Does God change?

Many Christians find it hard to understand how the God of Jesus could be the same as the God who instructed Joshua to kill men, women and children of Canaanite cities (Deuteronomy 7:2; Joshua 10:40). How could the wrathful God of Israel have the same agenda as "gentle Jesus"? We must not forget God's incredible patience with sinful Israel, with Nineveh (Jonah 4:2; 4:10-11) and even with Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:22-32). He offered forgiveness to those who repented and brought blood sacrifices as he had originally prescribed to Adam. This instruction can be read "between the lines": God must have killed an animal to make garments of skin for Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21). Also, he looked with favour on Abel's "fat portions" of his flock (Genesis 4:4). Neither must we forget how often Jesus spoke about Hell and his promise of eternal condemnation to those who rejected his offer of salvation (Matthew 10:28; 24:48–51; 25:46; Mark 9:43).

Ordinary Christians often don't consider the logical conclusion of their attitude to the "Old Testament God". I had a friend who refused to read the Old Testament because of the way it seemed as if God advocated inhumane laws and genocide. But he loved reading books on World War II. I found books and films on WW II more offensive to my sensitivities than the Old Testament stories. Furthermore, every book is written from the perspective of the author who is often pushing some political agenda. The Bible, I believe, presents God's agenda.

One of the acrobatic mental maneuvers theologians make is to ascribe to God different attributes during different so-called dispensations. In the Old Testament he condemned sin by killing sinners (Dispensation of Law) and in the New Testament by offering forgiveness (Dispensation of Grace). Nevertheless, most of them agree that the God who revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as well as to Moses and the prophets, is the pre-incarnate Christ - Jesus before he became flesh. But God does not change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). Jesus came to show us what God is really like. The eternal agenda of God has never changed. It is found in Ephesians 3:6, 10, 11.

Another heresy is introduced when Bible scholars perpetrate Replacement Theology. According to this view, Abraham's spiritual descendants, namely the Church, have taken the place of his descendants after the flesh, namely the Jews. All God's promises to Israel are supposed to be fulfilled in Jesus. They spiritualise all the portions in the Old Testament which deal with the future of the nation of Israel such as Deuteronomy 30:4-5; Isaiah 43:6-7; Zechariah 12:8-10.

There are Christians as well as orthodox Jews who say the state of Israel and Zionism are not inspired by God. One of their arguments is that modern Israel was founded by non-religious Jews. They forget that God called Cyrus, a pagan king of Persia, by his name, to be his servant (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1, 13). They also don't pay enough attention to New Testament passages such as Acts 1:6-7 in which Jesus did not deny that the kingdom would be restored to Israel. Neither do they seem to take the words of Jesus seriously when he promised the twelve apostles high positions in the coming kingdom (Matthew 19:28). Furthermore, Paul was convinced of the role Jews would play in the last days (Romans 11:25-29).

My view on Israel is pretty close to that of Bobby Harrington (https://renew.org/does-god-still-have-a-plan-for-israel). One of the weaknesses of this article is that he quotes Genesis 17:7-8 but ignores Genesis 17:6. Abraham had many children who were not borne by Sarah (Genesis 16:15; 25:1-4) . His descendants include many nations of the Middle east. However God's promises to Jacob (Israel) apply only to his descendants, known today as the Jews (Genesis 28:13).

Ecclesiastes

I have often heard it said: "It is better to learn from someone else's mistakes than from your own". King Solomon has done modern man the favour of making the mistakes we should avoid if we don't want to end our lives with the conclusion that "Everything is pointless". In this book the wisest king who ever reigned calls himself the "preacher".

He set himself the task of finding out what God intended humans to do "under the sun". He found that nothing he did gave him the satisfaction he deeply craved. First of all he explored pleasure including cheering himself up with wine, women and song. He endeavoured to learn as much as he could about nature and human behaviour. This he put to good use by undertaking building projects as well as pursuits in agriculture. He found it all meaningless and his "heart began to despair" because all his "toilsome labour under the sun" might not be appreciated by his successor.

To understand the context of the book it is revealing to read about the "Law of the king" as outlined in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. He was not supposed to get horses from Egypt, accumulate much gold or marry many wives. He was to read and obey the commandments of the Torah (first five books of the Bible, written by Moses). But Solomon had more gold than any other king, he imported horses from Egypt and elsewhere (12000) and had 700 wives plus 300 concubines. On top of that he angered the Lord by erecting idols for his foreign wives (1 Kings 10:23-11:10).

Solomon must have known what Moses taught. His father David was very familiar with it and undoubtedly brought him up according to the dictates of the Torah. But, understandably, he wanted to learn for himself what life was about. Not all of us are granted the freedom to explore life in all its facets like he was. But the "Law of the king" was written for a reason. We should not forget that the first sins were committed in Paradise. At the end of his life Solomon concluded that all his energies were spent on that which did not have eternal value, although God had "put eternity in the human heart".

If the successful young man who enquired about eternal life had grasped Solomon's dilemma he might have chosen the "treasure in heaven" above earthly riches (Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23).