Q&A Home > O > Old Testament

• 1. In the Old Testament, they used to offer animal sacrifice to God. This was not good enough. Is that why Jesus was sacrificed? If so, does God then accept human sacrifice? 2. In the Old Testament, the Jews use to conquer cities, take them over like God commanded them, so they can clean them from idols and unbelievers. He actually commanded them to kill people. So how come in the Ten Commandments, it says do not kill? 3. If that is how God wanted to clean the cities from idols, then is that the same concept that some people use today to kill Christians (whom they call unbelievers)?
• How can I convince someone that the Holy Book of Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament are just as important as the New Testament? What is the importance of all the measurements and numbers in the Holy Book of Genesis?
• How does Orthodoxy view the Old Testament Torah practice such as Sabbath-keeping and prohibition of eating certain animal meats (Lev 11)?
• If God ordered to kill anyone who worshiped idols or dealt with sorcerers (like with Moses, King Constantine, and others), how can we respond to people asking for a civilized country? Is it not a relationship between God and humans?
• In Numbers 31:2, God tells Moses and the children of Israel to take vengeance on the Midianites and so they killed all their males. When Moses found that the women made the men of Israel to stumble, he was upset that they were not killed as well (Numbers 31:15). This is one example of many that I came across while reading and did not understand. I know that God says, "Vengeance is Mine" in Deuteronomy 32:35 and that He sent His angel to kill thousands of Assyrians in one night (2 Kings 19:35). My question is why would God command the children of Israel to slaughter others, especially since He could have easily done so Himself? In other cases, I tried to think that it was Moses that allowed the children of Israel to commit these things for the hardness of their hearts like Jesus said about divorce (Matthew 19:8), but in this specific case, God is the one who told them to kill. I know that the Holy Bible says God is even kind to the evil and lets His sun shine on the good as well as the wicked...verses from the Old Testament. I just do not understand why God would specifically tell His people to kill when He commands them "you shall not commit murder" (Exodus 20:13).    Also, I was reading Nehemiah and in 13:25, Nehemiah says that he saw people marrying outside from the children of Israel and "so I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God..." Now I know he is a prophet of God, and one of His righteous and elect people. Why would he do this? I do not doubt that it was for a good cause, but I just do not understand how someone representing God could do this when our Lord came down and didn't hide His face from the shame of spitting. Our Lord came and rebuked people but in a firm yet gentle manner. I know that God is more compassionate and loving than it is comprehensible, so when I read things like this, it does not settle well. I have asked about it before but never got an answer that really put me at ease. I know that God is the same and unchanging, from the Old Testament to the New Testament and to the end of ages, so why He did not only allow things like this, but even commanded some in the Old Testament is difficult to understand. 
• In the Holy Books of Kings and Chronicles the author repeatedly says that the rest of his (the king of Judah or Israel) acts are written in the Books of the Kings of Judah (or Israel). Did they keep a sort of biography for all the kings? Where are these books now?
• In the Old Testament, what exactly did King Saul do to anger God? Why did God forgive the Prophet David’s sins of murder and adultery but not Saul's sins?
• Some of the rules in the Old Testament are no longer applicable today. So what lessons can we get from them? Is the Old Testament still relevant to us?
• When the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt to eat meat, I heard in a sermon that God provided them meat, but after eating it, they died. Is that correct? If so why did God give it to them? Please let me know which verse in the Bible explains this?
• Why captivity, killing and that much blood in Old Testament? I know this is a symbol of removing all the sins in our life but still those were human beings?
• Why did God in the Old Testament order people to kill (example in 1 Samuel 15:3) or even kill the bad people that are between the Israelites? However, at the same time, the commandment says, "Do not kill"? Also in the New Testament, it says to love your enemy. Please clarify.
• "Blessed is Egypt My people." Why this verse and why Egypt in particular? Will an Egyptian in a foreign country, living a pious, spiritual life, receive the same blessings as an Egyptian living in the land of Egypt?