Will the True God of the Old Testament Please Stand-Up?

The so-called God of the Old Testament: This is somewhat of the focus of this episode/post. As I completed chapter 24 of Deuteronomy in my Torah studies this week, I came to realize that we serve a most loving and righteous God. This despite the erroneous doctrines and beliefs that the much maligned and much misunderstood–so-called–God of the Old Testament (whom they–Christian and Natsariym alike–often say is really Jesus Christ)–that He was mean, hateful, destructive, murderous, unreasonable and callous. I recall speaking to my former boss several years ago–a devout fundamental Christian woman–who expressed to me that she felt this very sentiment towards the God of the Old Testament and that she was conflicted about the contrast between this Old Testament God and the New Testament God–Jesus Christ–who was loving, compassionate and all about peace and life.

First to begin with, the so-called God of the Old Testament is NOT Jesus Christ, okay? Let’s stop supporting paganistic and foolish gibberish on this crucial topic. We know that Yeshua spoke endlessly; He taught endlessly; He was very clear in virtually everything He spoke to that He was under subjection to HIS FATHER; that He did nothing without HIS FATHER’S direction and instruction; that He came to us FROM HIS FATHER; He constantly PRAYED TO HIS FATHER.

Okay, look it: what are individuals who contend or insist that Yeshua–that Jesus–is the God of the Old Testament, actually but unwittingly saying to the world? I’ll tell you what they’re saying: that Yeshua is either schizophrenic or the Creator of the Universe is playing us as fools–that He’s trying to perpetrate some kind of spiritual fraud upon His elect. For I know several well-meaning, sincere people in the Faith who believe that Yeshua HaMaschiyach/Jesus Christ is Yahovah/God (i.e., God of the Old Testament). Yet the Bible in no way supports such a doctrine or belief. Such individuals who believe this doctrine choose to rely upon loose-fitting Biblical sound-bites to support their position: such as Yeshua making the statement that He and His Father are one.” (John 10:30)

That being said, I must admit that I do not believe that Yeshua Messiah is Yahovah/Yahuah or the so-called God of the Old Testament any more than I believe that Hilary and my 3-children are me. Indeed, 5-people make up the immediate Thomas family, but there is only one Rod Thomas and that’s me. Yahoshua was crystal clear in His explanation of His identity and relationship to Yahovah/Yahuah: He was separate from the Father; He was answerable to the Father; He was sent to earth on a mission by His Father. And most importantly, He died on the execution stake, paying the death penalty price that was due each of us for our sins and effectively presenting us as righteous before His holy Father in heaven. Sadly, Churchianity concocted an erroneous belief that no being other than Yahovah Himself could pay the death penalty attributable to our sin nature; that no man would be capable of fulfilling the crucial role of the “sacrificial lamb” other than Himself. And certainly, no other man born in sin could ever fill those huge shoes of the sacrificial lamb for all of mankind–it would take a perfect, sinless man–and Yahoshua, born of and possessing Yahovah’s Spirit, yet flesh and blood, human in every way apart from having a sin nature, fit that bill–that requirement–perfectly.

So what does all of this–that is, God of the Old Testament versus God of the New Testament–what does all this have to do with my study of the 24th chapter of Deuteronomy? Well, quite simply that once we’ve established just who the God of the Old Testament–that is, He is the Creator of the Universe; the Great “I Am;” the undisputed Father of our Master Yeshua Messiah; Yahovah–once we’ve distinguished between Yahovah and Yeshua Messiah, we find that the belief of a God who was harsh, cruel, mean, callous, indiscriminate in his killing of those who broke His Torah, is a lie from the very pit of hell itself. All one has to do is sit back and consider what Father was trying to do with us when we came out of Egypt. Simply put, He was aiming to make us His “treasured possession” and a “royal priesthood” before all the peoples of the earth. Father aimed to have unto Himself a people that were unique to any other in all the earth; that would be obedient to His Torah and that would present Yahovah and His way of life to all mankind as his only eternal avenue. In the midst of doing all that, it was imperative that we as His select people be in a state of, not just ritual purity, but living lives consistent with the tenets of His Torah, such that we would be found blameless amongst all peoples of the earth. In so doing, violations of Torah could not be tolerated by our heavenly Father. And for Father’s purpose to be manifested in the earth, He would need things be done His way and His way only.

