Let’s start with something crystal clear. Jesus Christ is the exact, express image of Father God. That’s not my opinion — that’s straight from the Word. Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person.” Colossians 1:15 calls Him “the image of the invisible God.” And Jesus Himself said in John 14:9, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”
So whatever Jesus did — healing the sick, raising the dead, forgiving sinners, weeping over cities that were heading for destruction — that’s what Father does. And whatever Jesus never did — never cursed anyone, never made anyone sick, never lied, never sent demons to torment people, never rejoiced when disaster came — Father never does those things either. Okay? That’s the foundation. That’s the lens we read everything through.
And when we use that lens and go back to the Old Testament, something becomes undeniable. The being represented in many of those texts — the one the writers called “Yahweh” or “the LORD” — does not look anything like Jesus. And we need to talk about that, because your image of God matters more than almost anything else in your life. If you see God as an angry, unpredictable deity who might rain down destruction on you if you step out of line, you cannot walk in faith. You cannot walk in love. You cannot walk in victory. But if you see Him as He truly is — good, and only good — everything changes.
The Veil Over the Old Testament
Before we go any further, we need to understand why the Old Testament is so confusing. The Holy Spirit actually explains it for us in 2 Corinthians 3:14-15:
“But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.”
2 Corinthians 3:14–15 (NKJV)
The Holy Spirit is telling us plainly: when you read the Old Testament, there is a veil over your eyes. Your mind will be blinded. You will not be able to see clearly. Now, why is that? Because in the Old Testament, you have Father God and the god of this world — the devil — mingled together. You have truth mixed in with deception. You have the real Father alongside an impersonator. And if you don’t rightly divide it, you’re going to come away with a completely distorted image of God.
Remember, when Adam and Eve fell in the Garden, they handed dominion over the earth to the devil. That wasn’t a metaphor — the devil became the literal ruler of this world. And Jesus confirmed it multiple times in the Gospels, calling Satan “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness and offered Him all the kingdoms of the earth, he wasn’t lying — that authority had been given to him. So when you read the Old Testament, you are reading history from a period when the devil was in charge, and he was active, and his fingerprints are all over many of those texts. That’s why we are commanded in 2 Timothy 2:15 to “rightly divide the word of truth.” It’s not optional. It’s essential.
Jesus is the standard. If a passage of Scripture contradicts the character and conduct of Jesus, we do not accept it as a revelation of Father God. We rightly divide it as a work of the god of this world.
KEY TRUTH
Jesus Showed Us How to Rightly Divide
Jesus didn’t just tell us to rightly divide — He showed us, and He did it right in front of everyone. In Matthew 5, Jesus sits down and begins to teach, and He does something radical. He quotes directly from the Old Testament, and then He rejects it. Look at this:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”
Matthew 5:38–39 (NKJV)
“You have heard that it was said” — Jesus is quoting Yahweh, quoting Deuteronomy 19:21: “Your eye shall not pity; life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” And then He says, but I say to you — something different. Something opposite. Jesus is looking at an Old Testament instruction and saying: that is not from Father. That’s not who we are. That is not the heart of God. And right there, Jesus is modeling exactly what we need to do: take every passage, hold it up to the light of Jesus, and ask — does this look like Him? If it does, it’s from Father. If it doesn’t, we rightly divide it as from the god of this world.
A Second Example
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
Matthew 5:43–44 (NKJV)
Yahweh in the Old Testament commanded the utter slaughter of enemies — men, women, children, infants, animals. First Samuel 15:3 is one of dozens of examples. And Jesus calls that out. He says: you’ve been told to hate your enemy. But I say to you — love them. Bless them. Do good to them. Pray for them. That’s Father’s heart. Not the slaughter. Not the merciless retribution. The love. Okay?
The Smoking Gun: Two Reactions to the Same City
Here is where it gets impossible to ignore. Let’s look at how the God of the Old Testament reacted to people in trouble versus how Jesus reacted to the exact same city facing the exact same destruction. We’ll compare these side by side.
| The God of Law & Curse | Jesus — True Image of Father |
|---|---|
| “And it shall be that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing.” Deuteronomy 28:63 (NKJV) |
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.“ Matthew 23:37 (NKJV) |
| “I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes — when your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind.” Proverbs 1:26–27 (NKJV) |
“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known… the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.'” Luke 19:41–42 (NKJV) |
Look at the contrast. On one side, Yahweh rejoices to destroy, throws a party at your calamity, laughs when terror comes upon you. On the other side, Jesus approaches the same doomed city and weeps. He’s broken-hearted. He wanted to save them. He cried because they would not let Him.
