The God of the Old Testament - Part 2
In this section we pick up on where we left off at the end of part 1. See Catholic Questions 5 link
If it is true that each of us grows in our understanding of important things as we mature as individuals, the same can be said of the way in which a whole culture grows in understanding of such things. In the Old Testament, we see how God impacts unexpectedly on a people who were forging an identity, encountering them within their own cultural and historical context.
Why does God proceed in this manner?
Arguably this is how God seeks to lead them forward from a raw and simplistic relationship with the divine toward something that is deeper, more authentic and nuanced. God becomes part of their story and, over millennia, shapes that story.
Catholics belong to a faith tradition that has long recognised the power of story. For example, the opening lines of our sacred text present two accounts of the creation of the world. The truths these stories seek to convey are not, primarily, historical or scientific truths, but something more profound. They aim to teach us what it means to be in relationship with the God who holds us in being. The truths they convey are eternal.
They depict the goodness of creation and our utter dependence on God. They teach us that we have been created for an eternal relationship with the One who calls us into being. They reveal that, through our selfishness, we have distorted that relationship. They promise that God can restore that relationship to its original strength and innocence. These are a few of the truths that these stories communicate. The story doesn’t end there. Through the lives and experiences of our many spiritual ancestors, God reaches out again and again.
To Noah, God teaches what it means to trust, and that actions have consequences.
To Abraham and Sarah, what it means to have faith.
To Ruth, that God is concerned for all people, regardless of race, status or gender.
To David, that God is at work even in those whom others dismiss, and what it means to be forgiven.
To Solomon, what it means to be truly wise.
To Gideon, what it means to rely on God alone.
To Jonah, what it means to respond to God, and that God cannot be avoided.
To Job, what it means to endure amid darkness and confusion.
The list goes on.
Jesus is the central point of the story—the one who brings it all together. Everything authentic revealed about God in the Old Testament comes to birth in him and is made visible in his life, death and resurrection. In Jesus, the storyteller who is God becomes one of us and enters the story of each of us.
God’s life intersects with our story and calls us forward into God.