Just curious.
2007-11-15 11:21:03 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Couldn't god have just delivered and protected the Israelites without having to kill anybody's kids?
2007-11-15 11:31:46 · update #1
It's interesting (to me anyway) how everyone answers this question as if it was a simple question. Freedom or life, one or the other, is the most important thing so the answer is simple.
To me its not so simple. Is my freedom worth the deaths of thousands of mostly-innocent people? I'm not so sure. And for pro-life Christians it should be a more difficult decision.
It's true, of course, that the Hebrews didn't decide to kill the Egyptian first-born, it was the Pharaoh that made this decision and it backfired on him. That relieves the Hebrews from the weight of the decision. But a bit later in the same story, when the Hebrews finally come to Canaan, they kill all the residents of that land, men, women and children, guilty and innocent.
I think if I had been around then and knew what was going on, I would have wanted to spare the first-born of Egypt. The Egyptians were not evil, only their Pharaoh was evil. Change was in the wind and the freedom of the Hebrews was inevitable. God ought to be able to free one people without killing another people, showing people by example that mass killing is never justified when results can be achieved in more peaceful ways.
2007-11-15 11:36:11 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Well, you missed part. The egyptians were going to kill the firstborns of all the Israelis.
The question should be: if you were a slave in another country, and the masters were going to slaughter your first born children, would you want God to instead kill their children in the act of convincing them to set your people free.
The answer is yes.
2007-11-15 11:25:23 · answer #2 · answered by promethius9594 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No of course not. But it was the decree of Pharaoh as to who would be killed. Pharaoh had plenty of alternatives. But he was just too big of a megalomaniac to relent to a Hebrew from the desert. In other words, technically it wasn't so much the God of the Bible that killed the Egyptian first born as it was the law of recompense that could no longer be restrained because of the severe treatment of the Hebrews by Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
I Cr 13;8a
2007-11-15 13:54:06 · answer #3 · answered by ? 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If I were a slave in another country, that country would be an enemy of mine and my country and I would thank God for any way He got me out of there. Remember the Jews were not treated humanely by the Egyptians.
Sending you a smile to help pick up your day.
2007-11-15 11:26:34 · answer #4 · answered by Prof Fruitcake 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In anticipation of the 10th blow, Jehovah instructions that the Israelites rejoice a “passover.” On Nisan 10, they take a lamb or a baby for each enjoyed ones. The animal is killed on Nisan 14 and its blood is sprinkled on the doorposts and lintels of their residences. They roast and consume it after sunset, alongside with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. at the same time as only about all those families are indoors, approximately night Jehovah’s angel is going in the process the land yet passes over each and every Israelite residing house. The 10th blow is struck. loss of existence befalls each and every of the firstborn of Egypt, which incorporates Pharaoh’s first son. At this he shall we the Israelites bypass.—Exodus 11:a million–12:36.
2016-10-16 21:38:32 · answer #5 · answered by launer 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When you are a slave for 400 years and were treated the way they were then maybe you would have the perspective that God had of the Egyptians in that day.
I am sure can imagine. Should we apologize to Hitler, Mussolini, Joseph Stalin.
All God's judgments are just. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord and His judgments are just.
2007-11-15 11:30:16 · answer #6 · answered by Dennis James 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, I'd not only die for my freedom, but I kill all the firstborn of another country to win my freedom as well. Slavery is wrong and those who condone it should suffer the consequences.
Think about it.
2007-11-15 11:23:22 · answer #7 · answered by ►solo 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Why don't you ask for the full truth? Why didn't you mention how Egypt killed all the firstborn sons of Israel? Why didn't you mention how the son of Israel, Joseph, saved Egypt from starvation with God's guidance and this is how Egypt ends up paying them back for their kindness, by enslaving them and putting them under harsh servitude?
2007-11-15 11:25:19 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Absolutely not.
I would want god to soften (rather than harder) the big boss's heart and just end the whole thing on a happy note.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
2007-11-15 11:24:48 · answer #9 · answered by Alan 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
If I believed in God at the time, yes, I would want him to do that and more.
2007-11-15 11:24:21 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