Few people in history realize that we were given the opportunity at the foot of Mount Sinai to say no to Yahovah’s plan–His Covenant and His Torah. We could have just as easily walked away without any repercussions from the Creator’s covenant proposal. Yet we chose not to. We chose to accept the Father’s invitation to become His special possession and holy representation of Himself to all the peoples of the earth. So the deal was struck. We knew going into this thing that we would be answerable to the Creator of the Universe and there was no messing around. And we all know, once both parties agree upon the terms of a contract and that contract is enacted, then both parties are obliged to follow the terms of that contract until its fruition. Failure of either party to follow the terms of the contract will result in repercussions on the offender and forfeiture of the contract.

So when we decided to violate Yahovah’s covenant, we brought upon ourselves the penalties associated with violating the provisions of the covenant, which in effect was our abandonment of Torah. At the individual level, depending upon the specific Torah violation, the punishment could be death and by default that individual’s place in the Covenant would be irrevocably broken. But at the macro-level, when we as a people chose to abandon Torah and turn to other gods, the Covenant was irrevocably broken by default. And the only way to mend the broken Covenant was for the offending party to die. Fortunately, Yahovah made a secret provision in His ultimate plan that would result in the amending of that broken covenant and the sealing of the breach (Isa. 58:9,12) Any way you cut the spiritual cake, the wages of sin must always be death. The persistence of sin that permeates the whole of humanity, however, has never dampened the love Father has for us. He mourns for us each day as we continue down the road of self-imposed death and destruction simply because we refuse to Teshuvah—return to Him and His Torah and live lives worthy of our calling. We saw this clearly manifested as we broke the covenant at Mount Sinai, yet Father did not abandon us which in all rights He very well could and should have. We came into a marriage covenant with Yahovah, yet not even before the honeymoon was over, we played the whore and cheated on our husband. We should have been immediately put away by this abrupt act of defiance and harlotry. Yet Father’s love for us remained, even when we played the whore over and over again. And so it is today with many of us individually and with our Faith as a whole. Despite the love Father has shown to us through the pardoning of our sins, the sealing of the breach, and our adoption as children of the Most High, we still play the whore on Yahovah as we trust men more than we trust Yahovah; as we love comfort, status, power, positions, things, careers and mammon more than we love Yahovah; as we give of our time to everything else in life but can’t even spare a half-hour each day to commune with the Creator. Yet throughout much of the Tanakh, we see how Father’s steadfast love for His cheating bride remained intact throughout much of our sometimes obedient but often wayward history. At times, Father had to get our attention and often our sins would net us the steep price of death. Regardless, Father’s standards for holiness will never be compromised.

Unfortunately, if one is a pagan on the outside looking in, and you are unaware of the true nature of the covenant that we agreed to at Sinai, any exacting of punishment upon violators of Torah would naturally seem harsh and morally unacceptable. Certainly one’s perception or concept of the God of the Old Testament might then be tainted. Interestingly, those looking from the outside who elect to judge Father as being mean, callous, murdering, hateful, etc., are in effect applying their own brand and form of morality to their judgment of Father. And when we are so presumptive to apply our own standards of morality to the so-called God of the Old Testament, we show forth our total and utter ignorance of of Yahovah and His relationship with His creation. In other words, we must learn to mind our place in the big scheme of things. For Father–Yahovah–the Creator of the Universe–is the only being that can ever conceivably establish morality on this planet. And Torah defines Father’s established morality, believe it or not. Torah is the only true morality to be found on this planet.

