Why did Jehovah exhibit so many negative human characteristics in the Old Testament?

Question

re:
God commanded us to kill:
unruly children: Deut: 21:20
Idolaters: Deut 13:6
The Accused: Deut 17:6
Children of enemies (to include babies): Nu.31:17, Deut 21:13, Psalm 137:9
A bride who is accused of not being a virgin: Deut: 22:13
The careless Ex 21:29

Who we should hate:
Those who eat crab or shrimp: Lev 11:10
Those who remarry same person: Deut 24:4
Homosexuals: Lev 18:22
the proud: Pr 16:5
A woman who wears pants: Deut 22:5
A man with long hair: ICor 11:14 (oops new testament)

and all the things God apparently either did himself or approved of or commanded to do?
The earth swallowing up thousands, God drowns almost everyoneon earth, God kills egyptian babies to punish pharaoh, people having to eat their own children's flesh, God punished children for their parent's sin, threatens to have wild animals to carry away Israelite's children...

How was this transformed into a God of mercy?

Answer 1

I think I may be reading your question a little differently than most here. They seem to be accusing you of some sort of divisiveness.

One could be a Christian and ask the very same question.

It is a problematic question for Christians.

These things would certainly be considered sins under the fundamental tenets of Christianity, as it is manifest today.

It is more than reasonable to ask if this represents a double standard with God (i.e. sin hasn't always been sin?)

If God existed, I am certain He would not be afraid of such hard questions.

This God was never transformed into a God of mercy. With 5 billion people still denying that Jesus is the Son of God and not believing in Him, it puts down a hard case against God, who is supposed to be "easy to be entreated."

A scriptural case could be made that these 5 billion people (who will die without ever having confessing that Jesus is Lord, and who will never have confessed their "sins" will go to Hell for everlasting punishment and quite possibly, annihilation.

This is a completely unfair and horrible deity.

Answer 2

What you call "negative characteristics" are actually part of God's goodness. God cannot be anything other than what He is (so you can do something God can't; you can lie.) God both loves you AND God is judge of all rebellion (a.k.a., sin).

Now, you certainly have the free will to complain about God condemning things from disobedient children to disobedient adults, but don't complain that God in turn condemns you. He's given His law, made it clear, and expects you to follow it. You don't have to, of course. But you don't have to see Him let you into heaven, either. What, you thought you'd go hang out in God's home after insulting Him?

Answer 3

You seem to overlook one minor point - that all life that exists comes for God and He has absolute authority over who lives and who dies. Every breath you breathed while writing your diatribe against God was given to you by God, and if He should withhold the next breath, He is taking nothing that doesn't already belong to Him.
Some of your points are furthermore inaccurate and taken out of context. I see you are a rebel against the God who has given you life and breath and being. Have you ever thanked Him once for the good in your life?

Answer 4

Geez - RB makes God even meaner today!! Id rather have been swallowed by the earth and then lived in Heaven after wards, rather than receiving ETERNAL punishment... Boy, that God sure is a bully!! Why he would punish me for eternity for making a finite mistake is beyond my comprehension....

Answer 5

Satan the Devil is to blame for every human death which has ever occurred.

The Scriptures teach that God currently tolerates Satan's killing of humans; Satan kills by means of Adamic sin, debauched conditions in Satan's world, and personally or by demons.

(Job 1:12-19) Jehovah said to Satan: "Look! Everything that [Job] has is in your hand. Only against him himself do not thrust out your hand!" So Satan went out away from the person of Jehovah. 13 Now it came to be the day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their brother the firstborn. ...18 [A servant of Job] came and proceeded to say: "Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their brother the firstborn. 19 And, look! there came a great wind from the region of the wilderness, and it went striking the four corners of the house, so that it fell upon the young people and they died.


The Scriptures teach that Satan is inclined to kill humans, and prevent the salvation of individuals.

(John 8:44) You are from YOUR father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him.

(1 Peter 5:8) Your adversary, the Devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone.


If Adam and Eve had never sinned, the Scriptures teach that they never would have died. When Satan targeted Eve and Adam to become sinners, Satan knew that mankind would NOT continue to have everlasting life. Thus Satan is really to blame for every human death that has ever occured.

(Genesis 2:16,17) Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: "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."

(Genesis 3:1) Now the serpent... began to say to the woman: "Is it really so that God said you must not eat from every tree of the garden?"

(Romans 5:12) Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin


Jehovah is eager to undue everything that the Devil has done, and Jehovah has assigned Jesus Christ to perform this restoration. It will be accomplished soon.

(1 John 3:8) The Devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was made manifest, namely, to break up the works of the Devil.

(1 Corinthians 15:21) For since death is through a man, resurrection of the dead is also through a man.


Those who do not believe that the earth will be restored to Edenic paradise conditions seem too-quick to believe that a lowly creature (such as Satan) could actually CHANGE the divine purposes of Almighty Jehovah God. Jehovah put mankind in paradise earth, and Jehovah will make sure that mankind lives forever in paradise earth, despite a delay which will shorter and shorter as human lifetimes extend toward infinity.

(Isaiah 65:17-25) For here I am creating new heavens and a new EARTH; and the former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart. ...21 And they will certainly build houses and have occupancy; and they will certainly plant vineyards and eat their fruitage. 22 They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating. For like the days of a tree will the days of my people be; and the work of their own hands my chosen ones will use to the full. ...25 The wolf and the lamb themselves will feed as one, and the lion will eat straw just like the bull [caps added]

(Revelation 21:1-4) And I saw a new heaven and a new EARTH; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more. ...Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. 4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away. [caps added]

(Genesis 1:28) God blessed them and God said to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill THE EARTH and subdue it [caps added]
(Genesis 2:17) You must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die [so never eating from that tree means never dying]
(Psalms 37:11) 'the meek will possess the earth'
(Proverbs 2:21) 'upright will reside in the earth'
(Isaiah 45:18) 'God formed the earth to be inhabited'
(Matthew 5:5) 'the mild will inherit the earth'

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20010901/
http://watchtower.org/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_04.htm
http://jw-media.org/beliefs/trueworship.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/

Answer 6

most of your examples are in the earliest, most archaic part of the Bible, the Pentateuch. While fundamentalists would disagree with me, I would advise you to view them with a bit of a grain of salt.

Answer 7

This was the price for disobedience. Today, if disobedient, by not believing in Jesus as saviour, you will have eternal punishment.

Answer 8

God never commanded those negatives; it's all ancient Jewish traditions.