In Deuteronomy 22:28-29 God commands that a rapist must pay his victim's father 50 pieces of silver and then marry her. Now why would he force a rape victim to marry the man who raped her?
Because if he didn't marry her, the woman, being "de-flowered" through rape, would spend the rest of her life as a "ruined woman," unmarried, living in destitution as a social outcast. Certainly, making the man who raped her bear the responsibility of caring for her showed a concern for the victim of rape that was practically unknown in the time this law was given.
In Exodus 21:7-11 God lays out ground rules for how a man should go about selling his daughter as a sex slave.
Exodus 21:7-11
7 "And if a man sells his daughter to be a female slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
8 If she does not please her master, who has betrothed her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her.
9 And if he has betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters.
10 If he takes another wife, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marriage rights.
11 And if he does not do these three for her, then she shall go out free, without paying money.
First, the act of a man selling his daughter (or any child for that matter) into slavery was conditional on him being absolutely financially insolvent. It was the only circumstance under which such a thing would be considered in Jewish society. He could not sell his children to turn a quick profit. Really, releasing his children into servitude was an act that would protect the children from the destitution his financial insolvency had caused. As servants, the children would be fed, and clothed, and sheltered for a full six years. This was certainly a situation preferable by far than having the family poverty-stricken.
Second, the daughter had a guaranteed release after six years of servitude.
Third, the daughter was not obliged to marry the man into whose service she was sold.
Fourth, if the daughter was married, she was accorded all the rights and privileges of a member of the family. She was no longer considered a slave.
In comparison to other cultures, these laws governing indentured servitude (not slavery) in Israel, took far greater pains to preserve the rights of the one who became a servant. In other cultures of the time a slave was considered on par with a piece of furniture.
Leviticus 20:13 God orders the killing of homosexuals.
Homosexuality is a perversion of God's intended design for human sexuality. As a people called out from among the pagan nations that indulged this and other vile perversions and wickedness, Israel was to reflect God's attitude toward sin. Separation, holiness, and purity were paramount goals in the laws God gave to Israel. As representatives of God, the Israelites were to reflect His holiness and hatred of sin in how they lived. Thus, homosexuality was prohibited in Israel on pain of death.
Leviticus 21:9 If a priest's daughter commits fornication, she must be burned to death.
Leviticus 21:8-9
8 Therefore you shall consecrate him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I the Lord, who sanctify you, am holy.
9 The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, she profanes her father. She shall be burned with fire.
This is a testament to the great seriousness of the role of priest in God's eyes. Priests, as special representatives of the holy God of Israel, were to reflect in all things the holiness and purity of the God they served. A priest's daughter would, by her intimate familial connection to her father, corrupt this reflection should she engage in sexual promiscuity. As this law indicates, God looked very severely upon a daughter who would profane her father in this way.
2 Chronicles 15:12-13 Kill anyone who doesn't worship the Christian God.
2 Chronicles 15:12-13
12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;
13 and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.
Israel had abandoned their covenant with God and King Asa determined that Israel would once again honor it. To this end, the many Israelites who heeded King Asa's call to gather were required to agree to return to the Old Covenant Israel had made with God. God had made it clear through the prophet Oded that if King Asa did this thing, and Israel honored its covenant with God, He would be with Israel, but if Asa did not, God would forsake Israel and terrible consequences would ensue. The future well-being of Israel hung upon the agreement of the Israelite people to return to their covenant with God. It was a testament to the great seriousness of the covenant Israel had made with God that death was the penalty for reneging on it.
You refer to the God of the Old Testament as "the Christian God" but at the time of the events written of in
2Chronicles 15 Christianity did not exist. The Israelites, then, were not called to worship "the
Christian God."
Deuteronomy 22:20-21 Kill any woman who isn't a virgin on her wedding night.
Deuteronomy 22:20-21
20 But if the thing is true, and evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman,
21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father's house. So you shall put away the evil from among you.
This passage explains pretty clearly why a woman who had lost her virginity before marrying was to suffer the death penalty. You may not like this law but in a nation intended by God to reflect His purity and holiness it was of the utmost importance that this sort of sin not be tolerated in the least.
Ezekiel 9:5-7 Here's part of it: "Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children." < That's God giving the order to murder "little children."
1 Samuel 15:2-3 "Do not spare him, but kill men and women, children and infants" < Kill the infants; that's what he told them to do.
In Joshua 6:20-21, Joshua describes how, on God's orders, they went in and butchered EVERYONE in Jericho; except for what's-her-face (that harlet) on the wall. But yeah.. the men, women, children, infants.. they were all butchered like cattle.. in their own city. That's what your kids sing about during Sunday School.. the "victory" that was Jericho.
As the Creator of all life, God is in a singular position to be the One who takes life as well. In fact, He is the only One who truly has this right. And He exercises it with every person He has made. The truth is, God kills everyone. But this is as it should be. He gave life and it is His to take away when He sees fit. Every person God makes has an expiration date that He has ordained. Some will die by accident, others by disease, some by the consequence of their own foolish choices, some simply because of old age. In every case, however, God has a hand in a person's death.
In light of God's role as Giver and Taker of life, it seems to me to be an odd thing to object to His exercising His divine right in this matter through the actions of an army. Why is God obliged to take life only in the manner in which we prefer?
In the instance in
Ezekiel 9 God is judging the Israelites who had done great evil in God's sight. The passage in which the verse you mention appears explains this. Why were the children not exempt from the judgment that fell upon the older Israelites? Many explanations have been offered but the simplest and perhaps the best one is that the children were, regardless of their age, Israelites too. And God was judging the
nation of Israel, not just certain individuals within the nation. God's severity in His punishment of Israel's wickedness revealed His utter hatred of sin and His determination to expunge it root, branch and leaf.
If you're saying to yourself "That's all Old Testament stuff, it all changed in the New Testament (a super weak argument as it is)" Then I suggest you look up Matthew 5:17 > "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." < That's Jesus speaking.
Well, you should have some clue that things
have changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament simply from the terms "old" and "new" that describe the two testaments. The New Testament is a just that: a
new testament and a new covenant that God made through Christ, not just with the Israelites, but with all those who will come to faith in Christ as their Saviour and Lord.
Do you have any idea what Christ meant when he said that he had come to fulfill the law and prophets? Have you read the Sermon on the Mount in which the verse from
Matthew 5 appears? You seem to want to construe Christ's words to mean that he was merely confirming the Old Testament law, but this not what Christ himself goes on to say. Perhaps you should read the Sermon before you start making assertions about it's meaning.
Anyways, could someone please explain how all the stuff previously mentioned could possibly be the work of a caring, loving God who values human life? That'd be great, thanks.
In all the examples you've offered, I see a holy God acting in perfect accord with His holy nature. I see a God who values holiness and moral purity above sustaining life that is steeped in wickedness. I don't see that this is wrong - especially in light of God's unique role as the Creator and Giver of Life.
We think God ought to share our deep desire to live. We think He ought to hold our continued existence on this planet in as high esteem as we do. But, He doesn't. God hasn't made us just for time; He has made us for eternity. He sees our lives extend beyond the relatively brief time we spend on earth. He sees that our time here is only the tip of the iceberg of our eternal existence. So, when it suits His purposes, He will shorten our temporal existence and in so doing lengthen our eternal existence. For the Christian, this is good news, not bad. And it is entirely within God's divine prerogatives to do so. "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Selah.
