As Joshua’s words fell on the children of Israel, their hearts raced in fear of the terrible things that “God” would do to them as narrated by Joshua. They knew that they were left with no option but to serve the God that they were called upon to serve.
Let us take a look at the call to worship that Joshua gave the children of Israel and see how it contrasts with the character of God as seen in Jesus Christ.
Joshua 24 (KJV)
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¹⁹ And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
²⁰ If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
²¹ And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD.
We had considered earlier the Hebrew word translated as “Jealous,” and we saw that it means “Angry.” And the manifest anger of the God Joshua spoke about was in his turning and doing them hurt after he had done them good because they abandoned him.
If the God spoken about and experienced by the children of Israel for the most part was the one who came in the flesh as Jesus Christ, then we should expect the same attitude from him when he is rejected by his people.
On the contrary, Jesus acted differently in similar situations.
A classic example is Peter denying him. Did you notice that Jesus did not so much as make reference to the event upon his resurrection from the dead? And in the light of his foreknowledge of Peter’s denial of him, he prayed for him as opposed to reeling out the calamities that would befall Peter should he deny him.
National Israel rejected God, who is Jesus Christ, and nowhere do we read of him pronouncing calamities that he would meet out to them; instead, he keeps sending messengers of light to this day to bring them into the light of his presence.
Even at the point of death on the cross, he chose to forgive them over pronouncing judgment on them.
The crux of the conversation Joshua had with the children of Israel in that chapter was to bring them to a place of worshipping “God”. As a strategy, a reminder of the fierce temper of this God would certainly compel them to worship him.
Light does not compel worship, but darkness compels worship.
It is not in the character of light to destroy you because you refused to walk in his ways, but it is in the character of darkness to destroy you when you refuse to walk in his ways.
Another fact you need to lay to the heart is that darkness threatens with calamities should you refuse to worship him, but light reaches out in love when you refuse to worship him.
For those who think that God, in Christ Jesus, behaved differently because of the New Covenant, I need to bring to your attention that the New Covenant was not in force when Jesus saved the woman caught in adultery from those who wanted to kill her according to the dictate of the Old Covenant as given by the prominent God of the Jewish religion.
Also, the New Covenant was not in force when Jesus Christ was associated closely with sinners while people who were practitioners of the Old Covenant kept a “holy” distance from them.
In Jesus Christ, the character of God is revealed, and the identity of satan is exposed.
Light is here!
Dr. Destiny Kingston
ChurchGrowth360 International
#thegodconflict