The Righteous Judge

Recently a friend at work told me that she had been attempting to read her Bible through and she was in the Old Testament at present. She stated, "God was really mean!" She was referring to the various areas of the Old Testament where not only did God destroy evil men but also their children, wives, and livestock. Now, I am no Bible scholar but my husband and I had discussed this before....so, my explanation to her was this: In that day, people had a great deal of influence over their wives and children and wicked schemes and seed were passed down from generation to generation. The only way to halt it was to annihilate it. I know it sounds mean and cruel and most of us enjoy viewing God as a big grandpa in the sky rather than a righteous judge. But, if you read the Bible in it's full context, you will see that people were warned numerous times before action was taken. In the book of Ezekial, Chapters 24-26, I can almost picture God sitting behind a podium with a gavel in His hand. He has had enough! At this point He has pleaded with people time and time again to turn from their wicked ways and turn back to Him...to no avail. He hands down judgement to the Ammonites, Moabites, and Philistia. We are no different today, we turn a blind eye to His truth because we love this world far more than Him. But never does he turn a blind eye to us. He sees and hears all and is no less God today than He was yesterday. AND, He is no less the righteous judge today than He was yesterday.