either that God was really never like that (though the primitive Israelites imagined he was), or that God has radically changed the way he deals with us now that Jesus has come and shown us a better way and fuller revelation. This kind of solution goes along with one of the commonest misconceptions of the Bible that exists among believers and unbelievers alike, namely, the assumption that the so-called God of the Old Testament was all fire and brimstone, war and vengeance, blood and punishment. The