Have You Ever Felt Afraid of God?
Is the God of the Old Testament the same as the God of the New Testament?
“Never permit your soul to be sad and live in bitterness of spirit or scrupulous fear, since He who loved it and died to give it life is so good, so sweet, so amiable.”
-St. Francis de Sales
I’m currently listening to The Bible in a Year podcast (with Fr. Mike Schmitz), and I can’t help but be reminded of the many ways we can be afraid of God, especially in the Old Testament. It’s in the Old Testament where we hear about plagues and wars and punishments for people’s sins. It’s in the Old Testament where we can feel as though God is always angry with His people.
It’s sometimes hard to reconcile this with the message of mercy and forgiveness that we see in the New Testament. And sometimes many of us can even wonder whether God has changed. Did He? Was He more forgiving when He finally revealed Himself to Jesus?
But Scripture itself tells us that God does not change and that He is the same now as He had always been. If therefore, we note any change in Him, it may be a change in our perspective. It may be that we have not known Him that well to tell who He truly is.
“For I, the Lord, do not change…” — Malachi 3:6, NABRE
In one of his YouTube videos, Fr. Mike Schmitz compares this to the way we may see our parents. As a child, you may think your parents are very strict with you. There are so many rules and so many restrictions. You are warned not to do this or that. There may also be very clear punishments as a consequence of your disobedience.
As you grow up, however, you hear less and less from them. You no longer need to be reminded each time because they know that you have matured enough to differentiate between right and wrong. All the while, you realize that your parents have been loving and protective of you, they’re still the same.
During ancient times, God had to appear very strict to His people to teach them clearly about His righteousness. After all, the Israelites were surrounded by foreign cultures that practiced various kinds of abominations. God had to give them His Law to let them know what is right. They also had to know the consequences they would suffer when they depart from His Law.
God’s commandments had to be given first before God’s mercy is fully revealed. People must know what justice is so that they can truly appreciate what mercy and forgiveness means.
God is Love. But love is not the same as tolerance. Love does not tolerate evil because love upholds what is good.
Yet even then, God has shown His compassion in various ways. We may have failed to notice it, but if we read the Bible more in the spirit of prayer and humility, we’d discover that even then, God is merciful, patient and forgiving.
“Yet even now,” says the LORD, “turn to me with all your heart,
and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
Tear your heart, and not your garments,
and turn to the LORD, your God;
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness,
and relents from sending calamity.
— Joel 2:12–13, WEBBE
The same God who called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt is the same God revealed to us through Jesus Christ, the One who died on the cross for our sins, the One who says:
“Come to me, all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30, WEBBE)
“Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? . . .
No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ — and you will find true life. Amen.”
― Pope Benedict XVI
Below are some of the Old Testament Bible verses that can remind us that God is Love:
The Lord GOD’s Spirit is on me;
because the LORD has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the humble.
He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to provide for those who mourn in Zion,
to give to them a garland for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning…
-Isaiah 61:1-3 (WEB)
“For the LORD is good. His loving kindness endures forever, his faithfulness to all generations.” - Psalm 100:5, WEBBE
“He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness towards those who fear him.” – Psalm 103:10-11, WEBBE
“But the LORD’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children…” - Psalm 103:17, WEBBE
But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and didn’t forsake them. Yes, when they had made themselves a molten calf, and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed awful blasphemies; yet you in your manifold mercies didn’t forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud didn’t depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither did the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go. You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and didn’t withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.
“Yes, forty years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes didn’t grow old, and their feet didn’t swell. Moreover you gave them kingdoms and peoples, which you allotted according to their portions. So they possessed the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan. You also multiplied their children as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land concerning which you said to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.
“So the children went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they pleased. They took fortified cities and a rich land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns dug out, vineyards, and olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate, were filled, became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.”
-NEHEMIAH 9:17-25, WEBBE
“Yet even now,” says the LORD, “turn to me with all your heart,
and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
Tear your heart, and not your garments,
and turn to the LORD, your God;
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness,
and relents from sending calamity.
-JOEL 2:12-13, WEBBE
“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry… - EXODUS 22:22-23, WEBBE
God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?”
He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.”
The LORD said, “You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not laboured, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night. Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much livestock?”
-JONAH 4:9-11, WEBBE
Tell them, ‘“As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, house of Israel?”’ – EZEKIEL 33:11, WEBBE
Because God made not death;
Neither delights he when the living perish:
For he created all things that they might have being:
And the generative powers of the world are healthsome,
And there is no poison of destruction in them:
Nor has Hades royal dominion upon earth,
For righteousness is immortal:
But ungodly men by their hands and their words called death to them:
Deeming him a friend they consumed away,
And they made a covenant with him,
Because they are worthy to be of his portion.
-WISDOM 1:13-16, WEBBE
Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
Let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him;
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways,” says the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
-ISAIAH 55:7-9, WEBBE
“…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14, WEBBE
“Sing, barren, you who didn’t give birth; break out into singing, and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,” says the LORD. – ISAIAH 54:1, WEBBE
“Don’t be afraid; for you will not be ashamed.
Don’t be confounded; for you will not be disappointed.
For you will forget the shame of your youth;
and the reproach of your widowhood you shall remember no more. For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of Armies is his name.
-ISAIAH 54:4-5, WEBBE
“For a small moment I have forsaken you;
but with great mercies will I gather you.
In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment;
but with everlasting loving kindness I will have mercy on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer.
“For this is like the waters of Noah to me;
for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth,
so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.
For the mountains may depart,
and the hills be removed;
but my loving kindness will not depart from you,
and my covenant of peace will not be removed,”
says the LORD who has mercy on you.
-ISAIAH 54:7-10, WEBBE
“Therefore behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
I will give her vineyards from there,
and the valley of Achor for a door of hope;
and she will respond there,
as in the days of her youth,
and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
It will be in that day,” says the LORD,
“that you will call me ‘my husband,’
and no longer call me ‘my master.’
-HOSEA 2:14-16, WEBBE
I will betroth you to me forever.
Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion.
I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness;
and you shall know the LORD.
-HOSEA 2:19-20, WEBBE
I will sow her to me in the earth;
and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;
and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’
and they will say, ‘My God!’”
-HOSEA 2:23, WEBBE
Sing, daughter of Zion! Shout, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. The LORD has taken away your judgements. He has thrown out your enemy. The King of Israel, the LORD, is amongst you. You will not be afraid of evil any more. In that day, it will be said to Jerusalem, “Don’t be afraid, Zion. Don’t let your hands be weak.” The LORD, your God, is amongst you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.
-ZEPHANIAH 3:14-17, WEBBE
Behold, at that time I will deal with all those who afflict you, and I will save those who are lame, and gather those who were driven away. I will give them praise and honour, whose shame has been in all the earth. At that time will I bring you in, and at that time will I gather you; for I will give you honour and praise amongst all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the LORD. – ZEPHANIAH 3:19-20, WEBBE
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