Why Does God Seem So Harsh in the Old Testament

Few stories in the Bible are as unsettling as 2 Samuel 6. King David is bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem when the oxen stumble. Uzzah instinctively reaches out to steady the Ark and is struck dead. If you're honest, your first reaction is probably the same as many readers (including mine) throughout history: "That seems harsh."

It's a fair response…on the surface. In fact, it's one of the reasons many people struggle with the Old Testament. The God they encounter there can feel severe, unpredictable, and difficult to reconcile with the gracious Jesus they meet in the Gospels. But what if the problem isn't that God is harsher than we imagined? What if the problem is that he's holier than we imagined?

Christopher J.H. Wright has observed that throughout the Old Testament, God's holiness is not merely one of His attributes. It is central to his identity and his relationship with his people.¹ God's holiness isn't simply moral perfection; it describes his complete otherness, his absolute purity, and his unmatched glory. He is not simply a better version of us. He is entirely unlike us.

That's what makes Uzzah's story so jarring. For years I've heard people ask, "Why would God punish a man who was only trying to help?" But perhaps that's the wrong question. The better question is: Why did Uzzah believe he could touch the symbol of God's holy presence in the first place?

The Ark wasn't an ordinary religious artifact. It represented the very presence of God dwelling among his covenant people. God had already given clear instructions about how it was to be transported. Not because he is arbitrary, but because his holiness is never to be treated casually.

As Old Testament scholar Dale Ralph Davis writes, "Yahweh is not at our disposal."² We cannot manage him, domesticate him, or reshape him according to our preferences. The story confronts one of our deepest assumptions: we often imagine that sincerity is enough, even when it replaces obedience.

Yet if that's where the story ended, we'd be left with little more than fear. Thankfully, it doesn't.

After Uzzah's death, David is afraid. He leaves the Ark in the house of Obed-Edom, uncertain what to do next. But instead of bringing judgment, God brings blessing. David slowly begins to realize something remarkable. God is more holy than he imagined. And he is more gracious than he imagined.

Those two truths belong together. We often separate them. Some imagine a God who is all holiness but little grace. Others imagine a God who is all grace but little holiness. The Bible refuses both distortions. God's holiness is never compromised, and his grace is never sentimental.

The story ultimately points beyond David to Jesus. The question hanging over 2 Samuel 6 is one David himself asks: "How can the ark of the LORD come to me?" (2 Samuel 6:9). Or, to put it another way: How can sinful people live in the presence of a holy God?

That's the question the entire Bible answers. In Eden, access to God's presence was lost. Through the tabernacle and temple, access was carefully restricted. Then Jesus came: Emmanuel, "God with us."

When Christ died on the cross, the curtain separating the Most Holy Place from everyone else was torn from top to bottom. God himself opened the way. The author of Hebrews can now say, "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace" (Hebrews 4:16).

Notice what changed. God didn't become less holy. We didn't become less sinful. Jesus satisfied everything God's holiness required. That's why the most astonishing part of 2 Samuel 6 isn't ultimately that Uzzah died. The greater wonder is that sinners like us don't have to.

The cross doesn't erase God's holiness. It reveals it. And at the very same time, it displays the breathtaking depth of his grace. So the next time you encounter a difficult passage in the Old Testament, resist the temptation to dismiss it too quickly. Ask a different question.

Instead of asking, "Why is God so harsh?" Ask, "What is this passage teaching me about who God really is?" You may discover, like David did, that God is both more holy than you imagined and more gracious than you ever dared hope³.

Pastor Jeremy

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¹ Christopher J.H. Wright, Knowing God the Father Through the Old Testament (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2007)
² Dale Ralph Davis, 2 Samuel: Out of Every Adversity (Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2002).
³ Thanks to Tim Keller for this phraseology.