I remember last year watching on Netflix, the early 2,000’s television series, “West Wing.” There was an episode where the main character, President of the United States, Jeb Bartlett, was dealing with a national security issue and his Catholic Faith was brought up as it related to his handling of that fictional situation. It seemed that Bartlett was conflicted with doing something that would appear morally reprehensible to the world versus taking a more “What Would Jesus Do” mentality. I believe he was being challenged by a staunch fundamental Christian character who insisted that Bartlett adhere to what the Christian representative felt would be the will of the God of the Old Testament. And that will would involve the believer adopting the same intolerance for sin the Father has. But true to the ultra-liberal leanings of the show’s writers and the characters portrayed in that show, Bartlett expressed palpable disgust at the very suggestion by the conservative Christian character that he, Bartlett, adopt the same mindset as would be expected of the God of the Old Testament. Needless to say, Bartlett laid into that Christian character. Bartlett essentially told the Christian fellow that he would always choose to take the perceived route that Jesus Christ would take as opposed to the hateful route that the God of the Old Testament would take. I found that episode to be extremely powerful and eye-opening from the perspective that, the character of Jeb Bartlett, was likely echoing the sentiments of millions of self-professing Christians around the globe. That is, millions of Christians have unceremoniously rejected the so-called God of the Old Testament–which by the way is the same God that Yeshua prayed to and called His Father–and replaced Him with a Helenistic Jesus. Literally, much of Christianity believes that somehow, Jesus was and is the God of the Old Testament, who somehow had a come to a “Jesus moment”–wait, can you have a moment with yourself–had a Jesus moment with Himself and decided that it was no-longer cool to be hateful, harmful, destructive, callous, demanding and all the terrible descriptors that have been attributed to the God of the Old Testament. Thus, He divested Himself–speaking of Jesus Christ whom many in Churchianity and Hebrew Roots regard as the God of the Old Testament–He temporarily divested Himself of His awesome power and glory and came down to earth to die on the execution stake. Wait, how can the Creator of the Universe die and then raise Himself from the dead? I guess it’s possible. Remember those stupid idioms when we were young which asked the question: can God make a boulder that He can’t lift? This and a few other foolish mind-games that many of us found ourselves engaged in at one time or another. But you see, people believe this bognosh about Yeshua being Yahovah. And when you call them on it–yes even Hebrew Rooters–when you call them on the issue of Yeshua being the God of the Old Testament–how blasphemous and non-sensible the concept and dogma is, they condemn you to eternal damnation and destruction because in their book, one’s eternal destiny is inextricably tied to the belief that Yeshua and Yahovah are one-in-the-same Person.

But you know, if that is your belief, I respect your right to believe that and I’m more than willing to hear your side of this argument from time-to-time; I just don’t need the condemnation for not believing what you believe—know what I mean?

But getting back to my Torah studies and read of Deuteronomy 24, I found that Yahovah/Yahuah–the Creator of the Universe–the Great I Am—is so much like His beloved Son, Yeshua. Regardless what those in Christianity and even in our beloved Faith of Hebrew Roots, Yahovah loves and cherishes life. He gave us His Torah that is a simple instruction manual for life; for living the way the Creator always intended for man to live. Contained in Torah are provisions for the newly wed; the poor and the stranger among us; the widow and the orphans in our midst; the servant and the slave in our society. His love for all mankind is powerful and beautiful and awesome, yet you will likely never hear a single sermon in fundamental churchianity regarding the love the Father has for His people and potentially all the peoples of the earth. Why? Because the enemy wants man to reject Yahovah. And as much as we might want to blame hasatan for all the misery that is currently plaguing our world, the blame really falls at mankind’s feet. For if mankind were to have taken heed of Torah Yeshua-style, the problems that we see manifested around the globe today, would never–could never–exist. It’s that simple. Torah is the perfect and only authorized model and constitution for mankind to build a society–a people–a nation upon. But true to man’s depraved nature, he will always reject Torah–reject Yahovah’s way of life. He will insist on doing things his way–man’s way–because man’s spirit is naturally in opposition to the Spirit of Yahovah. Of this very issue, Shaul wrote to the Galatian Assembly:

17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (Gal 5:17 KJV)

