“Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ”
– Exodus 32:27 (NIV)
There are some places in Scripture that are harder than others. In the Old Testament, God is often seen as angry, overly harsh, and at times vile. In my humble opinion, nothing could be further from the truth.
Imagine the anger of a wife who found out that her husband had cheated on her on the very night of their wedding day. I know what you are thinking, yes, but it would be against the law to kill him. That is true. So, let us pause and think about God and eternity for a moment.
When you sin against God, you, like an unfaithful spouse, violate the relationship between you and Him. God, like the betrayed spouse, has a right to be angry. A right that all of us sympathize with when it happens to a best friend, but we seem to criticize as it relates to God. The huge difference between God and man is that God also holds the power of eternal judgment. We see his judgment as harsh because we see ourselves, not in the perfection, the goodness, or the holiness of God, but in the sinfulness of the one who has been judged. We know that we too, have violated God’s moral Law. If the truth be told, we too, would stand in judgment. We criticize Him as harsh because we know that we are just as guilty as the judged, and it is easier to say that God is harsh than to say we are guilty.
Instead of being angry at God for His judgment, it makes more since to praise Him for His grace and mercy. Read the whole chapter. The sinful people were given an opportunity to repent. Many did not and chose to stand firm in their sin. God then used the repentant to judge the unrepentant.