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The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Find a fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. We're going to dig into the scriptures today, and we're going to tackle some tough questions. And it's conjunction with my newest book coming out. It is actually a new edition, revised updated edition of a book that I wrote, my first book actually, in 1985. And it's going to be printed very soon, a beautiful new hardcover edition.

And I'll tell you more about that as we go on. But the title of the new book, or the old book made new and updated for our contemporary audience, is Compassionate Father or Consuming Fire, Engaging the God of the Old Testament. Now, if you have a specific question today, in particular, about the God of the Old Testament, things about the God of the Old Testament that seem different than the God of the New Testament, or things that people have shared with you, maybe your kids or others, coworkers that are not believers, and say, yeah, I don't like the God of the Old Testament for this reason or that reason, or he seems different than Jesus, give me a call.

I want to do my best to answer as many of your questions as possible. Now, if you have general questions, that's fine, 86634truth, 8663487884, general questions about the Old Testament, that's fine. But specifically, some of these challenging issues, some of these places where it seems as if the God of the Old Testament is different than Jesus, or the God of the Old Testament is somehow petty or vindictive or genocidal, as some would claim.

Again, 86634truth, they can be your own questions or questions that you've heard from others. Maybe you used to be a follower of Jesus, and you're listening or watching now, and you no longer are, and this is one of the things you struggled with, the God of the Old Testament. Maybe you've never believed, and this is one of your issues, why would I want to follow a God like that?

By all means, give us a call. Okay, let me start again with a famous quote from atheist Richard Dawkins. It was part of his mega best selling book, The God Delusion, and let's look at what Dawkins said.

Again, this is a well-known quote, and it's been posted over and over again and quoted over and over again. He said, the God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction. So there in his judgment, the Bible is fiction. The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction.

Jealous and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak, a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filiacidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. Now, on the one hand, rhetoric like that is so over the top that it disqualifies itself to many. Others, however, think it's accurate. I recently debated atheist former evangelical, now for many years, atheist activist Dan Barker, and we talked about does the God of the Bible exist? So of course, he was going to launch an attack on the God of the Bible, whom of course he does not believe exists. That debate will be airing, should be next week on the Awakening TV network AWKNG.

Branden, you can get a trial run on it and check it out for yourself. But Dan Barker took the Dawkins statement and then wrote a book where he put together verse after verse that in his mind supported each of these claims and supported this malevolent, ugly picture of God. Now, I want to read through Psalm 103. I want to present a very different picture, and I want to read through this psalm and say, well, this is another portrait of the God of the Old Testament. This is another picture of the God of the Old Testament.

How do we reconcile these? Or could it be that Dawkins is massively misjudging the God of the Old Testament? And before we get to Psalm 103, I remember being an unsaved teenager and going to the High Holy Day services with my parents. This would be the time when we would go to the synagogue as a family. And I remember reading through the prayer book.

If you've never been to a synagogue or service, it's liturgical. And there's a lot of reading where, okay, everyone will now read this together or read this silently, pray this prayer out loud, responsive reading, someone will read, people respond. And there were times, okay, now read these prayers or read these pages in the prayer book. And the pages, they're all filled with praises to God. And God's speaking all these things about himself. And I remember as a lost kid, as a rebel, as a non-believer, thinking, wow, this God is really on an ego trip.

You know, look at what he says about himself. I'm this, I'm that, I'm good, I'm holy, I'm compassionate, I'm righteous. And then we're supposed to say, oh yeah, I'll praise you, praise you.

So I understand, looking from the outside, how it could seem. Let's look at Psalm 103. Psalm 103, I want to read this through out loud. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.

Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame.

He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, all you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion.

Bless the Lord, O my soul. Now think of this, this picture of God being long suffering, being compassionate, treating us the way a father treats his children, understanding our weakness, understanding our frame, working righteousness on the earth. And elsewhere in the Old Testament, he's pictured as the father of the fatherless, as the husband of the widow, as the one who hears the cry of the poor and the oppressed. And then he tells Israel, as his people Israel came out of slavery in Egypt, saying now you have compassion on the foreigner, and you have compassion on the slave because you were slaves and you were foreigners in Egypt. So is it that the God of the Old Testament is somehow schizophrenic and that he's smiling, blessing, happy one and the next day he's just maligning and people accuse him of all kinds of things and destroying them? Kind of like an alcoholic father and the kid comes home and doesn't know if the dad's gonna hug him or punch him.

