Understanding God's Love in the Torah: How Rebuke and Compassion Coexist

Avi asks: "Hello. I believe with all my heart that God is merciful and gracious, yet when I read the Torah, I encounter frightening verses like 'He will destroy you' and harsh curses. This is difficult for me to understand and weakens my faith. I wish to strengthen my belief in God’s love and mercy through studying the Torah."

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Hello Avi, and thank you for your heartfelt question.

Let’s begin with this fundamental truth: love is proven through actions. Throughout history, God has saved the Jewish people countless times from utter destruction, often through open miracles that He did not perform for any other nation. He toppled our mightiest enemies before us, as it says: “On that day, God saved Israel from the hands of Egypt, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea” (Exodus 14:30).

God rescued a nation of impoverished, oppressed slaves, subjugated by the world’s greatest superpower, Egypt. He performed visible wonders across the land, took vengeance on their wicked oppressors, placed Egypt’s treasures in the hands of Israel, and sustained them in the desert for 40 years with daily miracles. He revealed Himself to them at Mount Sinai and delivered them from every nation that pursued them. He turned the curses of Balaam into blessings, and He gave them a Torah of life! Is there a greater expression of love than this?

"You have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself... and you shall be to Me a treasured nation among all peoples” (Exodus 19:4-5).

Picture a king who finds an abandoned child in the street, rescues him from hunger and poverty, brings him into the royal palace, clothes him in royal garments, and raises him as a prince, teaching him wisdom, justice, and morality. Can the child ever repay such kindness?

God didn’t stop there. He gifted us with a land flowing with milk and honey, that we could never have acquired on our own. We were a nation of weak and fearful slaves, wandering the desert with no military training or resources, but God enabled us to defeat powerful nations entrenched in their lands for centuries, kings with skilled armies and fortified cities. He gave homeless slaves a home, and saved us from annihilation again and again, throughout millennia.

Despite the Israelites failing to keep the commandments again and again, every time they cried out to God, He saved them from their enemies and their suffering. The Book of Judges repeats this pattern countless times. An earthly father would have given up on such a wayward son, but God continually extends His hand to us, never giving up. History proves that in every generation, enemies have risen to destroy us, and God has always saved us from their hands.

All the ancient nations of the Middle East have vanished. The Canaanite tribes are gone, along with the mighty empires that ruled them. We, the smallest and weakest nation, have survived for over 3,300 years, holding onto our identity amidst the collapse of Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. We, a nation of shepherds and slaves, have outlived the world’s greatest empires, because the King of Kings loves us and shelters us.

Why did God give us the Torah? Why rebuke us for our deeds?

God has no need for our mitzvot. What can humans possibly give the Creator of heaven and earth? Thus, His giving of the Torah stems from pure love — not for His benefit, but for ours. The commandments were given to refine us, to draw us closer to eternal joy, beyond anything words can describe: “To keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes, which I command you today for your good” (Deuteronomy 10:13).

As the Talmudic Sages teach: “Does God care whether one slaughters from the neck or from the back? The mitzvot were given to refine people.”

With this in mind, we must understand that every verse of rebuke in the Torah was spoken with absolute love and for our ultimate good.

While the Torah contains verses of rebuke, it also abounds with verses of open love and compassion:

• “The Lord your God has chosen you to be His treasured people” (Deuteronomy 14:2).

• “Not because you were more numerous than other nations did the Lord desire you and choose you — for you are the fewest of all peoples — but because the Lord loves you” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8).

• “As a man chastises his son, so the Lord your God chastises you” (Deuteronomy 8:5).

• “With human cords I drew them, with bands of love” (Hosea 11:4).

• “I have loved you, says the Lord” (Malachi 1:2).

If God commands us to love Him — “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:5), it is because He desires a relationship of love with us. He wants us to love Him as children love their Father.

You mentioned the curses, but for every curse, there are abundant blessings of equal and opposite power:

"If you follow My laws and carefully observe My commandments... I will give you rain in its season, and the land will yield its produce... You will eat to satiety and dwell securely in your land” (Leviticus 26).

"Blessed shall you be more than all peoples; there shall be no barrenness among you... The Lord will remove all illness from you” (Deuteronomy 7:14-15).

And if you ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year?” — God answers: “I will command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it will produce enough for three years” (Leviticus 25:21).

When we see so many verses of love and blessing, it reframes how we understand the verses of rebuke. Harsh language is used not out of hatred but out of a father's desperate love, to awaken his child and guide him back.

Throughout history, certain groups have twisted verses of rebuke to claim that God has rejected His people. A full reading of the Torah however reveals the opposite: God’s love for Israel is eternal and He never forsakes His children.

God’s discipline is not rejection, but an expression of a Father’s care, guiding His children toward their ultimate good.