Why Must God Take Life?

Why May God Take Life?

Firstly, we must remember God is all just, “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He,” (Deuteronomy 32:5 NASB1995). All things God decides are just; even if we do not quite understand his reasoning. God too knows all (Job 37:16), so something foolish to us with our limited knowledge may be very wise.

A skilled chess player may cause his queen – the best piece in chess – to get taken. This to some may seem rather foolish, but the skilled player knows that now he has room to win with his next play. 

Men are sinful, we deserve nothing but Hell. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," (Romans 3:23 KJV). Even so, God gave his only begotten Son, that if anyone believes in him, they can be saved (John 3:16).

Now for some examples. "They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear," (Deuteronomy 21:20-21 NASB1995). 

In the Bible, the punishment for gluttony is a high one. As the book of Deuteronomy says, stoning is a valid punishment for this offense, but why? We must remember the cultural context of these statements. In ancient times, and even now in some small towns, it was and is common for food to be low. In such societies, one must be careful with food distribution or else the people are to starve. The reason the Bible is so harsh is if a person was a glutton and ate much, they could starve people which of course is quite evil.

We also must remember the ancient peoples had very hard hearts. "In Ancient Egypt, the concept of heart included three constituents: heart-haty, heart-ib, and the spiritual seat of intelligence, emotion and memory" (Bernard, & Haliousa). By saying one's heart is hardened, it seems to mean that a person closes off qualities of their heart such as emotion and intelligence. There is also some research that the heart can control emotion: "Having high heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with higher emotional well-being, including being correlated with lower levels of worry and rumination, lower anxiety, and generally more regulated emotional responding. Thus, individuals with higher HRV appear to be better at regulating their emotions" (Mather & Thayer). Either way, it would seem this is a way the Bible symbolizes a person closing off from God. When one has such a hard heart, simply putting them into jail will not cause repentance. They are closed off, in a place where such a desire is lost. 

Another reason may be that death is required, for without it, the people will seek revenge after a conflict or something of that nature. Again, it is a broad topic, so there are these reasons and many more for this.

Works Cited:

Mather M, Thayer J. How heart rate variability affects emotion regulation brain networks. Curr Opin Behav Sci. 2018 Feb;19:98-104. doi: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.12.017. PMID: 29333483; PMCID: PMC5761738.

New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

Ziskind, Bernard, and Bruno Halioua. “La conception du coeur dans l'Egypte ancienne” [Concepts of the heart in Ancient Egypt]. Medecine sciences : M/S vol. 20,3 (2004): 367-73. doi:10.1051/medsci/2004203367