On God killing the "little ones" of Dathan and Abiram

[brinny]

Neither. The idea of "punishment" is created by man.
God knows the entire lives of every person before time
began till it ends and He doesn't have events happen
without just reason.

We may, or may not, think we know what these
reasons are.

Good point.

 

[Achilles6129]

Neither. The idea of "punishment" is created by man.
God knows the entire lives of every person before time
began till it ends and He doesn't have events happen
without just reason.

We may, or may not, think we know what these
reasons are.

Actually the idea of punishment is found all over Scripture.

 

[dqhall]

I've been having some more thoughts on this, and I think that God may kill the offspring of wicked people not in order to punish their offspring but in order to punish them. A good example would be King David, whose child died because of his sin with Bathsheba (2 Sam. 12). So perhaps God thought that Dathan/Abiram were so evil that he not only killed them, but he killed their children in punishment directed toward them (Dathan/Abiram) as well. Thoughts?

If a child died of whooping cough, small pox or malaria, the people might have thought God killed the child because it was wicked. While God rescued some, those who turned against God were not as easily rescued and perished in disgrace.

 

[GenemZ]

Re: the deaths of these children, did God err? Was it a judgment?

Have there been similar judgments throughout Old Testament history?

For instance, was the closing of the door to Noah's ark by God, a judgment?

Babies died.

Did they not?

A big question is... Where are those children today? Not.. why did God kill them. Which had to do with cutting off those family lines forever. It was something the ancients feared deeply as one of the most humiliating punishments God could deem a person. Yet, all souls are His. Everyone who is ever to be born, will be born. God will just not use that family line to do so.

Where are those children today? In heaven. So, is God unjust?

Sometimes we value this life too much. Its only for a short time that has been set aside by God for our testing and evaluation by the Lord. Its not where we will be after graduation. What follows graduation always lasts much longer than the classes that led up to it.

We must look at the over all picture, lest we magnify a tiny speck, and make a little bug appear gigantic like Godzilla magnified and blown up on a screen, destroying millions in a city. Its really tiny. This life is tiny. Those lives of the children was not what counts. Its what followed that counts.

A mere speck. We need to stop magnifying what appears to be a possibility, while fearfully ignoring its impossibility. Rest assured. Even if you never get your answer? The answer really is... Who is God?

Why satisfy the unbeliever with an answer? The right answer will only serve to nullify the attacks of the unbeliever. It will never make him into a believer. The attacks are allowed by God for to force us to seek and grow in our knowledge and understanding.

ok...

David's infant son was killed by God for David's discipline. Yet? Afterwards.. David had peace. For, he knew that a child that dies automatically goes to be with God. Total happiness! So? God can kill children if its suits his need to discipline. We can know this is true, but only if we choose to believe the Word of God. The Word is to be our source for our genuine happiness.

2 Samuel 12:18-23​

18 On the seventh day the child died. David’s attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead,for they thought, “While the child was still living, he wouldn’t listen to us when we spoke to him. How canwe now tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”


19 David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked.

“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”


20 Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.


21 His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!”

22 He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”



David's child did nothing wrong. Dathan and Abiram? They were evil men. In contrast to them God saw David as righteous. Dathan and Abiram's children did nothing wrong. In punishment for their evil God abruptly discontinued their line.
Cut them off as a warning to all who saw what happened when the earth opened and swallowed them up. Serving as a warning to those who cherished and viewed their progeny as a sign of blessing and a pleasure from God.

We live in a tiny world where its tiny specks are sometimes blown up on a screen, that are made to look a trillion times larger than they really are. Who is God? And, knowing Who He is... is what brings them right down to size.

This life is nothing. But, its all we have at the moment. So? We must learn what is to be our eternity, and what the Eternal One expects from us while here living in this mere speck of a life. Too simple? Not when we bring that alleged problem 'down to size.'

 

[Vicomte13]

What you wrote just above is pretty much spot on. To see the full picture, remember that God decides when everybody and everything dies - not a sparrow falls without the Father's permission.