Chapter 16

So it seems as though I’m losing sight of God here. The defining characteristic of the God I have worshiped all my life is missing.

The God I have known (and know!) is steadfast, loyal, loving, slow to anger, abounding in love, compassionate and gracious. It is hard to read these passages because they are so alien to what I know.

Now, in the first book that I examined in Johno’s Commentary, we explored the differences between God in the Old Testament and the New Testament. In Numbers, we found that the differences weren’t so great – you could easily see that it is indeed the same God in both Testaments.

So what gives here? Why does He seem so different, so vengeful?

The starting point here is that I will make the assumption that God ISN’T actually being vengeful, and that His actions here are fully understandable.

Firstly, it is as though God can’t BEAR what He is saying here – in the middle of His stern rebuke, God can’t help Himself; He speaks verses 14 and 15, in which He previews the Return from Exile. He makes it clear that one day He will bring His people back, and that this period of exile won’t last forever.

Personally I can see this in some ways as like being a teacher and a parent.

In both of these roles, there are times when one has to artificially amplify your emotions. You actually don’t feel angry, but you need to simulate anger in order to correctly model appropriate reactions to the child’s actions. In doing this you have to go “over the top”, because if you try to be subtle, kids won’t pick up on it.

I think in some ways that is what God is doing here. If He wants His people to repent, He must go over the top and make His anger appear extreme.

The unfortunate thing is, also like a parent, He’d rather not do that. He wants to shower His people with love and grace. He cannot – that would be enabling their bad behaviour, like giving a large sum of money to a compulsive gambler – but He would love to be able to.

Yet in the midst of all this, even when God is laying out His judgement strongly, God desires to forgive. And He wants His people to be aware that they shall be sent away from their homeland for a season, after which they will return. It won’t help THESE people – they’ll be stuck off in other countries! – but there IS that promise that this exile is not going to be forever.