Holy War.

As we've been reading through Kings and Chronicles while intercepting with the latter prophetic books, one of us confessed that it sometimes feels as though she's reading the history of some modern extremist communities. She mentioned Jehu in particular and observed that, if we judged his actions by today's standards, many of them would be considered criminal. There is war, bloodshed, executions, slavery, and conquest throughout much of the Old Testament narrative.

Then she asked a series of questions that I believe deserve to be asked.

How do we reconcile the God we meet in the Old Testament with the God we meet in the New Testament?

• In the Old Testament He appears tough; in the New Testament He appears tender.
• In the Old Testament He seems focused on one nation; in the New Testament He welcomes all nations.
• In the Old Testament He appears territorial; in the New Testament He is Lord over all the earth.

She became so concerned by these thoughts that she wondered whether she needed to repent simply for thinking along those lines. Furthermore, are Muslim extremists actually fighting a Holy war?

My response to her was hopefully helpful.✅

You're neither weird nor wrong for noticing the tension. In fact, I think you're reading carefully. Many people read the Bible without ever slowing down long enough to wrestle with what they're seeing. You did. That is not unbelief. It is an invitation to study more deeply.

There is a difference between reading Scripture and studying Scripture.

Reading helps us see the words. Studying helps us understand the thoughts behind those words. Reading observes what happened. Studying asks why it happened.

It's a little like watching a puppet show. Reading allows us to enjoy the puppets moving across the stage. Studying leads us to look behind the curtain and discover the strings—and ultimately the puppeteer directing the entire performance.

This is one of the reasons I keep encouraging people to read chronologically, preferably with a hard-copy Bible, a pen, and plenty of room in the margins:- Underline, circle words, write questions and connect passages. Wrestling with the text is one of the ways God teaches us.

One of the first things we begin to discover is that the Bible is telling one continuous story, not two different stories with two different gods. The God of Genesis is the God of Revelation. The Father whom Jesus revealed is the same God who called Abraham. The God who spoke through Moses is the same God who spoke through His Son.

Hebrews opens by reminding us that God spoke "at many times and in various ways" through the prophets, but has now spoken fully through His Son. The speaker has not changed. The clarity of the revelation has.

That realization changes how we approach difficult passages.

Kings and Chronicles are not merely showing us what God is like. They are also showing us what humanity is like.

Again and again we meet kings who begin well and finish poorly. Prophets are ignored. Priests become corrupt. Idolatry spreads. Violence increases. Covenant is abandoned. Generation after generation proves the same uncomfortable truth: even with God's Law, God's prophets, God's priests and God's presence among them, humanity could not save itself.

Perhaps that is one of the greatest purposes of the Old Testament. It creates a longing for someone greater. A good dictator. Every failed king whispers, "We need a better King." Every compromised priest points toward a better Priest. Every ignored prophet points toward the final Prophet. Every sacrifice points toward a better sacrifice and every page quietly prepares us for Christ.

Take Jehu as an example. God genuinely used Jehu to execute judgment upon the house of Ahab. Yet that does not mean everything Jehu did became the pattern for God's people forever. In fact, later Scripture itself reflects on Jehu's bloodshed. The Bible is remarkably honest about its heroes. It records what happened without always presenting every action as an ethical model for believers.

That is why Christians do not build their ethics upon Jehu. We build them upon Jesus. This is an area Muslim leaders and the community are yet to get a revelation.

Jesus is the fullest revelation of the Father. Not any other human. Not Muhammad. He first was revealed as one able to relate with us(kid) and later on He'll be revealed as King.

When Philip asked, "Show us the Father," Jesus replied, "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father." He becomes the lens through which the whole Bible is read. The Cross for us becomes the meeting point where God's justice and God's mercy embrace. Back then it was the calf.

The same God who judged sin in the Old Testament is the God who, in the New Testament, places that judgment upon His own Son. His holiness did not decrease nor His justice disappear.

So if you ever find yourself wrestling with difficult passages in Scripture, don't feel guilty.

• Keep reading.
• Keep asking.
• Keep studying.

God has never been intimidated by honest questions.

Jacob wrestled with God and walked away with a limp, but he also walked away with a new name. Perhaps that is what Bible study often looks like. We enter with questions, leave transformed and somewhere along the journey we discover that the Bible has been leading us to being saved(Jesus) all along.