Hey, come on over here. And you don't know because he's two different people. Is that it? And were the authors and editors of the Bible, the ones who put things together in certain order and compiled things in their final forms, were they so ignorant of this that they couldn't see the schizoid behavior of this deity or these completely different pictures? Or could it be that people like Richard Dawkins, Dan Barker and other critics are looking at things completely wrongly, that they're missing the aspect of judgment coming on the wicked, that they're missing the aspect on God's goodness and God's righteousness and God's faithfulness being manifest in compassion and long suffering and kindness to those who fear him and honor him and want to live for him. And he is extremely patient and long suffering with them. And at the same time, his goodness, faithfulness and righteousness require him to bring judgment on the wicked and judgment on the godless and that we do reap what we sow.

Let me ask you a question. Let's say you've got a dear friend of yours and this person say it's a married man with three kids and he comes home one day and to his absolute horror, to his devastating horror, to the point of complete physical collapse, he sees that his wife and children have been murdered in cold blood. And then finds out during the autopsies that they've all been sexually abused. And then the man responsible for this is caught. And he says, I did it before and I do it again.

I felt like it and it felt good and nobody's going to tell me what to do. The judge sentences him to life in prison without parole. He's found guilty on all charges, sentenced to life in prison without parole. And you find out actually that he has been a serial rapist and killer responsible for 10 other atrocities. And finally, he has been caught when the judge sentences him to life in prison without parole. Are you sitting there thinking, what a heartless judge, what a cruel judge.

When you read the verdict in your paper and you think about your poor friend who's lost everything and all these other families who've lost so much and the victims that suffered so much. Are you thinking, well, what's with this judge? Why is he so cruel? No, to the contrary, if he said, look, you probably had a rough upbringing.

Maybe your father was mean to you. Let's get you some counseling, you know, behind bars just for a year to think about it. Get you know, outrage. What kind of corrupt judge is that? What kind of legal system is this? So we recognize the importance of judgment and justice.

Could it be we're just not recognizing it when God is the judge carrying it out or using his people to carry out judgment against wicked nations? Friends, there are answers for all these questions. What are your questions about the God of the Old Testament? We're just getting started. 866-3-4-TRUTH.

And is the Old Testament so important for believers today? And we'll tell you also about how you can pre-order our new book. We'll be right back.

Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire. 866-3-4-TRUTH is the number to call with your questions about the God of the Old Testament. So 1985, I was finishing up my doctoral dissertation and getting my Ph.D. from New York University in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. My sister-in-law, who had been miraculously healed a few years before that at a time when I did not believe in divine healing, so I kind of resisted her testimony, Nancy's sister. She had been healed, and she was now in a ministry school and getting a lot of teaching about the Word.

A lot of it was good and edifying and helpful, but there are other things that were raising questions for her. She was being taught that every time in the Old Testament where God said He would smite someone or destroy someone or put sickness and disease on them, that if you understood the Hebrew, you'd know that there was a different Hebrew sense, or they call it tense, tense really has to do with time, being used, and that it was a permissive sense. So when God said, I'll put sickness on you, it meant I will permit sickness to be put on you, or I will smite you, it meant I will let you be smitten, because in their view, if God was the healer, then He didn't put disease or sickness on anyone. And she asked me about it, I said, no, that's not what the Hebrew says. The Hebrew says what the English translations say, that God said He would do it. Now whether He did it through an angelic intermediary or however, He took responsibility, He said, I'm doing it. Deuteronomy 32, 39, where God says, I'm the Lord, right, no one else but me, I kill, I make alive, I wound, I heal.

He said, I'm the one who does that. So, and she said, what about the book of Job? I've heard this and that, and Job was walking in fear, and that's why this happened, or he spoke against God, that's why this happened to him, or he's married the wrong woman, and I said, no, no, no, no, that's not what Job is about. So I began to write her a letter answering her questions, and the letter became my first book, which came out in 1995, Compassionate Father, Consuming Father, Who is the God of the Old Testament?

That was the subtitle then. And we got it out to a lot of people, a lot of our students used it, found it helpful, and then we stopped distributing it quite a few years ago, and basically it's been unavailable. And a couple years back, I started thinking about it, and looking at it, I thought, so many of these questions keep coming up.

