 There is an interesting and sometimes difficult question to answer to deal with and that is regarding the killing of innocent people, the killing of babies, not by us, but by God. The Bible talks about not shedding innocent blood, but then why then can God get away with doing it? Why then can God kill babies? Well, one of the first things we need to realize is that there is no one innocent. There's no one good. It would be a false notion to think that if anyone is ever killed, if there is some sort of loss of life either through a natural disaster or some other incident, then is that appropriate if God is the one behind it? And let's be clear, God is the one who's behind it. God gives life and God takes life. So let's pack up for a little bit and let's think about this for a second. Let's think about how sometimes we attribute more to certain people than we maybe ought to and to certain acts, to certain means. What I mean by that is this. If a person were to die of natural causes, is that loss of life any different than if the person were to die in a fall? If the person were to die in a tornado, in a fire, if the person was murdered? Maybe they were stabbed to death. Is the loss of life any different? Sometimes we focus on how it happens when we probably should not do so. We tend to ascribe different degrees to something because maybe it's an unpleasant way of going. The fact of the matter is, wherever you're going, when you get there be it to be in eternity with the Lord or if it's in hell, how you got there isn't the issue. What you did before you get there is more of the issue and the fact that you're there, especially if you're in heaven, then your only issue is your only concern is why didn't happen sooner. I can promise you there's no one in heaven who's with the Father who is complaining about how soon they got there or how they got there. Rather, they would have rather to be there a lot sooner. But let's put that to the side. One of the other things we think about and we ascribe different values as to how egregious something is, it depends on for us how old the person is and we relate the age of a person to the value of the soul. For example, would we say that the soul of a 12-year-old is any more valuable than let's say the soul of a 14-year-old? Or what about the soul of an 8-year-old? Is it more valuable than the soul of an 11-year-old? Or the soul of a 2-year-old? Or 2-month-old is the 1-month-old soul greater of value or greater importance than maybe the 3-year-old soul? Well, no. Well, what about the 1-month-old soul versus the 30-year-old soul? Well, sometimes we'll think that person has lived their life. The problem is, though, that's not quite how God sees it. God who is God who knows what is happening, what has happened, what will happen and even what could happen. This is God. He is sovereign soul. He alone is God, but still, it's a difficult question. God, why would you go and kill? Because remember, God has ordered throughout the Old Testament to go and to kill certain people, not just the men and even not just the women, but even the children. We can say that yes, there's no one that's innocent and so no one who dies dies innocently. But what about the babies? They never had any sort of opportunity to fix their life, to reject him, to choose or any of those things. Why would God do something like that to us? And we have to agree that it's to us, from our viewpoint, people who are not God. And that's the key. To us, mere humans, it seems like an egregious thing to do. It seems, though, God, you could at least spare the children. In 1 Samuel 15, we see an example of this. In verse three, he tells Saul to go and to kill or strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has and do not despair, do not spare him, but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep. And so everyone is to be put to death. Now notice what he says early. He says verse two, thus as the Lord of hosts, I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. And so this dates back. The thing we need to realize is that when we see some of these stories where God has told them to kill the people, utterly destroy them, these are not just out of the blue. They've had warnings. They know who God is. They've had an opportunity to see God. And if they wanted to, they could have repented and they could have come to God. No more of a greater example is this than we see with a person like Rahab. Rahab was obviously, Rahab was a harlot. She was on the wrong side of a team, if you will, but she recognized the people of God and who God is. And so her life was spared. Not even was it just spared, but she is in the lineage of Jesus. And so we see this ascribed in the Gospels. We see it spoken of her by one of the writers as well as in Hebrews. So we see what she's done. And she's not the only one who, if they just come to accept who God is and follow him, trusting him, then they too would be redeemed. Think about a person named Caleb. Caleb was one of the two spies along with Joshua, who spies out the land and brings back a favorable port. But many folks don't realize that Caleb was not Jewish. He lives with them and he has his place with them. But Caleb was not by birth a Jew. However, because of his faith in God, his devotion, God honored that. And so what God was always trying to do, whether it be through the Canaanites, the Malachites, whomever, even to the Jews and even to us Gentiles today, he's always after us to follow him. Now the Bible is clear. God is clear. Those at sin, they shall die. Now who's worthy of death and who's righteous? The reason why that's a question, because even Abraham asks this question of God when he intends to destroy the city and he says with God in chapter 18 of Genesis, he says, Suppose, verse 24, there are 50 righteous within the city. Will you indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. That's very important. Far be it from you, shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly. And so the Lord said, If I find inside them 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their account. Well, God is not going to slay the righteous with the wicked. The problem is, and I don't know if Abraham is catching this at the time. Maybe a lot of us don't do the same thing as well. There are none righteous, whether they be one month old, whether they be 100 years old. There are none, period. And they all belong to God. Everything on the earth is his and those that dwell in it. And so whatever he chooses to do, yes, it might seem arbitrary to us because he has not counseled with us. He's not asked us what do we think