautiful part? When you remember it was God himself who came down in the form of a man, it wasn't that God was punishing some other kaguy from nowhere. It was God himself through God the Son, standing in the gap, and accepting the punishment of his children. Why, you may ask? Because He is love, ' Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.'~ John 15:13.  So it was like God himself cushioning the blows meant for you and saying," I'll take it because I love you that much"

And it may seem like God was so hard on the people in the OT, but I came across the story of how God made a covenant with Abraham. So backstory, again🤭 (Genesis 15)

Abraham is talking with God and he's like 'God, you know you have not blessed me with any children so it's my servants who will inherit all I have' The Lord took him outside and told him to look at the stars and He told him he will have as many descendants as the stars and the Lord was pleased because Abraham trusted him. So to make this even more serious, God instructed a blood covenant. So he tells Abraham to cut animals in half and place them opposite each other in 2 rows. And when darkness came, Abraham dozed off, and this is when the story gets really interesting. 

A smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces of animals, and verse 18 says 'Then and there the Lord made a covenant with Abram. He said, "I promise to give your descendants all this land from the border of Egypt to the River Euphrates....". So kitambo in those days, when 2 parties made a blood covenant, the cutting of animals in half and walking between them was like saying; If I break this covenant, may what happened to these animals happen to me. It's also important to note that both parties were required to walk between the pieces, meaning that both took responsibility to keep it. However!! Only God (Symbolized by the smoking firepot and blazing torch) passed through, meaning God was saying, This covenant's fulfilment rests on ME ALONE. And if it's ever broken even by you or your descendants, it is I, who will bear the cost" And He did, centuries later by laying down his life on the cross for us, the descendants of Abraham. Likeeeeee!!!! such a full circle moment! 

So to answer the question, FINALLY😂, God has not changed, his nature hasn't changed and His word has definitely not changed. He is the same God who sent the she-bears to maul those boys to pieces. Sin is still a very grave thing, and the wage of sin is still death. However, what has changed is who receives the death penalty. In the Old Testament, it was the people themselves; in the New Testament, it is Christ, God the Son. And that is why the full verse says “The wage of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”~ Romans 6:23 "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death." ~ Romans 8:2 . In the Old Testament, the people were ruled by law, but thanks be to God, for we are ruled by LOVE. 

What Good News indeed!

With much love,

~Joy💛