So many of these issues keep coming up, and believers are struggling with the God of the Old Testament, especially the younger people, maybe I should update the book, make some revisions, add some material to it, because it's a short read, it's not a long, heavy read. And then began to work on it, and then a new publisher reached out to me and said, hey, we're interested in putting out one of your books, and I said, well, I'm thinking of doing a new edition of this, what do you think? And they said, wonderful. And when they went through it, and I'm just being candid with you, when their editors went through it, they started writing, whoa, all these great quotes, wow, what great insights, this is so rich, I thought, cool.

I wasn't expecting that enthusiastic response. So we've got it coming out, it's not a big read, in other words, it's not hundreds and hundreds of pages, but it's been put out in like a coffee table format, really, really nice, hardcover, really beautifully printed. So you can preorder that. But as a gift to you, when you preorder from a website, it'll be signed and numbered. So it's kind of a collector's item when it comes off the press. But also we're adding in a DVD, where I go through the origins and history of the book, and then take you through each chapter in more depth.

So it's an accompanying teaching video for free. So you can order on our website, AskDrBrown.org, A-S-K-D-R-Brown.org, and the title of the second edition, Compassionate Father or Consuming Father, Who is the God of the Old Testament? Now, in my Hypergrace book, I dealt with those who rejected the God of the Old Testament, or made him a lower deity, or downgraded the importance of the Old Testament. I took issue a couple years ago when Andy Stanley unwisely said that we needed to unhitch from the Old Testament, and he got on the air with me and said, hey, wrong choice of words, and I love the Old Testament, it's important.

So we talked that through, and there's obviously more to talk through, as this book came out on a similar subject and we've dialogued about that since. And then a lot of this goes back to an early church leader named Marcion, who died in 160, and he went heretical. He was an influential church leader who began to say the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New Testament, than the God and Father of the Lord Jesus, and therefore the Old Testament should be discarded. And over the centuries, there have been various movements among scholars or Christian leaders where they have downgraded the God of the Old Testament or the Old Testament itself. And in fact, let me just give you one more example, then I want to go back to the Scriptures, then we'll take your calls.

866-34-TRUTH. Look at this quote. This was, I don't want to mention the gentleman's name, response before, because I don't know where he is in the Lord right now, if he's solidly walking with the Lord or not, but this is what he wrote.

And I interacted with a person, he said, no, no, I hold to this, so we published it, and it's in hyper-grace. At the risk of sounding critical, he said, it remains a sad reality that the Bible Society chose to combine the Old and New Testaments into one single book. Now, of course, aside from being an absolutely horrific sentence, unbelievable sentence for a Christian to write, obviously someone with very, very poor foundations or already in heresy, there was no Bible Society that just one day chose to combine the Old and New Testaments into one single book.

But look at this. This single decision has caused widespread confusion within the ranks of believers throughout the world. He said, many of the writings in the Bible before the cross portray God to be a harsh, cruel being set on destroying and punishing people if they dare to disobey the set of moral standards represented by the Ten Commandments and the other laws. So he's saying that people really struggle with this God of the Old Testament, and it does a lot of damage because it's very different than the God of the New Testament. And you're talking about a heretical statement. Okay, so there are people, though, who hold to this, and if they don't articulate that, they are close to it.

And the fact of the matter is that if you build a two-story house, right, you build a two-story house, when you finish building it, you don't knock out the first story, otherwise the second story collapses. The New Testament is built on the old, the old adage that the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed, the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. The entirety of the New Testament is built on the foundation of the Old Testament, the promises to Israel.

God is the creator and ruler of all things, the promised Messiah. And in fact, even the idea of Old Testament is a misnomer. There is an Old Covenant that the New Covenant writings reference. But you could speak of the Hebrew scriptures and the Greek scriptures, or you could speak about the First Testament and the Second Testament, but even old and new can give you the idea that, well, it's passé. No, without that revelation that we have in the pages of the Hebrew scriptures, there is no New Testament, there is no Messiah, there is no promise to the nations, none of that whatsoever. So we discard the Old Testament at our own absolute risk, and remember that Jesus says very plainly that this is his Father.

The God of the Old Testament is his heavenly Father, whom he dearly loved. We're going to open up some scriptures about the slaughter of the Canaanites, about other ethical issues. First, let's go to the phones, 866-34-TRUTH, starting with Nate in Greenville, South Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hey Dr. Brown. Hey there. I had a question for you.

