Jesus is the express image of the father, this is what God is like. Jesus said if you have seen me you have seen the Father, when looking at the Old Testament there are some differences up to the point that Jesus is Crucified on the Cross. Many do not realize that the Old Covenant is till in effect at the time Jesus begins his ministry and the New Covenant is not until Jesus died on the cross. Anyway I just want to stress if you want to know what God is like in nature, Jesus is what he is like, and he did demonstrate wrath on the Cities of Choarazon and Bethsida those cities are in ruins to this day.
So Read Exodus 34:5-7 This is when God reveals himself to Moses. 5 And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
Okay so you are right, there is a contradiction and its in verse 7 "Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty."
Psalm 32 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
So we know God is just but yet covers sins, this is known as the great problem of the Old Testament. So how does God remain just and cover sin? If a judge were to cover the crime of a convict imagine the headlines to roll off the news paper what types of names they would call such a judge. Corrupt, crooked, unjust, just to name a few.
Yet God is a God who is just but yet covers up sin, but still the guilty do not go unpunished. King David even asked the question how can God be just and let the guilty go unpunished?
Well here is the punishment of the transgressor/sinner, "The wages of Sin is death..." Romans 3:23 thats right what this means is that for God to be just without covering sins, he would have had to kill Adam the moment he sinned in the garden ending humanity. He would have had to kill Abraham the moment he sinned, and ultimately he would have to kill you and me. This creates even a greater problem, how is God to be just without carrying out the sentence of the transgressor?
Well the Answer is Christ, he took the wrath of God for our sins and placed on us his righteousness.
Paul said "God demonstrates his own righteousness in this in while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly."
So what is going on is God is demonstrating his wrath on the sinners in the Old Testament because they are not of the covenant. Those who were under the covenant of Moses had their sins covered by the promise. Those who were not under the covenant of moses suffered the wrath of God for their transgressions, death. And yes even their children, and it seems those who dare threaten the children of the promise were utterly destroyed.
One of the biggest lies satan has pulled over man isn't his non existence its that there is such thing as a good person.
Everyone has sinned against Holy God, and are deserving of death and destruction, its by the Grace of Jesus Christ we through faith in Him exchange our sins once and for all on the cross and receive the righteousness of sinless Jesus Christ, and by his blood we are declared justified meaning absolved of all guilt.
So while the woman caught in adultery should have been stoned according to moses, Jesus Christ showed compassion and even paid for her sins, just as he does for you and for me.