Those are not two sides of the same God. Those are two completely different beings with completely opposite hearts. One celebrates destruction. The other weeps over it. One is the devil. One is Father. And Jesus showed us which one is which.
“The heart of God is not to throw a party when disaster comes. The heart of God is to cry — because He loves people, including sinners, and He wanted to save them, and it breaks His heart when they won’t let Him.”
— Bobby Collier
Sickness: The Same Test, the Same Answer
Let’s take this same test and apply it to sickness. Deuteronomy 28:58-61 says Yahweh would bring upon the people “extraordinary plagues, great and prolonged plagues, and serious and prolonged sicknesses.” He claims responsibility for every disease of Egypt and even diseases not written in the book. That’s a sweeping claim of authorship over sickness. Now look at Jesus:
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
Acts 10:38 (NKJV)
Notice what Acts 10:38 says: Jesus healed all who were oppressed by the devil. Sickness is oppression of the devil. And Yahweh in Deuteronomy claimed to be the author of all that sickness. So who is Yahweh in those passages? The answer is right there. He’s the devil — the god of this world who operated in authority over fallen mankind in the Old Testament era.
And then Jesus confirmed it in John 10:10: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Stealing, killing, destroying — that’s what Yahweh does in Deuteronomy 28. Life and life abundantly — that’s what Jesus came to give. These aren’t two expressions of one God. This is light versus darkness. Father versus devil. And Jesus drew the line for us.
Jesus Redeems Us From Yahweh
Here is something powerful that many Christians miss entirely. When Jesus came to earth, He didn’t come to redeem us from Father God. Father God sent Jesus because He loves us. Jesus came to redeem us from the god of this world — from the law and curse system the devil had set up over fallen mankind. Galatians 3:13 is explicit:
“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'”
Galatians 3:13 (NKJV)
Jesus redeems us from the curse of the law. He redeems us from law and curse. He redeems us from the steal-kill-destroy works that Yahweh — the devil operating as god of this world — inflicted upon humanity. Everything Jesus redeems us from, He is not the author of. You don’t redeem people from something you caused. You redeem them from something that happened to them. Jesus is the answer to the works of the devil. He is not the cause of those works.
If Jesus redeemed us from it, Father didn’t send it. Every sickness, every curse, every destruction that Jesus sets people free from — that belongs to the god of this world, not to Father God. Father’s heart is the complete opposite: life, healing, wholeness, peace, and abundance. Amen.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
What This Means for You
Here’s why this matters practically. If you believe God might be the one sending sickness to teach you something, you can’t have faith to receive healing. You can’t pray with confidence if you think the disaster is from Father’s hand. You can’t trust a God you believe rejoices to destroy you. Fear, doubt, and a false image of God are the greatest enemies of your faith — and they all trace back to not rightly dividing the Word.
But when you see Father as He truly is — completely revealed through Jesus — everything shifts. You know the devil is the author of steal-kill-destroy. You know Father is the author of life and life abundantly. You know that Jesus never once made someone sick, never cursed anyone, never brought a trial upon a person, never laughed at someone’s calamity. And since Jesus is the exact image of the Father, you know Father never does those things either. You can trust Him completely. You can receive from Him boldly. You can walk in the fullness of everything Jesus died to give you — in Jesus’ name. Amen.
A Simple Test for Every Old Testament Passage
As you read your Bible, I want to give you a simple tool to carry with you. Any time you read an Old Testament passage about God — any time you see something attributed to Yahweh or the LORD — ask yourself one question: Does this look like Jesus?
Does it look like the Jesus who healed lepers, raised the dead, wept over Jerusalem, forgave the woman caught in adultery, and loved His enemies? If yes — that’s Father. Receive it. If it looks like stealing, killing, destroying, rejoicing over disaster, commanding merciless slaughter, laughing at calamity — that’s the god of this world. Rightly divide it. Don’t reject the Bible; just recognize who is speaking and who is being represented in that passage.
This is not a complicated theological exercise. Jesus made it simple. He said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” That’s your measuring rod. That’s your compass. Use it every time you read. Rightly divide the word of truth, and walk in the freedom that Father — your good, loving, generous, merciful Father — purchased for you through Jesus Christ.
God bless you. Keep seeking the true image of God. And when you find Him — the real Him, revealed fully in Jesus — you are going to love Him with everything you have. Amen.