Does God Administer the Death Penalty Too Often in the Bible?

God’s wrath is against those that do evil, His death penalty. He sometimes expresses that wrath in this life and cuts off evildoers by going out of His way to kill them. There is no need to hide or downplay this reality.

The true God is a just Judge who holds everyone’s life breath in His hand. His judgments in this life are a reminder that He holds man accountable to live in accordance with His commandments. These things are uncomfortable and offensive to rebellious, sinful people. Yet He does seek man’s likes nor man’s applause.

You can be sure that those who applaud Jesus as if He is a rock star are applauding a false jesus rather than the awesome, fearful Judge of the universe that the real Jesus is. He kills people and sends them to hell in righteousness. Sometimes even innocent children, and others who are relatively innocent compared to the chief offenders, are harmed in acts of God’s judgment due to their relation to and/or proximity to the chief offenders. Instead of negating the reality that human life is especially precious because man is made in God’s image, this rather illustrates all the more how evil and toxic transgression against Him is.

For a human to take another human life of their own accord is murder. Yet even when it comes to humans dealing with humans, not all killings are murder. Killings resulting from a righteous judicial process, and killings of those in the process of violently harming others, are not murder. In the Ten Commandments, when God says “Thou shalt not kill”, it is a reference to murder.

The flood in Noah’s time is a strong foreshadowing of Judgment Day. Noah had been preparing the Ark and preaching for 120 years. The Lord was really being patient with mankind during that time. There are fools who teach that God’s grace cannot be resisted. They say that He works to irresistibly change the hearts of some people so that they repent and obtain mercy. That is a lie. The burden to repent is rather upon man. It is up to sinners to forsake their sins and turn to Him in order to obtain mercy from Him.

Isaiah 55:6-7: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

The reality that the Lord was being patient with mankind before the flood proves that He was waiting upon people to come to repentance in order to be spared from the coming calamity. Anyone who died in the flood with sufficient knowledge to have been sent to hell afterwards had sufficient opportunity to repent and be spared from judgment. It is presumptuous and inaccurate to speak as if people should wait on God to bring them to repentance. He has rather commanded sinners to repent and He waits on them to do so. The reality that only eight people were spared from the flood in Noah’s time does not mean that others really could not have been spared as well. Otherwise, His patience with them would have been nothing more than a show. It was surely not.

The Bible says within 1 Peter 3:20: “… the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”

The flood in Noah’s time is proof that if you just go with the flow of sin around you, you will go in the flood of judgment which the Lord will bring on all transgressors against Him. That does not change even if everyone else continues in transgression. It also shows how when judgment hits, it hits. People tend to believe that things will continue as they are because life has never previously drastically changed for them. The flood occurring shatters this common delusion.

This all is relevant today regarding people’s apathy in relation to Christ’s second coming, Judgment Day, and eternity.

Matthew 24:37-39: “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

Consider also Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in Genesis chapter 19.

Genesis 19:24-25: “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.”

Even though there were many other other sins leading up to and accompanying the particular aggravating sin which Sodom and Gomorrah were ultimately destroyed for, that does not change that such a sin can be identified.

Jude 7 “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

Considering how rebellious and morally corrupt the earth became, it is an amazing demonstration of the long-suffering of God that the number of Biblical killings is not much higher. It should seem harder to understand why He does not make an example of more people by Sodom and Gomorrah-type judgments than it is to understand why such judgments have occurred.

Consider also Lot’s wife on the heels of the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.

Genesis 19:26: “But his (Lot’s) wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”

Lot’s wife highly esteemed the things of the world which were abundant in Sodom. She esteemed them so highly that she despised the warning by the angels to escape for her life in order to look back on Sodom as it was being destroyed. When people are in love with fashion, entertainment, pleasure, comfort, and/or situations for monetary advantage they are not learning from the example of Lot’s wife like they ought to.

Luke 17:32-33: “Remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”

Consider also Er and Onan in Genesis 38:6-10.

They demonstrate that people can be very wicked in the Lord’s sight even when they may not have done anything which most people would be too bothered by. Onan’s zeal for his own name, his dishonoring of his father, and his overall bad character and lack of benevolence were things which moved God to intervene and kill him while he was young. We don’t know exactly what Er’s sins were. We are simply told that he was wicked in the sight of the Lord.

Consider also the multitude of Egyptians which were killed through the plagues on Egypt and the Egyptian Army killed in the Red Sea in the Book of Exodus.

It is important to understand that though not all the Hebrews were righteous (not even close), they were not idolaters on a corporate level like the Egyptians were. They did not worship the Egyptian gods on a corporate level. Since the true God is not a partial respecter of persons, when the Israelites eventually committed idolatry on a corporate level, His wrath came upon Israel as well. We will shortly see some examples which prove this.

