Scripture Juxtaposes Allegedly Discordant Images of God

Neo-marcionite critics, such as Eric Seibert, allege that Scripture presents us with a dilemma. What it teaches about God is inconsistent. Some of what it says about God is quite immoral. And we can only think rightly about God if we reject these images of God on the basis of other, concededly sound depictions of God.

One can respond to this critical view in one of two ways. First, one can propose ways to harmonize certain actions and attributes that Scripture ascribes to God. Sometimes this can be done quite easily, even if there are other cases that, to a modern person at least, might seem harder to understand. Second, one can note that Scripture nowhere presents these allegedly evil actions and attributes of God as evil or in any way contrary to those actions and attributes that the critic is willing to concede as praiseworthy. In this essay we will elaborate on the second response by showing that by its frequent juxtaposition of both sets of divine descriptions Scripture means to affirm both as true: two parts of a more complete picture of God.

The Law

In Exodus 34, God both proclaims his graciousness and mercy and states that he will “drive out before” Israel the seven nations of Canaan. The critic would have us supposed the former claim about God ought to be used to reject the latter depiction of God. But the inspired Scriptures do not reason in this manner. God spoke without any sense of incongruity when he said, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,” and, “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” (Exodus 34:6-7, 11) If the Scriptures so closely juxtapose these supposedly discordant images of God, it is better to suppose that they are, in fact, harmonizable. This being the case, the critic is unable to argue from the Scriptures to support his position. 

The Historical Books

Elijah is an outstanding example of one on whom God showed compassion. Elijah’s despair is plainly seen as he runs away from Jezebel. Yet, God comforts him. First, he does so by sending an angel to provide him food so that he would have the strength to complete his journey to Horeb. In the conversation that follows we read that God spoke to Elijah in a “still small voice”, which is an example of God’s mercy and kindness.

However, the Scriptures do not proceed to argue from these divine actions to the conclusion that Elijah’s killing of the prophets of Baal was wrong. Quite the contrary! For, God immediately afterward commands him to anoint three men: Elisha, Jehu, and Hazael. These three men, says God, will punish Israel. “It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill.” (1 Kings 19:17) There is not the slightest hint in the text that something is amiss here. Scripture does not operate according to the thinking of the neo-marcionite critic.

The Psalms

Psalm 136 is a paradigmatic example of the praise Israel rightly gave to God. Important for our purposes is the fact that God is praised “for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever”. The phrase “for his steadfast love endures forever” is repeated throughout the psalm. This indicates that the particular acts for which God is extolled throughout the psalm are exemplary of his steadfast, eternal love. Therefore, it is significant that we do not find the marcionite concerns that motivate the critic of the Scriptures. The exodus with all its miracles and plagues (vv. 10-16) and the divine aid given in the invasion of Canaan (vv. 17-22) are presented alongside creation (vv. 4-9) and general providence (v. 25) as reasons for which people must praise God. 

Whereas the critic alleges that God would not intervene in history to assist Israel in its wars or to judge nations, the inspired Psalm glorifies God for having done so. The Psalmist does not think that these destructive judgments are contrary to God’s love. Rather, they are exemplary of it. Nor is he the only psalmist who thinks in this manner. Psalm 78, 105, and 136 also positively cite the plagues upon Egypt and the Exodus as exemplary of God’s righteousness, power, and love.

The Prophets

One needs only to look at the Prophets in even a cursory fashion to behold depictions of God that the critic thinks are abominable and those that he would approve of. Isaiah contains a frightening description of the day of the Lord. For example, “Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.” (Isaiah 13:9) He also speaks of God’s compassion. For example, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” Taking the Bible as our guide, how can we conclude that these images, which are frequently repeated in the Scriptures, often in close proximity to each other, are at odds with each other?

Even where the human writer of Scripture seemed to have detected some apparent incongruity between the oracle God had given him and what he believed about God, he did not reject the oracle. After Habakkuk cried out concerning the wickedness and violence of Israel, (1:2-4) he reported God’s answer. “I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth . . . a feared and dreaded people . . . guilty people, whose own strength is their god.” (1:5-11) To this Habakkuk presents his second complaint (1:12-2:1). “Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? . . . Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?” To this, God responds by stating that the Babylonians, too, will be punished for their sins. “Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you.” (2:2-19; compare Isaiah 10:5-19) In other words, Habakkuk does not deny that God will employ the Babylonians to punish Israel, even though it did not sit well with him. So, while Scripture indicates that there is an acceptable range of lament and room for asking questions of God, it hardly warrants the neo-marcionite project of Seibert and others.

The New Testament

The same apostles and their associates who so often affirmed that the love of God is displayed in Christ also accepted as indisputable fact that God has judged nations in history, killed, and punished. Indeed, they often affirm both claims in close proximity to each other. Thus, in the New Testament the pattern of juxtaposing allegedly discordant images of God is continued.

Stephen

In his speech before the Sanhedrin (Acts 7), Stephen affirms the sorts of things the critic denies. He affirms everything the Scripture relates about the Exodus, the invasion of Canaan, and the deportation. “But I will judge the nation which they serve,’ said God.” (v. 7) “Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations which God thrust out before our fathers.” (v. 45) “I will remove you beyond Babylon.” (v. 43) Thus spoke him who was “full of the Holy Spirit, [and who] gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,” and who, as he died cried out in imitation of his Lord, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” (vv. 55, 60).

Paul

Paul also affirmed the historicity and moral liceity of the Old Testament judgments that the critic alleges are false and immoral. For he said, 

The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. And for about forty years he bore with them in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance, for about four hundred and fifty years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king; of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. (Acts 13:17-23)

In another place, after describing the wilderness wandering during which the people of Israel “were overthrown in the wilderness” by God, he wrote:

Now these things are warnings for us, not to desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance.” We must not indulge in immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents; nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come. (1 Corinthians 10:6-11)

These are not the statements of one who sees any incongruity between God being merciful and him also punishing persons or groups in history. This great martyr evidently was not as discerning as our critic. Evidently the Apostle did not understand that such accounts were immoral and meant to be rejected in light of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Peter

Unlike the critic, who objects to God’s judgment upon the wicked world of Noah’s day, Peter takes it for granted, referring to it twice in his letters. In his first letter he wrote:

“[Christ] went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.” (1 Peter 3:19-20)

And in his second letter, he wrote:

“God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of those who were to be ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot . . . then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.” (2 Peter 2:4-9)

He also accepts as historical the account concerning Balaam, which is part of the same account to which Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 10:8, and which is followed up by the account of Israel’s justified revenge upon Balaam. Peter writes, “They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a mute donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.” (2 Peter 2:15,16)

Jude

Jude mentions many historical examples of God’s punishments: the punishment of fallen angels, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Exodus, the wilderness wanderings, the destruction that befell Korah, and the destruction of Balaam. Such things did not perturb the inspired brother of our Lord who also wrote: “Beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” (Jude 20, 21)

Conclusion

We have only touched upon just a few instances where the Scriptures juxtapose supposedly discordant depictions of God. The divinely inspired penmen of Scripture – lawgivers, psalmists, prophets, and apostles – regarded these allegedly incompatible depictions of God as harmonious images of the loving God whom they served. Therefore, the Scriptures do not supply any ammunition to the marcionite cause but, for all who have faith in God, it amply refutes it.