Question: Why is the Law of God so harsh?

“You shall therefore love the LORDyour God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the LORDyour God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm…” Deuteronomy 11.1, 2

The short answer to this week’s question, as I have been suggesting, is that the harsh aspects of the Law of God are included in the Law, for a season, in order to spur the people of God on to obedience. By obeying the Law of God they did not earn salvation from the Lord; rather, they found their way into the promised blessings of the Lord, and were able to realize their calling as a people redeemed for an economy of justice and love.

By remembering God’s discipline, the justifiably harsh punishments He is able to inflict on rebellious sinners, they would be encouraged to persevere in His Law and in their calling to love Him and their neighbors.

Even today, under the Gospel, we are urged to consider the discipline of the Lord, to know that He is able to bring unpleasant and even harsh circumstances to bear against those who believe, in order to move them back onto the path of righteousness for which they have been redeemed and saved (Heb. 12.3-11). I’m certain there are believers today who would regard such an idea about God our heavenly Father as not consistent with His loving character. But they have Scripture, and not just me, to contend with in denying that God can be harsh with us, albeit always for our good.

The historical, cultural, and spiritual circumstances under which God may bring His discipline to bear against us today differ from those in which ancient Israel was urged to fear the Lord. Nevertheless, God’s way of dealing with us is unchanged. We are saved by grace through faith, and sanctified as His holy people by grace through faith.

Although sometimes His grace can present to us in unpleasant, and even harsh, ways.

T. M. Moore

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