God in the Old Testament

Fr. Lev Gillet, an Orthodox monk

Among those who wrongly reject God, it seems that there are many who do so for the right reasons - no god but a loving, just god is worthy of our adoration. They simply fail to see such a god in the Old Testament. But to look for Him through a literal reading is often like trying to find the root of a plant without looking beneath the earth.

"God is a devouring fire. But what kind of fire? A fire of anger, of punishment, of destruction, of vengeance? Certain passages in the Bible seem to tend towards this interpretation, but they are anthropomorphisms; they are human - excessively human - figures of speech. The whole of the great spiritual tradition of Christianity - that of the New Testament, of the Fathers of the Church, of the saints - sees in this divine fire, in the fire of the Burning Bush, in the fire which seems to have a passion for self-communication, the incandescent charity of the Lord, the incandescence indeed of his love."

- Fr. Lev Gillet