I’ve honestly lost count of how many times I’ve heard and read statements like this.
I always find such claims deeply disturbing. After all, it is written for good reason:
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
(1 John 4:8, Luther 1545)
So, if God is love, how can He be cruel? Since when does love have anything in common with cruelty?
Scripture makes it absolutely clear: such statements only come from people who do not know God.
Unfortunately, unbelievers or idolaters often confuse new believers with such accusations.
Even believers who have walked with God for longer sometimes struggle to understand such matters.
However, they usually admit that they do not understand—without accusing God of being cruel.
In truth, this supposed cruelty is simply a misunderstood issue.
The subject of blood in the Bible has several aspects:
1. The sacrificial system was a preparation for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote in the New Testament that the sacrifices of the Old Covenant did not bring salvation:
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,
can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered?
Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith,
Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.”
(Hebrews 10:1–7, Luther 1545)
2. The sacrificial system was also a form of discipline.
When a person sinned, and as a result an animal had to die, it was meant to teach the sinner something:
more compassion, and less ego.
It was never intended to give people a licence to sin freely.
But eventually, the people began using sacrifices as a kind of free pass for their disobedience.
That’s why God eventually said He had no pleasure in their offerings:
“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
(Hosea 6:6, Luther 1545)
And further:
“Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom;
give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord:
I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts;
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me;
the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure;
it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth:
they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you:
yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear:
your hands are full of blood.
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
(Isaiah 1:10–17, Luther 1545)
3. A further debate concerns the expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
Before Adam and Eve were sent away, the Lord God made coats of skins for them:
“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”
(Genesis 3:21, Luther 1545)
This leads to the question:
Were these skins still with the animals’ flesh attached?
If so, then animals had already died because of sin.
Or did God create the skins independently—even though creation was supposedly completed?
Or were the “skins” simply wool shorn from animals?
4. Now it gets a bit tricky. Let’s come at this from the other end.
Jesus and His people are prophetically described as Bridegroom and Bride.
The Law says: if a man divorces his wife, the wife may not marry another man—unless the first husband has died.
Otherwise, it is considered adultery.
Throughout the Bible, God’s people are accused of spiritual adultery,
which symbolises ongoing idolatry—
beginning with the golden calf in the wilderness, and continuing through Kings, Chronicles, the prophets, and all the way to Revelation.
So, in order for the people to be released from the charge of harlotry,
the first bridegroom had to die. That was the crucifixion.
Now the bride (His people) may marry again.
Through the blood, sins are forgiven,
and through the resurrection, the first bridegroom becomes the bridegroom once more.
Since the sacrificial system was a shadow of the crucifixion,
blood had to flow even then.
That is why there is so much blood and so many sacrifices in the Bible.
In essence, what some call “cruel” is actually the most merciful act our Lord and Redeemer could have done for us.
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