Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible?.
It doesn't make any sense, does it? Why would a loving God want us to murder our fellow human beings over such trivial matters?
Indeed - why?
Asda you are stepping into that area called maturity and along with maturity comes the painful reality that we must leave the things of our youth behind.
I guess your unspoken question might go something like this. If God is the loving God we have been taught to accept, a God whom we can call Abba, where does all this mayhem fit in? What is it's purpose?
I'm not going to try to answer that - it would demand a thesis all of its own - so don't think you will get a quick and easy answer. But there are a couple of avenues which might be woorth exploring.
The stories of the OT all happened as much as 4000 years ago (and beyond, depending on where one might draw the line) - when things were not quite so civilised. (Of course, looking around the world today one might ask - what's changed - but that's another matter). So there is an aspect here which might indicate that we humans were a pretty lawless lot and in many aspect we where. But something called 'law' did emerge out of the smoke and dust of the past. Retribution was, through the 'law', limited - even though by today's standards the penalities where still pretty horrific. In this we might say things were relative - that is, pertaining to the standards of the times.
The people of Israel decided, by one method or another, to adopt a set of laws which served to distinguish them from their neighbours. Moses was instrumental in initiating this task, but it continued for many centuries. While the penalities under the Law might challenge our present day sensibilities, the Law was a huge advance on what was on offer at the time. It called for penalities that where alike with the crime. Thus we hear of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth - no one could go beyond the initial crime. In other words, if I had a fight and broke someone's arm then all that could happen to me was that I would receive a broken arm - my kith and kin did not get slaughtered by some bloody act of retribution.
The Law of Israel also had some pretty stringent conditions attached to it concerning how it fitted together socially. At its centre was the acceptance of one God - a God that had no other gods. This was unique among the annuals of human society and to maintain this strict oneness this God was perceived as being jealous of all activities which might jeapodise that particular concept - thus some of the pretty scary events that unfolded throughtout the history of Israel were to do with the protection of this Monothestic belief. Such events were under what Christians call the old coveneant - an agreement stretching back to God and Abram.
Jesus spoke about a new covenant - one that freed Israel form the Law - all 613 of them - laws that had to do with worship, attendance and sacrifice.
Of concern here is just how you decided, eventually, to treat the Bible. Is it the irrefutable Word of God or a collection of stories and legends that point to some higher purpose? This is an angonising time for all have confronted this situation - a matter of faith - just how do I interrupt the Bible? But, as someone once said, faith without doubt is no faith at all.
