Difference between Old Testament and New Testament !!!
Continues... Part – 2
You may ask that in the Old Testament, the murderer was killed without any mercy, but in the New Testament it is not said so. Instead, it has been said to forgive and love.
We need to know the difference between the people of the Old Testament days and the people who had been during the New Testament.
In the days of the Old Testament, the people who lived on earth were ignorant of what was sin and what was iniquity. There were no moral principles or laws to guide people in a good way. Each one was living by doing what seemed right to their own heart.
But for the very first time, The Lord God through Moses, laid down moral principles and laws concerning all things to guide people in a good way.
That is what the Scriptures mention as law.
The apostle Paul has written that I came to know what was sin only when the law came. Our Lord is The First and The Last, He is The Beginning and The End of all things. Therefore, this is how the laws were established in all the countries to lead the people.
Sin came through Adam and death which is the wages of sin came into this world.
In this way, the earth was cursed and man had to do all things in agony. But God had ordained an appointed time to deliver man permanently from all the sins and curses. Until then, The Lord provided a temporary purification through Moses. We must realize that this thing continued until Jesus Christ came into this world at the appointed time of God, bore everyone’s sins, shed His blood and rose alive.
Now let us see regarding the murderers.
In Numbers chapter 35 God commanded Moses what must be done to the murderers. Its details are: The murderer must be killed. He must be killed in the same way he had murdered. But justice must be done before he is killed. (This is the practice which exists in all nations today.) Cities of Refuge were established so that the murderer should not be killed by the avenger before he could be judged. The murderer must flee and hide in one of the cities of refuge. No one can and must not kill him while he is inside the city of refuge. All those cities of refuge were appointed only in the cities which were given to the Levitical priests.
If a person murders someone accidentally and unintentionally without any malicious intent or enmity, the murderer should not be avenged if he is investigated and judged to be guilty of the murder. But he must live within that city of refuge only. He should remain there until the priest of that city is alive. After the death of that priest, he can freely go out.
But it is said that if a person has committed the murder intentionally with malice intent and enmity, if he was investigated and judged to be found guilty of the murder based on the evidence of witnesses, he must be put to death.
This is what has been implemented as legislative laws in all the countries.
Why God ordained that the one who had murdered unjustly must be killed because… when there is bloodshed, the land becomes defiled. Because of that, there will be a lot of damage to all the people. One of the adverse impacts among those would be that the God of gods will be hindered from dwelling among the people. Therefore, for all the harm caused by the murderer to be removed from the people, the blood of the one who caused the bloodshed must be shed. And when he is killed in this manner, the defilement will leave the people and the country.
The reason why nations today are in various curses, destructions, and evils is because there has been an unjust shedding of blood to a great extent. When the leaders of the country or authorities do injustice without doing true justice, the curse and the evils that come from that curse fall on the people of the country.
Jesus Christ is The fulfillment of The Law. The city of refuge mentioned in Numbers chapter 35 refers to our Lord Jesus Christ. When anyone who commits sins comes to our Lord Jesus Christ for refuge by repenting for his sins and praying for His mercy, he will forever survive in the presence of The Living God (City of Refuge).
Even if a person who has committed a murder presumptuously comes to The Lord Jesus Christ and repents for his sin asking for His forgiveness, his iniquity will be forgiven and the defilement which came through his iniquity will also be removed from the country. But according to the laws of the nation, he will have to suffer the punishment.
Even in the Old Testament, God forgave those who presumptuously killed and shed blood, when they truly repented. An example is Ahab, a king of Israel. He listened to the words of his wife Jezebel and killed many prophets, innocent people and shed their blood unjustly and defiled the land so much. In his days there was no rain at all and a severe famine came upon the land of Israel. When The Lord spoke of the judgment that would come upon him because of his iniquities, through the prophet Elijah… Ahab trembled and humbled himself before The Lord. Jehovah God immediately had compassion on him and showed him mercy so that He would not execute the judgment which He had said he would do in his days. But after his days the judgment was fulfilled. Jezebel his wife and their children bled to death.
In the Old Testament, blood had to be shed as an atonement for the bloodshed. When the bloodshed is done so, that defilement will leave the country. However, that ordinance was in the New Testament as well, and it is still present to this day. No one can change what God has ordained. But in the New Testament, Jesus Christ took upon Himself the punishment on account of the sins and iniquities of all and died by shedding His Holy blood. This way Jesus having shed blood for us, died and rose again was all because of the love and mercy of Jehovah God towards us.
Therefore, no matter how bad a criminal…if he repents for his mistakes and comes to Jesus, when he asks for His mercy, he will be forgiven because of the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for him. All the curses and defilement that came because of him will get rid of him and from the country.
This is the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
To be continued...
True worship