Right vs Right

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(from H - 04-18-22)

Hi Dave ..hope you're well.

What do u  Think of this? When we say good or bad we base it on God's right to tell us what's good and bad...but at times in scripture God supported  things that may seem bad or that are bad actually like killing of other people by the Israelites...So are right actions right because God commands them or it's because they are right thing to do? :^)

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(from me - 04-18-22)

Hi H

It's nice to hear from you again.

First, yes, Jehovah has the authority and the right to decide what is right and what is wrong.

(Romans 9:20, 21) But who are you, O man, to be answering back to God? Does the thing molded say to its molder: “Why did you make me this way?” ²¹ What? Does not the potter have authority over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for an honorable use, another for a dishonorable use?

We are His property, to do with as He wishes.

You said: God supported things...  that are bad actually like killing of other people by the Israelites.

To give things a little perspective, those people would have died anyway later in their life. And unless they blasphemed the holy spirit (Mr 3:29) they will be resurrected. (John 5:28, 29) So the final outcome will be the same for them, with the resurrected living forever on a paradise earth.

And since man has such a short lifespan, compared to eternal life, ending their life a little bit early really doesn't matter much in the long run. And given the hard and desperate life that many lived back then, Jehovah may have been doing them a favor. Like when Jehovah took Enoch. (Ge 5:24) Did Jehovah do Enoch an injustice, or a favor by ending his life early? (He 11:5)

If you say that sometimes God ordered that whole communities be put to death, men, women, and children (1Sa 15:3), so how is that doing them a favor? Well, if say only the men of fighting age were killed, then that would leave their families to live in much worse hardship, and the survivors would also experience life-long grief at the loss of their loved ones.

So yes, i would say that He was also doing them a favor by compassionately sparing them from such a grievous ordeal.

As an example: If you saw a small barefoot child walking across hot pavement in distress from the heat on his feet, if you picked him up and set him down beyond the hot pavement in the cool grass to continue his journey, did you do him an injustice by not allowing him to experience the rest of the journey across the hot pavement? No, you did him a favor.

:^)
Dave

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