The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/numbers/35.htm

This chapter begins by establishing the cities for the Levites to inhabit. As stated before, the Levites were given the job of ministry and caring for the Tabernacle, and they did not receive an inheritance in the land, but God gave them cities within each tribe in which to live.

And now we talk about cities of refuge. I think I understand, but I’m not solid on it; I’m still praying for understanding.

God established cities of refuge for those who accidentally kill someone. And for the sake of argument, those cities are comparable to a prison. Obviously there are those that want justice and might retaliate against the killer, so the killer is given somewhere to flee until such time until a trial of the people can be held. And the chapter details what constitutes an accidental killing.

The rules were different for those that intentionally kill someone, also described in detail, and those rules were retty simple. If someone murders another in anger, they are to be put to death. But, as a just God, NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNB<H?>Jthere has to be the testimony of not one, but two witnesses.

Why was the punishment for Cain different than others? Only God knows. And referring back to the Book of Genesis where God called to Cain, “Where is your brother?”, God knew the answer to that question before He asked. So why didn’t God kill Cain?

I can only guess. Right now, I’m thinking that Cain was angry with his brother, jealous of his brother, and while Cain certainly had evil in his heart, he was probably less likely to kill again. He struck his brother in a moment of instant anger.

Others though, as described in this chapter, might be truly evil, and kill for no reason whatsoever, kind of like the senseless murders of today that no one knows why. Plus, I hate to use the term “serial” killer in the perspective of those days, but it was very likely that there were evil people like that who killed indiscriminately, and they could not be allowed to remain in society. But again, God required the testimony of two or more witnesses so no one was punished unjustly. And punishment was by stoning to death.

And while being stoned to death does not sound like fun, at least it wasn’t one man killing another for justice, a group of people from the tribe effected judgement against the guilty.

Why didn’t God just expose himself to the guilty and let His Glory kill them as He had others. I don’t know. But again, Satan is trying to convince people that God is angry with them, God is a tyrant, God indiscriminately kills everyone for the smallest of sins, and that simply is not true. If that were the case, a shoplifter would be instantly killed for their crime. An adulterer would be instantly killed for their crime. All of those who inhabited the land of Canaan would have already died by the wrath of God.

But God isn’t a tyrant, and while He is angry with sin, He still loves the sinner.

To me, it is quite clear. Why would those that take the Old Testament at its face value and who believe God is a punisher, why would they want to live with Him in His kingdom? If my God is an angry, sadistic tyrant, I don’t want to live with Him eternally. Who would?

Never forget. Satan was able to convince a third of the angels that God was bad. Those are called “fallen angels”. Do we want to be part of the 2/3 that ignores the temptation of Satan and who knows God is loving and merciful? Or do we want to be a part of the third who believes Satan, who thinks God is evil?

I’m the first to admit, I don’t understand everything in the Bible, but I have faith that God is loving and merciful despite how the Bible is written or translated.

I do not mean to be cynical. Theology experts tell us that every word is inspired, but those experts are human. They can misinterpret. They may have fallen prey to Satan and are interpreting the Bible the way Satan wants it interpreted. Satan is the master of cunning, and lies, and deceit. You can be under his control and not know it. And I don’t mean theologians or church pastors are intentionally misleading us. But when they preach, they usually preach what they were told to preach in school, or they preach how they interpret the Bible.

And we can not dismissed those who are knowingly deceitful. As I’ve said before, back in the 1800’s, a church pastor was confronted about hell, or rather the absence of hell. And he admitted, “if he didn’t preach hell-fire, he couldn’t fill the pews”. So, are some preaching the truth, or are they manipulating us to “fill the pews”, to have record church attendance, or have more parishioners to fill the offering plate?

To me, the best thing is to always, always, remember. “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.” God is no different than Jesus, and we know what Jesus was like. In fact, and this is an important life lesson we should live by, JESUS KNEW THE PHARISEES WERE OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THUMPING GOD IS A JUST GOD AND YOU BETTER DO EVERYTHING THE OLD TESTAMENT SAYS, and Jesus was against those teachings. So if Jesus taught against the image of an angry tyrant, why shouldn’t we be against that line of thinking?

Yes, God is just. But he is a loving, merciful God as well.