And in a similar vane, Shaul shared this with the Corinthian Assembly:

14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1Co 2:14-3:1 KJV)

Fellow Saints of the Most High, I declare to you today in this episode of Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections, that all the stuff that is going on in the world today that many are calling signs of the end times, is nothing more than judgment being meted out upon the human race.  We rejected Torah and we invited hasatan’s rule of law in our nations and over our people. And now it’s time for the chickens to come home to roost. We are foolish to blame hasatan for all that is going on. Now this is not to say that hasatan does not hold any culpability for all that is transpiring in our world today, for indeed he certainly does hold a great amount of culpability. But I contend that we chose hasatan to run our world–to effectively be our ruler and our god. And then when it appears the world is falling apart into pieces all around us, we blame everyone else but ourselves. I declare that if we as a nation were to have adopted Torah (Yeshua-style), we would not have black-on-black murders taking place in dozens of the cities in this nation; we wouldn’t have young black men being killed by white, black, hispanic, asian, and whatever cops on many of our city’s streets; we wouldn’t have poverty to the point that people have to resort to a life of crime which leads to more violence and destruction; we wouldn’t have corruption in our government from the lowest to the highest levels; we wouldn’t have Islamists holding us hostage out of fear that they will inflict acts of terrorism upon our nation; we would have families staying intact; we wouldn’t have the murders of 1,000s of unborn children each year; we would have no hunger; reduced incidents of disease and illness; we would not have 30,000 plus Christian denominations. By default, the world would become paradise and we would not be able to contain the blessings promised to Torah observant and obedient believers. (Deuteronomy 28) But this will not happen by itself, this turning to Torah. It’s going to take our Master, Yeshua HaMaschiyach to establish His kingdom here on earth and enforce the rule of Torah upon the whole of the human race. And when that happens, indeed, true paradise will return to this earth as it once existed in the Garden of Eden.

The so-called God of the Old Testament really really wanted this thing called life to work out for us. That’s why He gave us His set of instructions. And the only solution to the world’s massive, seemingly unsolvable problems is turning to Yeshua and Torah. We tried secularism and we see the fruits of doing that. We tried religion and we see the fruits of doing that. We tried drugs, rock-n-roll, alcohol, philosophy, education, hippie dippy living and we see what that got us. We tried communism, socialism, monarchies, democracies and republics and none of these has done any good thing for the human condition. Why then don’t we try the one thing that the world has rejected that otherwise, promises to solve every conceivable world problem–Torah?

The God of the Old Testament—Yahovah–may not be Yeshua HaMaschiyach, but He’s certainly a most loving and caring God that we owe our eternal allegiance to. I suppose that many who will read this post and or hear this podcast episode, will take exception to my position on Yahoshua and Yahovah and that’s okay. I expect as much. And if one day I’m found to be wrong, I’ll be the first to admit I’m wrong. But today, I’m thinking pretty confidently that I’m not wrong. But regardless what side of this argument you fall out on, we all need to buckle down and get in to Torah. It’s not time for us to focus on the current woes of this world. That mis-focus would be a sure means of leading us astray and away from the true Faith once delivered. I know of many in our beloved Faith who are desiring to get out into the streets and reason with the so-called brethren to redirect their anger and frustrations to towards other means of resolving the problems of society. Others have taken to social media to steer people’s opinions towards this and that side of the issues plaguing our society. But none of these actions are what Father has called us to do. We been given strict instructions:

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Mat 6:33-34 KJV)

And then we were instructed to:

Therefore, go and make people from all nations into talmidim, immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh, (Mat 28:19 CJB) and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (Mat 28:20 CJB)

In other words, we’ve been called to be about our Father’s business and not the affairs of the world. The peoples of this world are in need of Torah and the teachings of Yeshua Messiah. It then fall to us to deliver those goods. Let us be about doing the work of the Gospel while it is still day, as the night seems to be steadily descending upon us and bringing with it a time when we will not be able to do this commanded work. (John 9:4)

Shalom Saints, Faithfully Submitted, Rod Thomas