Yeah. I was wondering if you could kind of speak to the end, there are a few passages in the Old Testament that talk about how God would set down a judgment, or he would seem to set out a plan, and then come time for that plan to happen, the Word of God would say that he relented, or repented, of what he was about to do. Why would a God who knows everything, who is all-powerful, decide to change his mind?

Right, so he explains that. It's a great question, of course, especially when the text will use things like, God relented, or even translate with repented. That would not be the right word to use speaking of God, but certainly relented. So if he knew what was going to happen in advance, why would he relent?

Well, the simple answer, then we're going to look at what he says in scripture, but the simple answer is that it is only by him proclaiming judgment and promising judgment that the people repent it and turn from their evil, which then gave him the perfect right to say, okay, because you have repented and are making things right, I will not bring the judgment on you. It would be like if you told your children. You know, they've got little kids, they've been irresponsible, they've been making a mess in their room, and they haven't been cleaning up and stuff. You say, okay, listen, that's it.

You don't get things in order, and you can't go over to the sleepover next weekend, whatever, and come back three minutes later, they've got everything cleaned in perfect shape, and they stay like that, it's like, okay, you can go. So let's look in Jeremiah chapter 18. Jeremiah chapter 18. Jeremiah goes to the house of the potter, and he watches him, right, he makes a piece of potter, he's not happy with it, so he destroys it, starts another one. Verse 5, then the word of the Lord came to me, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done, declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent to the good that I intended to do to it. Now therefore say to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, thus says the Lord, behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you, return everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds. God's saying, judgment is coming, you deserve it. The people repent, they turn back to God, they humble themselves, then based on that he relents. Now he knows what's coming in advance, he knows what's coming in advance, however he will, if he just knew what was coming in advance and didn't give us the chance to respond, there would never be a response.

So he knows what's coming in advance based on what he says, what we do, then how he responds. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Well there's some breaking news today if you've not heard in the midst of all of the sexual allegations about New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General's office finding him guilty of these things or charging him with these things. He has now resigned, even President Biden had called for his resignation.

So if you haven't followed that, that's the story. Hey listen, it's easy to throw stones at him, especially now that he's down, but let's first remember again victims, people who were traumatized, people who were hurt by him. Let's remember not just the sexual harassment victims, but the terribly misguided plan where elderly people with COVID were shipped out of hospitals to nursing homes to make room for younger patients that ended up not filling the hospitals. But either way, this created now a plague of an epidemic on a worse level in the nursing homes with many, many fatalities that many argue would never have happened if not for this misguided policy. I know in the heat of the moment people are making decisions, but these were horrific.

So there are many casualties in the midst of all this. But for Governor Cuomo, may he humble himself and rather than just fight and try to come back another day, may he humble himself and learn and a lesson for everybody. Oh, he was flying high. He even gets what an Emmy Award for his press conferences, something like that. He was the man, untouchable. His dad was governor, his brothers, CNN star to come crashing down and be disgraced can happen to anyone.

Therefore, let him let her thinks that they stand take heed lest they fall. Other breaking news just discovered this a moment ago. Robin as in Batman and Robin comes out as bisexual. Latest example of moral and cultural insanity and the war on our children. What else do you expect these days? You've got transgender superheroes and all that. Just role models.

Yeah, that's the liberal line. I remember some years ago and I'm getting back to the Old Testament, getting back to the God of the Old Testament in a moment. If you have a question about the God of the Old Testament, the nature of the God of the Old Testament, things that the scriptures say about and that are puzzling to you, give me a call 866-34-TRUTH. We're doing this in conjunction with my new book, the revised, updated, beautifully produced edition of Compassionate Father or Consuming Fire, Engaging the God of the Old Testament. By the way, I mentioned earlier in the broadcast that those pre-ordering for a website get a DVD.

Actually, it's better you get an instant video download so you have access to that DVD player or no, you'll get that and that'll be instant. So that that's being released. The book should be out sometime later this month.

And again, you can pre-order numbered signed copy with the free video in addition to that at our website AskDr. Brown A-S-K-D-R Brown dot R. Oh, a stream. Okay, it's a link to a stream. I'll get it right. I'll get it right eventually. This third time we get it right this time. So you get a link and you can just watch boom.

