(July 3, 2013 at 6:20 pm)pineapplebunnybounce Wrote:The curse was a calling down of God to punish them. God decided to kill them to prove that he was on the prophet's side.(July 3, 2013 at 5:27 pm)Consilius Wrote: First of all, it is only child-killers who have their children die in the OT. The loss of a child is far worse than losing one's own life. This is well known by both the defendant and the offender.
Why did you dodge all of my questions?
Of course losing a child is worse than losing one's own life for a lot of people. Did I say it wasn't? Why are you randomly saying this?
Quote:On Elisha killing children in 2 Kings 2:23-242:23 And he 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.
They weren't children. The Hebrew word neurim qetannim means "young man": between the ages of 12 and 30. Isaac was in his early twenties when he is nearly sacrificed in Genesis 22:12, and Joseph is seventeen in Genesis 37:2.
Elisha had finished revoking an earlier curse on the nearby city of Jericho (Joshua 6:26) by making its water clean (2 Kings 2:19-22). Elisha was a prophet, a representative of God, as he had proven not long ago, and the insults were not going to him but to the God he stood for. This isn't very surprising, since he was traveling through an area of Israelite pagan worship (1 Kings 12:32). These men, if not pagan priests themselves, clearly were pagan worshippers.
Elisha responded to this threat to his prophetic mission by cursing them in the name of the God he stood for, and the one they were insulting. There is no evidence he prayed for any type of punishment at all, rather, God executed the curse by sending bears to maul them. That 42 of these men were captured and mauled by two bears suggests that there could have been many more people gathered against this one man.
This wasn't playful teasing from a few kids, but a mass gathering of pagans against God's messenger.
2:24 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.
These are the bible passages i found. How you got from little children to people who are 12-30 years old and how you know so much about whether or not they're pagans (and why does it matter?) I don't know.
They gathered against him? you mean it was a protest? And so god saw fit to kill them? Because his prophet wants him to ...? i'm not sure what point you're making about differentiating a curse from a punishment. Are you saying the curse is unjust while a punishment is just?
You're replying me and focusing on issues that are of little importance, if god killed them god killed them. i don't know what for. the point was: if our laws were to kill people for the same reasons your god killed people for (killing children of parents who killed children, and protesting against god, or if you like, insulting god), will you be in favour of that? Why or why not?
God's killings took place in a society that: a) had much proof of his existence b) was expected to adhere strictly to the law he had very personally handed down to them in a world that c) was wrought with retribution as the norm because of the sin people lived under because of Adam.
Jesus made God's law complete by preaching and living a life of forgiveness. God does not reveal himself to a single nation that needs to hold his law, but to a world of people where the message of Christ is well-known by everybody. God's actions in the Old Testament would either be wasted on the 21st century or have the wrong effect: fear and not love.