The truth is many people due to their lack of the true knowledge of who God is, have over time bastardised the character and the nature of God over time.
They have accredited to God things God never did and can not do. There by merging the character and the act of God with that of the devil.
This was the case with the old testament Patriot prophets in the Bible who had faith walk with God in the bible who never truly know the nature of God in full.
For the fact that they don’t really know who God truly is, affected their submissions of God.
The only major understanding they had of God was that God is all powerful.
They did believed God can do anything extra-ordinary and anything he desires to do.
They also believe God can kill and give life. But they never truly see the aspect of their conclusion about God making God not to be different from the nature and actions of the devil they all said to have come to steal, to kill and to destroy.
What they refuse to see was that If God can also kill like many say he do, that will mean that God also share the same character traits with the devil we often see to be evil.
One of the way this people often justify God killing is that they will say that when God kills it is not called murder.
Their reason for thier submission is that God is the creator of everything in the universe. And as such he can do whatsoever he likes with his creation.The same thing they can not say of their earthly parents who gave birth to them all.
It why The Bible will say that if your wicked earthly father knows how to give good gift to their children how much more a holy God.
So while the old testament patriot journey with God, when any extra-ordinary thing happened to them on the way, they will quickly attribute it to God thinking God to be responsible for all the supernatural things and all the killing that was taking place in the old testament as God display of his sovereignty over humanity.
The truth is that they were like little children that are always crying to their parent whenever something strange they don’t seems to understand or that they do not have control over happend to them, they will begin to think their parent to be responsible for the act. But this was not the case with God.
The reason the people of the old testament didn’t know much of the character and actions of God then was because at that time God was not yet living in any of them to truly reveal to them who he truly is.
Another reason they couldn’t get to know more of God was as a result of their unbelieve.
So they could only hear from God either through dreams or the cloud, or the wind and through some symbolic means of communication.
As we all know, any dreams and medium of communication use to communicate a message to a people is subject to interpretation.
It just like when we have a dream, we don’t go taking the dreams literally just the way it came.
The first thing to do is to seek for the interpretation of the dream to get the real message in the dream.
So if you have a dream seeing your mother killing you in the dream and then went after your mother and begin to see her as a killer, then you will be as evil as the dream you just had.
So much incidence of killing in the old testament was all documented down in the Bible for our studying to know what truly transpire between God and the people of the old who have been on this journey of faith with God even before we came. It wasn’t written down for us to just take literally as they are written, but that we should seek the interpretation of what we are reading in the old testament.
So when Jesus came, who is God himself. Whom _colossians 1:15 called the Image of the invisible God_revealed, we began to see and to know the true character and nature of the same God that no one have ever seen before Jesus came who many have written about from their assumptions mind.
So we began to know who God truly is and what God can do from what God cannot do and what he didn’t do in the past from the life of Jesus. Knowing that God couldn’t have live a double standard life; a killer in the old testament and a saviour in the new testament.
So,Jesus began to tell us that the son(him) can do nothing of his own……..
He began to tell us how that it is what he see the father God do that he do also_john 5:19
This to some extent explained to us that what Jesus didn’t see God the father do, he(jesus) will or would not do it also and what the father never did in the past, he too didn’t do also.
Now this began to get clearer to us of who the invisible God the father truly is as we began to know what the father has done in the past and what he can do and what he can not do and what he did and what he didn’t do in the past.
In one of the instances to know if God is a killer, is the case of luke 9:51. that Jesus wanted to pass through a small village of Samaria to go to Jerusalem. And the Bible said that the villagers stopped Jesus from going through their village.The reason was that they could see from Jesus face that he was going to Jerusalem.. And the Bible said when Jesus’s disciples, of peters James and John, (who at this time of the four gospel didn’t know much about God because they too have not yet receive the spirit of God who would have taught them many things about God, just like the old prophets who didn’t also know much about God, other than what they heard of what God can do or has done in the past,) told Jesus to give them the permission to call down fire to consume the whole village like Elijah did in the old testament when he call down fire that consume the armies of fifties._2kings1:10
They made this request to Jesus because to them, they thought it was God that answered the payer of Elijah that killed the armies of 50s. And the Bible said Jesus rebuked Peter, James and john and told them that they know not what spirit that they are of. That the son of God is not come to take life but for the saving of men’s life. And the Bible said they went and pass through another village.
Now if this incidence in Luke 9:51 wasn’t documented in the new testament, many would have thought it was God that answer the fire of Elijah that consume people in the old testament.
The truth is just as how many did qualify and describe God as a great God who kills and give life, Job also thought that describing God as a killer is exulting the personality of God.
So when Job was face with the predicament he encountered in Bible, he began to accredit his predicament to God. Because his thought was that God was the killer and the destroyer of his family and his properties.
So in Job 1:21, Job said the lord giveth and the lord taketh away bless be the name of the lord.
In the simple interpretation of this, Job believed it was God that took everything from him.
