The importance of knowing the character of Jesus Christ

I debated whether to title this article “The Importance of Knowing the Character of God.” But some readers might immediately ask, “Which God?” I believe there is only one God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ, but I want to be clear with those who do not share my faith.

Then I considered “The Importance of Reading Your Bible.” That subject has been covered a million times, but the two ideas are closely connected. If you have made it this far, here is today’s message:

Reading the Word of God is learning the character of God.

As usual, let’s start with Scripture. If you picked up the Bible for the first time and opened it to Lamentations, you would encounter a devastating account of suffering surrounding Jerusalem’s destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BC:

“The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.” (Lamentations 4:10, KJV)

Here, “pitiful” means compassionate, and “sodden” means boiled. The verse describes famine during Jerusalem’s siege becoming so extreme that mothers cooked and ate their children. For someone looking in from outside the faith—or even for the Christian I was a couple of weeks ago—the immediate question might be:

“If God is so good and sovereign, why does He allow evil?”

Believers and nonbelievers alike have wrestled with this question for centuries. It is a serious question, and asking it does not automatically make someone arrogant or faithless. But when I asked it while reading Lamentations, I realized how quickly I was judging God’s character without considering the wider biblical account. I was reading the devastation without first understanding the warnings, the invitations to repent, and the generations that preceded it.

Here is what I had overlooked.

First, if God didn’t allow evil, He would effectively be removing free will from the world, thus no longer being a God of love but of control. If you want to cook and eat your babies out of hunger instead of praying to the LORD and asking for food in a time of famine, God won’t stop you. But rest assured He also won’t stop your descent into hell when Judgement arrives. Your decision.

Second, context matters. Reading one isolated passage can leave us with an incomplete understanding. Turning to Jeremiah, the book immediately before Lamentations in our Bibles, reveals warnings and appeals that help explain how Jerusalem reached this point.

From Solomon’s late-reign idolatry, around 940 BC, to Jerusalem’s destruction in 586 BC, roughly 350 years passed. This was not an uninterrupted period of rebellion: kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah led significant reforms. Nor does Scripture present these 350 years as a single countdown to destruction. But across those generations, we see a recurring pattern of disobedience, correction, repentance, and renewed rebellion.

Let that sink in: generations of warnings and opportunities to return to God.

We also need to take sin seriously. It is easy to condemn the wrongdoing we find most offensive while excusing our own. “But I only told a small lie to my neighbor,” we might say. Yet calling a lie small does not make it truthful or harmless. God’s justice challenges the standards we conveniently adjust for ourselves—and His mercy offers forgiveness we cannot earn.

Now consider Jeremiah, whom God called to warn Judah and Jerusalem of coming judgment:

“Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.” (Jeremiah 25:9, KJV)

Jeremiah’s ministry began around 627 BC, roughly 40 years before Jerusalem fell. Across those decades, he repeatedly warned the people and called them to return to God. These were not warnings delivered only days before disaster struck.

And alongside the warnings came an invitation to repent:

“Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.” (Jeremiah 26:13, KJV)

Here, “repent him of the evil” means that God would relent from the announced disaster—not that God had sinned. The warning itself was an expression of mercy: an opportunity to change course.

This does not mean judgment could be postponed indefinitely. Later, Jeremiah was told not to pray for the people, and Jerusalem was told to surrender to Babylon to preserve life (Jeremiah 7:16; 21:8–10). The invitations to repent were real, but so were the consequences of persistently rejecting them.

So, to reiterate, here is a brief summary of God’s patience and mercy before Jerusalem’s destruction:

Over roughly 350 years, God repeatedly called His people back through prophets such as Shemaiah, who urged humility; Azariah, who called for faithfulness; Zechariah son of Jehoiada, who confronted rebellion; Micah, who condemned injustice; Huldah, who announced judgment for idolatry while acknowledging Josiah’s humility; and Jeremiah, who repeatedly pleaded for repentance.

My concern—and please hear me, because I am speaking to myself first—is that we can claim to know God while spending very little time learning what Scripture says about Him. As Christians, we need to examine whether we know the character of the God we profess to serve. If you do not share this faith, I invite you to consider the whole account, including its difficult passages, its warnings, and its promises of mercy.

This is one example of the patience and grace the Bible reveals. As a Christian, I believe their fullest expression is found in Jesus Christ: God sent His only Son to bear the judgment our sins deserve and offer us forgiveness and eternal life. We do not earn that gift. We receive it by grace through faith, turning to Him in repentance.

The gift is free. Will you accept it?

Until next time, and as always, stand firm in Christ.