about this happening or that happening. And so we might think that it's something wrong or something unjust, but God is not just. God is not going to slay the righteous with the wicked. As a matter of fact, God is not going to slay the righteous at all. One of the problems that we have an issue with is understanding that we are not God. We are willing to accept the good that comes from God, but rarely do we want to accept the bad. But as Job says, he says, shall we indeed accept good from God and not the bad or adversity, or some will say evil, same word. And we should. God knows what's best. God has a plan. God knows what he's doing. And we have to trust that. I have seen people who would get upset and angry with God because something happened in their life. Their child was taken. Their home was taken. A spouse was taken. A sibling was taken. A parent was taken. And their anger is expressed towards God. However, they didn't express that exact same anger when it happened to someone else. In other words, some other person's child died somewhere across the globe. There was a tornado. There was a tsunami. And children died. And they didn't think much about it. They thought it was probably sad, but they didn't curse God. They didn't want to turn their back on God. But then when something happens to them, the very same act that would happen to someone else but now happens to them, now it becomes a problem and their anger towards God is manifested. But still, shall we accept good and not bad? Just as those you would pray for when you had no connection with Him, the same thing holds true. He is still God. And the problem is we look at some people who are evil and wicked, and we think that, well, they had it coming. And truth be told, when God has ordered the death of men, women, and children, then sure, God knows exactly what they are going to do, what they're going to become. As a matter of fact, when God has talked about the Canaanites, he's saying that the longer that they're there, the more wicked they become. And God has certainly given them an opportunity. God has offered them the chance and what do they do? They became more entrenched in their evil and their wicked. As a matter of fact, the more that they became associated with the Jews, the Jews would begin to play the role of the harlot and also adopt their guys as their God. And so it could be stated that the reason why God would have them utterly destroyed is because God might know, and I'm sure he does, what they would become, what their heart would be, no matter what would happen. Now, could God have spared the babies and let the babies grow up with the Jews? He could have, but then again, the Jews were just as wicked. As a matter of fact, he turns around and used these very same people later to also bring about judgment and even oppression to the Jews. Why? Because when these things happen, it tends to cause people to fall on their knees and to call out to God. Now, as it relates to babies, still, that's going to be a hard pill to swallow for people to see that or to think that God is doing something just by taking the life of a baby. But again, he knows what this baby would be. He knows what his plan is, what his purpose is, even though he didn't consult us. And some would even say, and there may be some truth to this, that him taking the babies is simply his way of showing mercy to them, sparing them by taking them as babies, then do they now get a chance to go and be with the Father forever? If you hold to the belief that all babies, infants and so forth, that they go to heaven, they go to be with the Father at death, well then, what God would have done then would be to act of mercy versus what's happening to the adults who would then go to hell. Is that what is happening? I would not presume to speak for God what the plan is, what his purpose is, if those came to night babies or really eating all babies, if they share the same faith. I wouldn't speak to that, but I would speak to the fact that God is God above all else. He's God, He's sovereign, and we are not. But what we can say, what we do know is that God will use these things as a warning, as an opportunity for people to get right. And even when you think that what's happening to those people, they kind of had it come and God actually covers that as well. In Luke 13, there's a conversation about what would have happened or what did happen to some other people and notice what Jesus says. He says, do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this faith? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. So there's no one who is better off than the next and he gives another example in verse four. He says, do you suppose that those 18 on whom the tower in Salon fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? He says, I tell you the truth, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And he gives the example, he says, these same signs that are shown now today would have been done inside of them. They would have repented, but you guys didn't. So don't think that you're any better off and don't think because certain things have not happened to you, that you are better off or they're worse off. All of us need to repent and all of these things are happening to glorify God. Even when we think about the person who was born, maybe in a worse condition than us. Maybe they're paralyzed or they have some sort of physical defect or deformity. Someone who's blind, for example, but even Jesus will say that these things, when he comes to heal them, that they're done to bring about God's glory and glorify him. But even if there's no healing done, all of these things are going to work to glorify him. Why does God take innocent life? That we can consider innocent life? Well, because he is sovereign. We don't know what or why. We know the ultimate goal is to glorify himself. But what's happening in the meantime, we don't know. This is where we have to simply just trust who he is. If we have accepted that he is God, then we have to accept also that he knows what he's doing. He has a plan for what he's doing and he's still just as righteous whether he does that particular deed or not. All of the things on this planet belong to him and he will use everything to accomplish his glory, even in things that we think are tragic, such as the lives of people who we think might be innocent or at least are deserving of an opportunity. We don't know what God's open plan is and if we were to find that every last baby that was ever taken is now with him, then no one, especially even the babies, would have a problem with how they died or when they died.