God's Normal Voice

Four year old Kari adored her mother. She liked to help whenever her mom was baking. Of course, her favorite part was watching her mom take the goodies out of the oven.  One day, Kari decided that she was a big girl--big enough to take things out of the oven by herself. Her mother had no idea what Kari was thinking. She came around the corner just in time to see her little girl reaching for the hot cookie sheet with her bare fingers. She screamed immediately, yelling for Kari to shut the oven door. In shock, Kari let go of the door and started to cry. Her fingers were fine, but her ears were singed. For a few minutes she was unsure what to think about her usually soft spoken mother. Kari didn't fear burned fingers. She had no idea what a burn feels like. But she wanted to avoid her mother's screams so she was careful not to touch the oven after that...

As Kari grew older, she eventually understood why her mother screamed. The oven is no safer today, but Kari no longer needs screams to protect her. She might still burn her fingers if she forgets to use a hot pad. The difference is that Kari has matured enough to understand the intrinsic consequences of bare fingers and hot pans. The Old Testament is full of examples where a normally soft spoken God has been forced to speak louder than He would like. Sometimes, He even had to use His screaming voice to get people's attention and respect. He roared to save their lives and protect them from sin, but that was not His normal voice.

If we want to know what God's normal voice sounds like, we can listen to Jesus. Whenever we are confused about God's ways in the Old Testament, Jesus' example is the gold standard for who God is.  Think about the way Jesus treated people on this earth--the crippled, the outcasts and sinners. What about when Jesus cleared the temple? Thieves ran away, but not the little children. Were the little children afraid of Jesus? The Bible says they sat in His lap. That says that if we are like innocent children we never have to be afraid of God. In the love chapter, Paul gives us a picture of God:

God is love.
God is patient and kind and envies no one.
God does not boast, God is not proud.
God is not rude, God is not self-seeking, 
God is not easily angered, 
God keeps no record of wrongs.
God does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. 
God always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.
God never fails. 

When we read something about God's character in the Old Testament that seems inconsistent with Jesus' life, we must remember that
Jesus and the Father are one! God didn't change somewhere between Adam and John, but our human perspective of God has changed 
as the result of Jesus coming to live among us. That is why the Father sent His Son. The God of the Old Testament, is the God of the New Testament!  They are one and the same. Like Jesus, our Father in heaven is love and all that He does, is done with love!
 
©2008 Cherilyn Christen Clough