< STRONG Because Sin was very addictive and even fatal at that time. (Biblical)
If a person touched sin, then as God said to Cain, "Sin wants to destroy, but don't let it." Sin will get the person trapped. This can explain why God ruthlessly killed people in the past. In fact, God's people (the Jews) didn't kill people without His permission. But when Jesus died, He finally broke free the lethal grasp of sin. Sin is like an epidemic and literally spread from person to person (if unprotected). Literally, kings were infected by sin when they married foreign wives who somehow got them to worship other gods (Nehemiah 13:26). You have to kill or quarantine people with the disease to stop its spreading and harm, and that's what we do today with physical disease. But Jesus brought the cure, so there is no longer a need to kill or quarantine the people.
Foreign Wives
To repeat, this was especially true with marrying foreign wives who brought their gods and idols back with them. Once a king like Solomon married many foreign women, he got trapped into committing sin. Eventually, God was no longer pleased with him and had to punish him. (again, Neh 13:26)
< STRONG In those times, Israel and others saw the miracles that God performed, and were still stubborn.
These people had the special privilege to see all that God was doing, such as the escape from Egypt, the splitting of the Red Sea, and the miraculous victories of Israel against her enemies.Likewise, special people in office like spies and ambassadors have special privileges and have access to lots of information. If the government found out that they were cheating the country and committed espionage, what would most countries do? Hang them.
Likewise, Israel and others had those special privileges and were stubborn to obey God and even made it harder for God's people to do good things. Hence God had them killed by His own people.
God’s Deadly Laws
As for God’s laws being very deadly if broken, it’s similar.
One man's betrayal is the whole group's failure. They would have to kill the person or sentence him to life in prison. But sending him to spend his life in prison isn’t practical. If he gets out, he will cause the whole group grief by giving all the information to foreigners.
< STRONG The sinners who rejected God usually had great pride over God and his people. (Biblical)
What better way to show that God is all powerful than for God to have his people win in combat? Combat was the ultimate test for all things.
Jdg 7:2 The LORD said to Gideon, "The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'"
Here, this shows how the Israelites would think. Imagine if the sinners were never attacked, how much more prideful they would be that God didn't do anything in response to their sins!
| < Prev |
|---|
