One of the major misunderstandings of the Bible, for both believers and unbelievers, is that they think that the Old and New Testament somehow show a fundamentally different God. Christianity is a revealed religion like Hinduism or Islam, which means that God gradually revealed more about Himself over time.
One of the big differences ethically, that the Bible shows about morality in the Old Testament, is that God reveals the concept of divine command ethics before value ethics. Just like when my parents raised us and I experienced in Army Basic Training, the first thing you learn is to follow orders without explanation. Later you get explanations. But you must always remember that, although it is nice and helpful to be given explanations, you need to do as told, no matter what, without question or delay.
The brain operates this way too. The reptilian brain responds very simply and very fast, in times of danger, when you need to run away or otherwise act without thinking. This does not require the more complex intellectual brain and purposely bypasses it. Schizophrenia affects this rational part of the brain. People like myself, that suffer from it, do not always do things that make sense from a cultural point of view.
One of the points of showing the history of a nation and how it responded to God not only provides us a way to to reflect on how we act in relationship with Him, but also allows us to see the idea of corporate sin. This is where the Prophets come in and prepare the way for Christ.
Basically, the Prophets go the opposite direction as the history of Israel. One man turns into a nation in the history, while the prophets talk at first about judgement on a national scale. Later, they go to talking about what God wants us to do as individuals. Christ ends up dwelling inside us, while previously He basically was tied to a building in one city, and in between was a Person like us.
Like anyone young, we don’t understand well at first why we need to do things our parents say that seem irrelevant. Later on, when we become adults, we understand why we were taught those fundamental things as kids. We are equipped to understand our parents point of view eventually. Then we can survive on our own and often times are able to take care of others.
In the military, they start out with a clean break from your past. You are then put into a situation that forces you to see directly why you need to cooperate. This is sometimes referred to as trial by fire. You are thrown into a chaotic situation and you have to figure it out quick.
Basic Training, as most infantry training in the military, is all designed this way to test you psychologically. This is because the most advanced skills only require a 6th grade level developmental intellect. You are also tested early on for physical fitness standards.
Just as the parent or Drill Sergeant is thought of as cruel, many of their children or trainees later realize they were firm but loving. The same is true with God. God trains us to stay away from evil not because He wants to deny us fun, but that He wants to keep us from suffering later pain.
In the Old Testament, God deliberately waited to bring Jesus, so that they could be prepared to understand the severity of the consequences of sin. This was necessary, so that they could understand the point of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We often talk about the suffering of people in the Old Testament, but not enough on the suffering of Christ. Jesus suffered in many ways His entire life which, many of which we choose not to understand.
The disciples then were totally abandoned and were utterly confused twice. The death and resurrection of Jesus was not clear to them at the time and then Jesus left them again. It makes you wonder how we would respond to Christ’s second coming, if we cannot understand the most basic and fundamental aspects of His lessons for us.
For people who talk a lot about having faith and forgiveness, who are we to tell God what is right and wrong? We expect those who know much less than us, as unbelievers, to give up their entire belief system on faith, but we do not have the faith to accept God at His Word.