Permissions for divorce, the regulation of slavery, and allowances for warfare often raise eyebrows today.
Yet these actions are best understood not as moral endorsements, but as divine governance of a world already marred by human failure.
Jesus explained that some allowances were “because of your hardness of heart…” (Matt 19:8).
In other words, God works with the reality of human stubbornness, restraining harm rather than rewriting the proper scale of what it means to be in the right with God.
Laws and regulations address what is, not what ought to be, revealing human frailty rather than divine compromise.
Much of the shock modern audiences feel comes from anachronism: judging ancient societies by today’s moral expectations.
Practices that seem cruel or unjust now were often universal and widely accepted at the time.
The biblical record, however, demonstrates a consistent pattern of restraint.
God enters real historical contexts and works to limit harm, even while moral improvement remains a future aim.
Understanding these texts requires seeing them through the eyes of those who lived within those cultures.
What appears morally disturbing today was, in many cases, a step towards justice in the ancient world.
God’s condescension (God choosing to meet people where they are) reaches its fullest expression in the person of Jesus Christ.
The coming of Christ into the world shows that God engages mankind within a specific culture and historical moment, yet without endorsing its failings.
The greater scandal is not God’s engagement with flawed societies, but His willingness to work within them, to guide, restrain and redeem.
Condescension is a hallmark of divine patience: God descends into the complexities of human life, meeting people where they are, yet never compromising His intentions for their good.
Recognising the pattern of divine condescension can help modern readers navigate apparent moral tensions in Scripture.
God’s historical governance shows both patience and purpose.
His laws, interventions and eventual coming of Christ into the world reveals a consistent concern for a divine-human relationship, even in the face of moral failure.
Understanding the past on its own terms, rather than imposing today’s standards on it, allows us to see that God’s engagement with humanity has always been measured, deliberate and ultimately redemptive.
In examining these texts, we are invited to a deeper appreciation of divine patience: a God who condescends not because morality changes, but because people do, and who works through human hardness to preserve life, guide society and reveal mercy across history.
The ultimate goal through His patience is to forge reconciliation with the ones He had created.
Through history, we appreciate His divine patience and recognise that hope exists, not because people finally get things right, but because of the grace and mercy He grants in Jesus Christ.
For Christians, that commitment is seen most clearly in Jesus Christ, whose life, death and resurrection show a God who does not abandon a broken world, but enters it to bring forgiveness, restoration and the hope that any and every person might find peace with God.
Pastor David McAllan
Echuca Community Church
32°C