Is it just because someone decide to peek into the ark of the lord?Sounds psychotic to me!
"6:19 And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter."
Where's the good and merciful god in here?Anyone can justify the senseless killing?
2007-04-04 10:56:14 · 21 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Now you can understand why a lot of killings and massacres are committed under the name of god, the all forgiving.
2007-04-04 11:01:06 · answer #1 · answered by furrryyy 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
This is a good question to talk about during Passover and Easter week.
The question, "why did god kill 50700 people?" is predicated on an assumption that there is a God, and that that god has reasons for killing people. In other words, you are working with the givens in the story.
I'll try to answer the question, but I won't try to "justify this senseless killing," which is another issue entirely, and predicated on some different assumptions.
The reason given for God killing the men in the scripture you are quoting is that he wants Bethshemites and the Philistines to be impressed the way Pharaoh was when he finally decided to let the Hebrews leave Egypt. It took ten plagues to convince Pharaoh that God meant business, if you recall. In this case, the Ark, which represents God's presence among the Israelites, has been taken to another country, just as the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob went into another country (Egypt), where they became slaves.
The writer of this book considers it essential to show that God would not allow the Ark to remain with any people other than the Israelites, his chosen people.
A plague has come upon the Bethshemites, and they want to know what to do to make it go away. They remove the Ark from their land and give offerings as they are told to do, because they don't want to end up the way the Egyptians did. But they demonstrate that they are not taking the rules about how to handle the Ark seriously, and break the command not to touch the Ark, and they look inside.
The narrator here is drawing a prallel between his story and the Exodus story--trying to make the story of the Bethshemites as big a deal as the Exodus: the Bethshemites seem to be going back on their decision to remove the Ark and give it back to the Israelites, just as Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his soldiers after Moses and the people.
The story is making a parallel here between the Hebrews coming out of Egypt and into the Canaan, and the Ark coming out of the land of the Philistines and being taken back where it belongs in Canaan.
As things go in the Old Testament, there are symbolic meanings in any numbers that are used. I have not ever looked it up, but I'm sure there is some connection between the number of Bethshemites God "smote" and something in the Exodus story.
The reason given for the killing in the story is, in simplest terms, that the narrator doesn't believe people will respect God's commands without a show of force. It should go without saying in the context that killing people isn't God's primary agenda. Making a very scary impression on people is.
2007-04-04 11:46:50 · answer #2 · answered by ? 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
He didn't, he only smote 50,070. Which is quite reasonable under the circumstances. After all, this is the same god that condemned us all because Adam and Eve got a bit peckish and ate a bite of an apple. God works in mysterious ways, usually involving mass bloodshed.
2007-04-04 11:00:50 · answer #3 · answered by Dave P 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
No I can Not & I last read a few bits out of the bible 8 years ago. It is not to be taken literally Biblical Scholars have trouble with it what makes us think we actually understand it
2007-04-04 11:08:00 · answer #4 · answered by hobo 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
first of all He is God and we are not. Where is the mercy and grace- Jesus hung on the cross and shed His blood to save us. Obedience though is something that God deserves to receive from those who are His Children. No one could peek into the Holy of Holies, because before Christ, no one could look in the face of God and live. Now with Christ, He has broken the veil. God is the giver of life, and the one who can take a life, Do not understand it all myself, except that sin leads to death, that we why we need a savior.
2007-04-04 11:02:09 · answer #5 · answered by AdoreHim 7 · 1⤊ 4⤋
the "good and merciful god" is only in the second testament. The first one kills like crazy.
2007-04-04 11:01:33 · answer #6 · answered by bob888 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
well, death is nothing since it's just a gate to another world according to religion. so if someone dies it's not a big deal because they'll enter someplace else.
i don't know why people make big deals about people dying by 'Gods' will.
2007-04-04 11:03:45 · answer #7 · answered by Mikael 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
He's hiding something and willing to kill tens of thousands to keep his privacy secret.
2007-04-04 11:00:18 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Why did the beekeeper destroy a hive of bees that never produced honey?
Because he felt like it.
2007-04-04 11:02:08 · answer #9 · answered by Mottled Dove 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
By the look of your avatar you should consider giving up smoking
2007-04-04 11:00:55 · answer #10 · answered by Screamin' Banshee 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