Why was the Old Testament God so fond of collective punishment, wherein innocent life was lost?

Question

You cannot say all were sinful, because children are not sinful. Yet God used collective punishment many times. Even in the last chaper of the Old Testemant, God considers smiting the earth with a curse.

Presumably God never changes, so what do we have to look forward to?

Answer 1

Cause he had emotional problems. Anyone who reads the Bible can see that, but may choose not to.

Answer 2

That's a great strategy for creating peer pressure.

The military use that a lot. Like if someone doesn't pass inspection they might make the entire group march or do pushups or whatever. That way the group has a vested interest in making sure that person passes inspection next time.

So when the religious leaders were writing the Bible they included lots of stories where some people are "sinning" and God punishes the entire group (destroying cities, making tribes wander the desert, causing famines and plagues).

Think of the impact! If you were told that you would get in trouble for mowing your lawn on Sunday you might stop mowing your lawn on Sunday. But suppose you were told that God is willing to punish you and your family if your neighbor down the street mows his lawn on Sunday. Better for you to join in with your neighbors and stone that guy than risk God's vengeance on the whole community.

It's a great way for a small group of people to control a large group of people by in effect deputizing of all of them.

And with God as the punisher you can always prove it after the fact. From time to time there will be storms or earthquakes or droughts or diseases or whatever. Then you step in and attribute this to various "sinful" behaviors that might have preceded the "punishment". So if locusts have been eating the crops, you blame it on adultery, stone some adulterers, and then eventually the locust problem subsides and you announce that God has lifted the punishment thanks to stonings.

Answer 3

During the last cease fire.Israel jet rocketed 39 people in Gaza.After 4 months Hamas has enough and retaliated.The retailiating is remembered by the west,but the killing of 39 is forgotten. Now the retailiation is not retaliation according to everyone but an act of aggression. America and Britain supply most of the weapons to kill Palestinian children.Yet Iran is condemed for supplying guns to Hamas. Shame on you the west,shame on you Israel.Britain rejected the UN ceasefire mandate 12 times in 12 days so that Israel can get it's killing done before they accepted on the 13th day

Answer 4

It is true that many people feel children are inherently "innocent" and therefore not sinful but such is not really the case. The same scriptures that teach us about God teach us also that all have sinned. It is not innocence that is inherent within us; it is sin and that holds true no matter our age.

Having said that, children are the responsibility of their parents. They are not the responsibility of God. He is not obligated to shield children from the dangers, disease and death that comes with life as we know it now. To illustrate, all who died in the flood of Noah's day could have saved their lives by simply getting on the Ark. How hard is that? They chose not to. They clearly chose that for their children as well. Keeping that in mind, and keeping in mind the fact that all humans are sinful, it was not God's responsibility to preserve alive those children. But let us say that he did, who would now take care of and raise those children and babies? The eight survivors of the flood? Probably thousands of children? Thousands of babies? No, children are the responsibility of their parents.

What can we expect in the future? According to 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10, those who insist upon going their own way, assiduously refusing to align themselves in harmony with what is right will undergo the judicial punishment of everlasting destruction. Eternal death.

Hannah J Paul

Answer 5

You've caught on. A god such as the one in the Bible is a monster, totally unworthy of worship. Fear, maybe, which seems to have been the intent, but not worship. Next step is to realize that this monster is the product of human imagination and never really existed in any form. Once you get that firmly in mind, everything else makes sense. Then you have a life of reason and freedom to look forward to. Congratulations.

Answer 6

Because at the time, that was the best way for the people of that time period to envision their god in order for their society to survive. During that time in history, the OT god was a god for nomadic desert people, and in order for the tribe to maintain solidarity, if one member of the tribe sinned, the whole tribe was guilty. It was all about maintaining the clan. The clan of the OT god was in the right, and the other clans were not, so the OT god would naturally smite them because they were on the wrong team. The portrayal of a god who was univerally loving to all people regardless of tribe came about much later, in the Christian era.

Answer 7

This is God's world. He can do whatever He wants to. Like it or not. I want to team up with God. We have a free will and many people will suffer because the consequences of other people's wrong doings. So we need to be ready to go,because we never now when is the time.

Answer 8

The same reason the OT god would rescue Jews who were slaves in Egypt (1), but todays god would not rescue Jews in German WWII camps.

Answer 9

Are you speaking of the Old Testament God or of Bush? It appears this is what he is doing in modern day Iraq.

Answer 10

God does not change.

Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

I am that I am.