Admirable question by an atheist friend!

It is a false dichotomy that God was judgmental and bitter throughout the Old Testament. How can I approve this statement? Well look at the Old Testament, you need to first see what it is that was being accomplished there. The moral law was given to the people with a dynamic attendance of the supernatural and the miracles. Go through the book of Exodus. Punctuated miracles, from the time of creation, the time of Moses, the time of Elijah and Elisha. Those were the classic periods of miracles and when the dramatic disclosure of God was attended by incontrovertible evidence like food coming from the heaven, double portion coming before the Sabbath, when the bitterness from the water is taken away. And in proportion to the nature of the dramatic miracles, it was a rightful expectation of God for compliance and obedience, because if you don’t obey in the phase of such dramatic revelation, you will never obey no matter what happens.

Secondly God was building a covenant to people through whom he was going to disclose himself and in that covenant relationship, we hear such extraordinary statements which portray his love. For example Isaiah 5:4 says “What more could I have done for you that I have not already done? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?” That statement is a magnificent exposition of the love of God. The book of Hosea where the prophet Hosea marries a Harlot who wherefore goes back to the brothel to please the other men, God commands Hosea in Hosea 3:1 “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” Now this is the ultimate expression of Grace.

Therefore when we come to a conclusion that the Old Testament is a hard concept of law and judgement, we are missing that the proportion of compliance and obedience that God expected from the people was never returned back to him. Hence we conclude with the book of Malachi which is the last book in the Old Testament which begins to say “I have loved you. And yet you say how have you loved us?” The love of God is the central feature of the Old and the New testament.

#GodBlessUsAll