So you don't have to download megabytes, gigabytes, whatever. Okay, got it. Thumbs up if I got that right, please.

So, yeah, I've got folks in every department contacting me. No, no, it's actually okay. We get it right here. There we go. Big thumbs up.

Thanks. Thanks for the compassion, guys. Okay, so back to the God of the Old Testament. Back to the God of the Old Testament. People struggle and say, look, just picture this, the slaughter of the Canaanites. Just picture this. It's not just killing the men.

Men, women, and children. How can that be justified? How could that ever be justified?

You're one of those warriors out there doing it. You're one of those sent out by God. Isn't that just like ISIS, what they did? And wouldn't this be more like the murderous Allah of the world, radical Islamic terrorists than the God that we love and worship and serve? It's a very fair question, which is why we tackle it in Compassion of the Father, Consuming the Father. By the way, we also tackle it from some other angles in the book Has God Failed You, which came out in May.

So we tackle those things there. All right, so let's take a look at Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15, and we're going to look at netbible.org because it's got accompanying notes that are helpful as well.

And this is the NET New English translation. To give you the context, God's making a promise to Abram, promising the land of Canaan to him. And it's a one-way covenant. Only God is active in this while Abram himself is asleep.

So it says in verse 12, When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, and great terror overwhelmed him. Then the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign country. They will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve, meaning Egypt. Afterward, they will come out with many possessions.

But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation, which the NET notes explain, is a term being used in its widest sense to refer to a full lifespan. So you're talking basically four hundred years of bondage.

So generation here in the sense of a hundred years. The fourth generation, your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit, which the NET notes explain in Hebrew, is not yet complete. The sin of the Amorites has not yet reached this limit. The justice of God is apparent.

He will wait until the Amorites are fully deserving of judgment before he annihilates them and gives the land to Israel. Okay, let's think about what we just read. How much did the Israelites suffer in Egypt?

Maybe you've seen your Ten Commanders movie. If you're familiar with the opening chapters of Exodus, they suffered. They were slaves. They were in bondage. They were in servitude, whole families, and everyone was born into slavery. And this went on for generations. The Israelites went down, the children of Jacob, children of Israel went down free, but over a period of years they became slaves. And they were worked hard, and it was torturous, and it was terrible.

But it dragged on, and on, and on. Why? Because the Promised Land wasn't ready yet.

Why? Because the people living there weren't guilty enough yet. They were guilty, very guilty, extremely guilty, horrifically guilty, but not quite yet at the limit of destruction and judgment. So even though it cost Israel being enslaved, even though God's people had to suffer, which then taught them certain lessons about God's faithfulness to deliver, and then God gave the Lord a good reason to judge Egypt the way he judged Egypt and miraculously bring them out.

So he worked out everything for good. But to humans living here, it's not just a snap of the fingers. And he waited.

Think of this. It was a 400-year period. You talk about patience, you talk about long-suffering. If America begins as a nation in 1776, we're not 400 years old. We're not nearly 400 years old. If you want to just talk about the very first pilgrims getting over here, etc., so now we've just passed 400 years of that.

That is a long time. But that's how long God waited until the sin of the Canaanites had reached a certain level. And then he said, now I'll bring judgment. And according to the Scriptures, now people can debate how much we know archaeologically, how much background there is, but what the Scriptures plainly tell us is that God did not give the land to Israel because of Israel's goodness but because of the wickedness of the Canaanites and the peoples living there, and that they were guilty of all kinds of sexual perversions. And they were guilty of all types of sins, including sacrificing their own children to idols and burning them in the fire. This is according to the witness of the Hebrew Bible. You'll find it, for example, at the end of Leviticus 18, God says that the land of Canaan vomited them out because of their guilt, vomited them out because of their wickedness.

So this is what's laid out plainly. You say, okay, I still don't get slaughter of men, women, children. No, not everyone was slaughtered.

Many end up remaining. Israel did not subdue them, and they just now served Israel. Others fled. Israel was called to drive them out. Others were killed.

Now some have claimed that most of the cities were fortress cities, so the people there were mainly soldiers and warriors, and the idea of men, women, and children is a bit of hyperbole and overstatement and standard rhetoric from the ancient Near East, the way you talk about completely wiping people out. It didn't actually mean that. Everyone knew the language didn't actually mean that. But let's take it literally.

