I was told to just read the NT and not even worry about reading the OT. I've read a little of the OT and find God to be quite intimidating. Very different than Jesus in the NT. It's almost like they're completely different. Why is this? I know it was different eras, but God is unchanging. However, there's definitely a change in mood between the two testaments.
God's standards nor purposes never change. As James wrote, that with God there is "with him there is not a variation of the turning of the shadow."(James 1:17) Whereas shadows cast by the sun are always changing in size and direction as the earth rotates, the one true God Jehovah is unchangeable.
For example, at Genesis 1:28, God told Adam and Eve: "Be fruitful and become many and
fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.” What does this mean ? That he purposed the earth to be home forever to those who love him.
At Genesis 2:16, 17, God gave them another command: "From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.” Later however, Eve, upon coming to "the tree of the knowledge of good and bad", heard a voice from a serpent that questioned God's authority: "Is it really so that God said you must not eat from every tree of the garden ?” (Gen 3:1)
Instead of turning away, she listened to the serpent yet more, allowing his "reasoning" to cast doubt about God's right to rule, and "she began taking of its fruit and eating it. Afterward she gave some also to her husband when with her and he began eating it."(Gen 3:6) Because of Adam' and Eve's rebellion in the Garden of Eden, has God changed his intent with respect to the earth, to have it remain forever, with people living on it ? Or is he now sending everyone that loves him to heaven ?
Jesus taught in the Model Prayer: "Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come.
Let your will take place, as in heaven,
also upon earth."(Matt 6:9, 10) Why did Jesus teach us to pray for God's kingdom to come, saying that his will is to "take place, as in heaven, also upon earth" ? To show that
God has not changed, that his original intentions for the earth would be fulfilled.
Jesus provided another detail that the churches cast aside. At Luke 23:43, Jesus, while hanging on the torture stake, with two evil-doers most likely on either side, told one of them: "Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise.” When the word "Paradise" (meaning "park", conveying the basic idea of a beautiful park or parklike garden) was spoken by Jesus, what would have come to the mind of the Jewish evil-doer that had spoken to Jesus with hope ? The Garden of Eden. At Genesis 13:10, the "well watered region" of Sodom and Gomorrah was called the "garden of Jehovah, " referring to the original Garden of Eden.
To reaffirm that
God has not changed his original intentions toward the earth, Jesus said: "Blessed are the
meek: for they shall
inherit the earth."(Matt 5;5,
King James Bible) From where was Jesus quoting ? From Psalms 37:11, 29, which says that " the
meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.......The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein
for ever."(
King James Bible)
Thus,
God's unchangeableness is seen here, that the earth will become a paradise in the near future. But by what means is this to be accomplished ? Jesus taught us to pray for God's kingdom to come to bring this to reality, with peaceful conditions "as in heaven, also upon earth." The apostle Paul wrote that "it is
impossible for God to lie."(Heb 6:18) Hence, God has purposed that the earth be a paradise home to "meek" ones, being their ' inheritance ' from the unchangeable Jehovah God.