The Egyptians identified the Hebrews with the God of the Hebrews. To a notable extent, they hated them and treated them ill because of that association. Modern Israel also hates the God of the ancient Hebrews (proven by its opposition to His Son). Like modern Israel, the ancient Egyptians especially despised the true God even more than most heathens do. All who participated in the ill treatment of the Hebrews were wickedly opposing God and wronging their fellow man. Many Egyptians were not actively involved in the enslavement of the Hebrews, yet many still cooperated with it by not doing all they reasonably could to rebuke it and oppose it like Moses did when he was still regarded as an Egyptian. Contrary to what many claim, Moses was a righteous defender in killing the Egyptian who was abusing a Hebrew rather than a murderer.

The Egyptians who were involved in the enslavement of the Hebrews, as well as the nations who later attempted to subdue ancient Israel and instill idolatry there, were especially provoking the true God. The same can be said of the wicked Israelites who persecuted the Prophets among their own nation (such as Jeremiah). The same can be said today of modern Israel in its opposition to Jesus Christ. Any government today that makes laws which, in one way or another, make being a faithful Christian illegal also especially provokes the true God and mistreats His people. These put themselves and their complicit citizens in the same category as the Egyptians who were killed within the Book of Exodus.

Some pity the Egyptians who died during the plagues and in the Red Sea. They portray God to be a villain who wrongfully killed them. The real villains though were the Egyptians. Those who pity them reveal their own bad character and hint at what they would be doing if they were put in the same circumstances.

Now, consider those Israelites which were killed in relation to the Golden Calf in Exodus chapter 32.

Since the true God deeply hates idolatry, and since He severely judges those who seek to impose idolatry upon His people, it is only logical that He would also furiously judge those who corrupt His worship from within. In Exodus 32, He commanded the chief instigators in the worship of the Golden Calf to be slain and He plagued the Israelites for accepting this great sin in His eyes.

The true God hates being represented by statues and other images. He forbade this in the 2nd commandment. To attempt to represent Him by any likeness fashioned by man is exceedingly evil. Romans chapter one speaks of this as a chief expression of man’s refusal to properly give Him the glory and thanks He is rightfully due. Along the same lines, it is idolatry to bow down before images. He considers this to be worship even if it is not labelled as worship by those doing it.

Idolatry is rampant in the professing Christian world today. There are even graven images being openly bowed to in certain segments. This is permitted in the Catholic Church. The bowing before icons in the Orthodox Church also violates the 2nd commandment. Yet even when physical statues and/or icons are not being bowed down to, multitudes of professing Christians still adopt an idolatrous concept of God by only receiving the passages in the Bible which they are comfortable with while practically discarding the things within the Bible which they are not comfortable with. The judgments against those involved in worshiping the Golden Calf are a terrifying testimony against such idolatry.

In relation, consider also the 24,000 Israelites killed in a plague in Numbers chapter 25 due to Israel’s fornication and idolatry which the Moabites had seduced them to.

Those Israelites gave into the enticements of heathen idolatry and the fornication which accompanied that. They are an example to teach us that being in God’s grace and inheriting His promises are not unconditional. We have to exercise a living faith which submits to Him, works righteousness in His eyes, and denies the pleasures of sin to be in order to be in His grace. This judgment in Numbers 25 is another rebuke to introducing the idolatry of the nations into the true God’s worship. It is also a rebuke to how fornication is utterly incompatible with walking in His right ways.

Hebrews 13:4: “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

Consider Nadab and Abihu being killed by fire for offering strange fire in Leviticus 10:1-3.

The context of this judgment is the inauguration of the Lord’s worship in the Tabernacle. He makes it clear that He is pleased with the Tabernacle which Moses had built at His command as Moses and Aaron complete His instructions to inaugurate it. The glory of the Lord appeared to the Israelites and a fire came out from before Him. This consumed the burnt offering and the fat which were on the altar. When the people saw this, they shouted and fell on their faces.

Nadab and Abihu had been doing their part ministering as these things went on, but then they chose to innovate.

Leviticus 10:1-3: “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spoke, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.”

While the Bible never specifically says why Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord which He commended them not, the obvious effect of doing this would have been to make a show. In this case, to add to the event which was already happening. That event was not a show, yet a man looking to make a show might try to emulate or add to what was happening in order to make the event even more exciting.

There are churches now of all varieties which could not exist without making a show. That is mainly how they draw people. They might very well even be out of business without this. They innovate in worship to produce a show for man, to gratify man, and to produce emotional experiences calculated to man’s satisfaction. A church should rather just do what God has prescribed for corporate worship and leave whatever effects that might produce to Him. He has testified that His wrath is against showmanship in worship by the example He made of Nadab and Abihu.

