Why does God the Omnipotent have to kill things to make things right?

Question

I'm thinking of the story of the flood (tho' Sodom and Gomorrah, and the ten plagues of Egypt fit this description well enough).

God doesn't like what he sees, so he kills. End of story.

Can't God flip a switch, snap his fingers or something and get what he wants. Should be as easy for him as channel surfing is for us, right?

So why does God stoop to blood-thirsty butchering of men, women, children, infants, pregnant women, etc?

And why would God stoop so low as to drown all the butterflies (save two of each kind)? What did butterflies ever do to contribute to the "evil" in the world?

Or roses, or deer, or cedar trees, or ... ?

Answer 1

God does not have to kill things. It is all a part of his greater plan. God could snap his fingers to change things but what would be the consequence of that? God looks at things over the entire length of human history. Everything has consequences. Only God know what the consequences of different actions would have been.