Let's take it that it literally meant that. How could that be justified? Well, one answer is that there are now DNA studies that are done that claim that children can not only inherit the bad physical traits from their parents. And look, you know, for example, if a woman is an alcoholic all through her pregnancy, her child can be born deformed because of it.

Terrible physical suffering because of the mother's alcoholism. Or children can be born addicted if the mother is an addict. Or if the mother and father have certain traits and tendencies, those can be passed down. There are studies now that indicate that other traits, moral traits and things like that could be passed down as well.

I'm not expert enough to comment on that part, but I've read studies that seem to be being discussed by recognized psychologists and scientists as saying, yeah, this is something we should really look at. If that was the case then, this would be a matter of destroying those that would have risen up with the same wickedness as their parents. And not only so, from a biblical point of view, these children, because they had not acted these things out and lived them out yet, as far as I understand scripture would go straight to the presence of God because they were not yet accountable. And therefore, even though they would die in this world, they would live in the world to come. Others have argued that the Canaanites were descendants of the Nephilim. That's why they were large in stature. That they were half-breeds, basically. That they were the result of angelic beings falling and taking on human form and having sexual relations with women. And out of that produced this race of giants, many of whom were wiped out at the flood, Genesis 6, but others lived on. And there are those who believe that this was God's way of exterminating this race of half-breeds that were destructive and godless.

Either way, the Bible presents things and says, God waited 400 years to do it until it was absolutely merited. And when he did it, if we were standing there, we'd say, this is the right thing. This is the righteous thing.

How is it you waited so long? We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. So here's something really interesting about the Old Testament. It has within it its own protest literature. It has within it its own questioning, skeptical literature. It has within it, as one Old Testament scholar said, forms already filled out if you want to issue a complaint against God. In other words, God inspired his children to write certain things.

Or, you could say, God allowed his children to go on certain journeys of skepticism, of questioning, of challenging, in order to bring them to a place of deeper trust, but not only so, but to preserve their words for you. You say, I don't know. It's like it seems just like everything is just chance. You know, here's someone loves the Lord godly and die in a freak accident. Here's some ungodly person. They seem to have nine lives. It just doesn't make any sense. And here, you know, the sweetest person I know, you know, they die of COVID in this other person, like a blasphemer, mean spirited.

They get COVID and now they're back to fine. It doesn't make any sense. This seems like random, just all random. Well, read Ecclesiastes. That's in the Bible.

That time and chance happen to everybody. That's the way it seems. And Ecclesiastes basically takes you on a journey of like, everything's been, nothing has any meaning. It's just, it's worthless. It's useless. One generation comes, another generation goes, and it's just the same old cycle and just you work your whole life for something and then your kid inherits it and your kid's a jerk and squanders it all.

Like, what's the use of anything? Ecclesiastes takes you on that journey and then says, you know, actually, here's, here's the conclusion that I've looked at this whole thing. Fear God, keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man.

This is the whole person, literally. Or you have the book of Job. Of course, we've talked about that much as I've written a commentary on it. And I get into Job in the, the new book, Compassion Father Consuming Fire, Engaging the God of the Old Testament. Again, you can pre-order it with a free video, a stream link on sdrbrown.org. We hope to be getting the books in stock over the next few weeks and getting them right out to you. You'll find it super eye-opening and helpful. And it ties in with a lot of the content and Has God Failed You? So these are two books that would go hand in hand really, really nicely for yourself or for others who are, who are struggling.

I'm glad they're coming out one on the heels of the other. But Job, I mean, here he is, the perfectly righteous guy. I mean, the, the one that God says there's nobody like him on the earth. God says that of him.

There's nobody like him on the earth. And yet, he loses everything. How, what?

How's that work? First he's super blessed because he's righteous. Now he loses everything because he's righteous? And God makes some agreement with Satan to test him? What?

How's that work? But there's so many lessons that come out of it. And in the end, Job is doubly blessed and knows God in a way he never would have before. And as much as he went through living hell and suffered the loss of everything, including his 10 children, when all is said and done in the light of eternity, Job will be able to look us in the eye and say, it was absolutely worth it. I am, I am a far better person and far closer to God, and I've offered far more to far more people by going through that than by not going through it.

