In our effort to have a relationship with God, to know Him and His Son on an intimate, personal level, I think there is a pitfall we often fall into—the trap of squeezing God into a little, buddy-shaped box.
I'm no expert, but from where I'm standing, contemporary Christianity places a ton of emphasis on Jesus the Savior and Friend, but less on God the Righteous and Just Judge of the Universe. We have no problem going to Jesus with all our daily problems, or claiming him as our personal support and crying shoulder; we have no problem accepting as truth the spiritual principles outlined in the New Testament, but the wondrous and sometimes violent saga of the Old? Sounds overwhelming and extreme and a tad frightening—so where does that leave the God we find in those pages, the God who made Mount Sinai shake and cloaked it with His cloud?
Some people think that the Old Testament is irrelevant in light of the New. I bet those are the people who would start watching The Lord of the Rings 45 minutes from the end of the last movie. The idea that the Old Testament is irrelevant may be the reason people don't revere God the way they should—that we love the idea of an omniscient BFF, but a deity of frightening power and unbending justice who is just as capable of destroying as healing if He so chooses? No thanks. Sounds old-fashioned. And harsh. I'd rather think of him as a white-bearded grandfather smiling down from heaven and showering blessings like Christmas candy.
I hope you see the issue here. God cannot be placed in a box. God is three persons, not just one—and while Jesus is the key to our salvation, it was God who set that very salvation in motion, God who lovingly created us, and God who subjected his own son to a brutal death to fulfill what His own righteous code demanded. God is GREAT, and we need to respect Him. We need to honour Him in a way that brings us to our knees in worship, in a way that allows us to say, "Thy will be done," as Jesus did. God is beyond our understanding, and God is also GOOD. The New Testament tells us how to live for God, but the Old shows us who our God is, and why we must reverently worship Him as a God as much as a Friend.
Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. . . . At this also my heart trembleth, and is moved out of his place. ~Job 36:26 - Job 37:1
Thank you, God, for being good and great. Glorify thy name in all the earth.