It is also notable and worth considering how the Lord deputized Israel under Joshua to slay the Canaanites.

When Israel was deputized as a nation to kill the Canaanites and take their land, this was not the idea of one person or a group of people which everyone else complied with. Joshua also did not need to resort to terrorism and deception upon other nations to get them to go along with his conquest of Canaan like the modern Jews have done in establishing modern Israel.

God had pronounced His judgment on the Canaanites hundreds of years beforehand when He promised the land of Canaan to Abraham’s seed (yet not unconditionally as many claim). He gave the Canaanites many hundreds of years to repent. These were especially wicked murderers, idolaters, sorcerers, and sexual deviants who were not only exceedingly corrupt, but also knew very well how God had miraculously delivered Israel from Egypt by drying up the Red Sea. They also knew how He had brought Israel out of the wilderness by stopping the Jordan River. Any one of the Canaanites could have acknowledged Israel’s God as the true God, forsaken their idolatry and other sins, and been spared from death. We even see in Israel’s initial conquest of Jericho how Rahab and those of her father’s household were spared from destruction. It is possible other Canaanites repented and were spared also. We shouldn’t expect every instance of this to be recorded in the Bible.

The Canaanite people were overall so hardhearted and attached to their sin that they didn’t even surrender after God miraculously brought down the walls of Jericho and delivered the people there to the Israelites. The news of Rahab’s deliverance at the beginning of this conquest also might have spread quickly. All who heard about it would have known for sure they could choose to side with the true God and be spared from death. Don’t feel sorry for the Canaanites.

The Christian church is not synonymous with a political entity. Therefore, it has no righteous basis for executing judgment through the sword. This is one area in which many Roman Catholic and Reformation theologians have erred greatly and justified murder in the name of God in an attempt to uphold their own corrupt religious entities.

However, earthly governments, when acting righteously, will still execute people who are duly convicted of many of the crimes which were commonly committed among the Canaanites- especially murder. It is also possible to be a faithful Christian while serving in secular government. This includes serving in the military and in law enforcement. The Apostles of Christ baptized a Roman centurion and a Roman jailer in the Book of Acts. The Roman Proconsul Sergius Paulus also believed in Christ in Acts 13 without being told he needed to step down from his office.

Also, do not equate modern Israel with ancient Israel under Joshua. The modern Israelites are wicked like the Canaanites were- if not much worse. The leaders of modern Israel, from its founding in 1948 until today, are wicked people who reject the Messiah whom Moses and Joshua foreshadowed and anticipated. Their treatment of the Palestinians and others who have stood in their way is unjustified. The people whom they have killed were murdered. The people whom they have taken things from were stolen from. The modern Israelites were not deputized by the true God like Joshua and those under his command were. They are rather especially bitter enemies of the true God like the ancient Egyptians and Canaanites.

In relation, consider how the young adults who were torn by two she bears after being cursed by the Prophet Elisha in 2 Kings were natural Israelites.

2 Kings 2:23-24: “And he (Elisha) went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.”

Elisha was mentored by the Prophet Elijah. The ones cursed, attacked, and perhaps also killed here were not little children in the way we tend to think of them. This was a gang of young adults in their teens or twenties who lived in or around the idolatrous city of Bethel. They were mocking Elisha and the great event which had recently happened (recorded earlier in this very chapter) of Elijah being taken to heaven in a chariot of fire. These were idolatrous thugs who were very hardened against God and bent on mischief. The word in Hebrew used to describe these is the same word Solomon used in 1 Kings 3:7 to describe himself when he was likely in his early or mid-twenties. The word often or always refers to a young adult between the ages of twelve and thirty. This was basically the Hebrew definition of a young man.

Now consider Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-14.

Ananias and Sapphira’s sudden deaths are evidence that God did not vacate His throne or cease to be a God of judgment in the era of the New Covenant after Jesus died and rose again. They deliberately misrepresented themselves to be doing a good work which they were not actually doing. Ananias did not have to give all the money from the land sale which he had recently made away. Yet he lied and said he had given it all away in order to enhance his reputation in the church. God chose to kill him for this. Ananias’ wife Sapphira complied with his lie and received the same judgment. Many liars within churches now are very lucky that they are not part of a church which the Lord regards as His own and has not given up on purifying.

Consider also the judgment upon Herod in Acts chapter 12.

The Lord proves here that He judges those without the Christian church as well as those within it. Herod persecuted Christians and killed the Apostle James (the brother of John). He also did not give God glory when he was called a god while making a speech. His judgment is a reminder that the Lord’s judgments in the Old Testament against those complicit with suppressing His prescribed worship stand as a warning to all people in every generation.