Now after Job calling God a killer, and a destroyer, the Bible said God came Down and spoke to Job from the whilewind. And told Job to gird up his loins that he is going to required some answers from him.
So in the book of Job 38:1-18, God began to ask Job that “who is this that speaks of me with dark knowledge. (now what God means here is that Job thought he knew God, but that the knowledge he had of God was not true of him)
So God told Job that he thought he knows him but that he does not know him.
After God asking Job so many question that Job couldn’t answer, in chapter 42;5-6, You will see where job later began to confirm that he thought he knows God before then. But that he was only speaking of God by what he heard others said of God that was not correct but that now he has seen God to know God better.
Meaning Job was only speaking of God by what he heard others said about God just as many people are doing even in today’s world. By running with the rumour of God without having a true knowledge Of God for themselves from his word. So after so much conversation with God, Job confirm that he now have a first hand knowledge of God.
Since that very day, Job never spoke ill of God again.
What Job didn’t get to understand about God before now, just like many believers and preachers of today was that Job never knew that killing wasn’t the character and the nature of God.
He thought killing was what makes God great just as how many believer today who really does not know God, who are attributing all the activities of the old testament to God even when God was not responsible for all the act.
When we attribute the killings in the Bible to God, we are indirectly calling God a wicked God and a murderer.
And as well an unjust God. The reason is because the family or the person that was killed, will never see God to be good God for killing him or her family while others are still alive who might have done worst things than they ever did.
God doesn’t like being called a killer because that is not his nature and he doesn’t kill. It is why he came down to educate Job about his true nature and personality.
This same thing God did to Job is what his spirit in us is sent to do to many supposed believer today who do not really know who God is to help them understand who God truly is. So that they can understand that our God is not a killer but a giver and a saviour of life.
So, since we have come to understand that not every action of the old testament is God’s accredited, we have now see the reason to believe that the old testament books from genesis to malachi are all subject to the interpretation of the new testament writings.
Reason being that in the new testament, the spirit of God has finally come dwelling in people to reveal God true nature to man.
Another reason the old testament book needs interpretation is because the old testament writings was of a symbolic communication of a prophesy of the messiah that was to come which is christ concealed and the new testament is the fulfillment of that prophesy which is unto christ revealed.
So when you are reading the old testament Bible, you will not truly be clear of who God truly is until you seek the interpretation of what you are reading from the new testament.
So you are advice to see the interpretation of such reading from the new testament lense and from the life of Jesus because he is the same God we are trying to read about in the old testament.
The truth is Jesus is the single message of both the old and the new testament. He was the hidden messiah in the writings of the old, and the christ reveals in the new testament.
It why he will tell us that him and the father are one.
And that whosoever have seen him have seem the father. So the God that was operating in the old testament was Jesus.
How to know what The old testament God did in the old and what he can not do is by looking at the life of Jesus. So whatever Jesus didnt do while on earth, we should know that God didn’t do and can not do also.
So as a believer, if you have seen Jesus you have seen the father. The reason is that Jesus is the same with the father that many thinks to be the only God. This is what jesus told Philip in the book of_John 14:9 when Philip asked jesus to show them the father that it will be enough for them. Jesus told Philip that he is the father. He told him that if he has seen him, he has seen the father.
One thing we must keep in mind while studying the Bible is that, we must understand that Jesus is that message of the Bible from genesis to revelation. He is the God in the old testament and the new testament. It is not a different God.
It is why Jesus will expound unto the brethren on the rout to Emous from Genesis to revelation the things concerning himself_luke 24:27_34
This shows that the whole scriptures from genesis to Malachi down to the new testament writings is all about jesus the only true God.
So having settled all of this, we must also understand that what Jesus didn’t do in the new testament, God didn’t do in the old testament.
So when I see people saying God can kill and can destroys life and property, it makes me wonder why will someone want a God who can kill and give life at the same time.
What they don’t seems to understand is that even them too are not save in the hand of such a God.
If God can kill and give life, that would make God an unjust God. And He wouldn’t be different from satan who the Bible said his mission is to kill, steal and to destroy.
God’s nature is love, truth, life, justices, holiness, righteousness etc.
God’s nature is light without any shadow of darkness in it.
Killing is darkness and it is evil. Killing has no life or light in it.
The reason is because killing brings pain, hatred, anguish fear and separation.
It bring bitterness to the family of the killed person towards God.
Just as our earthly parents can’t be killing us to prove their sovereignty over us, so also a holy God can not be killing his creation to proves to us how powerful he is. That wouldn’t be holy.
So the Bible said if our parents who are evil knows how to give good gift to their children, how much more a holy God whose nature is love, holy and righteous? _Mathew 7:11
When you say God kills and that God can kill, what make you think you also will not be killed by the same God tomorrow?
The truth is killing is not one of the character or the nature of God.
The true nature of God are the fruit of the spirit. As listed out in the book of Galatian 5:22-26 so if you can’t find killing as one of the holy fruit of the spirit, just know that killing is never the nature of God.
I hope this is clear.
Ehigamen kingsley
