I’ve been working on a research paper for the Pentateuch class I’m taking this semester over the past several days. We were asked to write a research paper about any topic or passage we chose from the Pentateuch (Genesis-Deuteronomy). I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning.

Many people seem to be confused by the God of the Bible. He seems inconsistent sometimes. People see the God of the Old Testament as having one nature and the God of the New Testament with another, as if the God of the Old Testament was going through his middle school years, filled with bouts of anger only satisfied by bloody sacrifices, and then grew out of puberty in the New Testament to become a God full of grace and love. Some become frustrated by the supposed inconsistency of God throughout the Bible and reject the whole thing.

The truth is: God has always been the same. He is not an angry teenager who grew out of puberty. God has always been compassionate, gracious, patient, loving, faithful, forgiving, and just. In this paper I discuss the nature of God as revealed in Exodus 34:6-7. I hope it encourages you.