And isn't that often the same in our own lives? That the worst thing you ever went through? The thing that you absolutely do not ever want to go through again? The thing that you would do everything you could to avoid going through again? You have to admit it's best I went through it though. I would not be who I am if I hadn't gone through that.

I would, I would not be where I am today if I had not gone through it. Let me go with you to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

Paul's writing to believers there. He said, I do not want you to be unaware brothers that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. The rock was Christ.

And they're actually ancient Jewish traditions. I talked about a rock, a literal rock accompanying Israel in the wilderness. And we know of this rock at certain times with miraculous water and things like that.

And you know, an actual rock that struck and and pulsing actually the rock was Messiah. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now, these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did.

Ah, so these accounts, these judgments are also there to teach us. And doesn't Jesus warn us even more strongly in the New Testament and talk about the fire of hell if we disobey? And it says, Paul continues, do not be idolaters as some of them were as it is written that people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and the 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Messiah 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 happen to them as an example that they were written down for us upon whom the end of the ages has come. Let's take a look in Romans chapter 15 verse 4. Romans chapter 15 verse 4. And look at what Paul says there about the God of the Old Testament. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another and accord with Christ Jesus that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. But notice this again. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now here's what's what's really interesting. Throughout the Old Testament God is presented as a consuming fire and it even speaks of him in Deuteronomy 4 24 Moses says for our God is a consuming fire.

Eisho Hla. Our God is a consuming fire. What's fascinating is that Hebrews 12 29 New Testament quotes that exact same verse for our God is a consuming fire.

Hmm. So the God of the Hebrew Scriptures is the same as the God of the Greek Scriptures the Old Testament the New Testament the First Testament the Second Testament however you want to phrase it isn't that fascinating the exact same verse quoted. And then throughout the Old Testament God is presented as a compassionate father as as a loving father as a long suffering father as a merciful father as a tender hearted father and throughout the New Testament he's presented in the very same way and now is brought near to us through Jesus Yeshua coming into the world and referring to his father as Abba and now putting that same spirit in our hearts but which we cry Abba Father.

Now I've met so many believers over the years that struggle like I don't get it. How do I relate to God as a loving fire when he's a consuming fire. I mean picture that just just I want to give you some graphic image there's this blazing fire in human form saying come to me and hug me. I'll keep my distance thank you. I don't want to be burned up. It's hot even being a thousand feet from you. I don't want to be burned up.

Thanks but no thanks. That's the way some people conceive of God. And that's one reason that I wrote Compassion Father or Consuming Father Engaging the God of the Old Testament was to help believers understand who this consuming fire was that he is a compassionate father.

Okay you didn't tell me anything you just repeat it yourself without telling me anything. Okay so let's go a little deeper here. When you are holy when you have been washed with the blood of Jesus the fire does not burn you or destroy you. You are in the presence of fire and you are untouched by the fire because you've been cleansed by God and because the fire doesn't burn or destroy it burns and destroys flesh and you are now not in the flesh but in the spirit. Oh obviously we're not perfectly in the spirit and totally out of the flesh but that is our spiritual standing.

That's why it says in Isaiah 33 answering the question who can dwell with the everlasting burnings it's not saying who can endure hell it's saying who can be in the presence of God the righteous can the righteous can. So you can walk right into that and be embraced by love. You see that same fire but now it's burning love. It's the passion of his love. It's the fire of his goodness. It's the blazing flames of his deep desire for you and look at it like this your daddy you're a three year old girl and your daddy is a big strong football player. I mean he's a monster of a man. He's six foot six and 330 pounds and is incredibly powerful and people and other professional football players are afraid of him because he is so strong and so tough but he says oh it's my little jewel daddy's home and you come running and jump in his arms and he hugs you and swings you and well that's because you relate to him a certain way. Now when you're 10 years old and he catches you in a serious line says did you lie to daddy well now he's very big and very strong and very imposing but see when everything's good with daddy because he's not fickle he's consistent he's not blowing hot one day and blowing cold the next you run into his arms and then you get to know daddy protects me my big strong daddy protects me. So if God this all-powerful God judges the wicked is for us that's the cause of rejoicing that's a cause of security and it's a cause of holy living to say hey we love him we serve him we honor him but we don't play games with him the compassionate father is a consuming fire consuming fire as a compassionate father. I hope some of these things were helpful so much more to get into but I hope you found this helpful. Another program powered by the Truth Network.