this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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You're entering the territory of the problem of evil now.
The girl that got killed is now in heaven. She got lucky before her father did. It's a narrow view to think "God didn't stop this". God clearly commands against such actions, but her father clearly went against that anyway.
The first guy went to heaven, and so did Lot's wife. You're forgetting the context of what death is.
As for the young people that were mocking Elisha, they were literally telling him to "go up" and essentially die. He uses God's name in vain. The action isn't endorsed, and there's similar cases of moses doing it on a smaller scale.
The Bible shows where it's prophets and apostles flaw and err. And it's important to document these flaws. The overarching story here is that perfection came through Jesus- not the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, or priests. To just isolate random instances and get offended at them is very shallow. It doesn't even make sense as an argument against the text or God- you can't really say "god doesn't exist because I disagree with him". And if God exists and you disagree with the literal author of mortality, the universe and mankind, you're the one who's wrong. These stories have no bearing on God's existence. God gives us our life and can take it away whenever He pleases. The fact that He is patient enough to let us live is in itself showing His mercy - considering that we do little other than rebel against Him constantly.
It's not really a Problem of Evil situation. Its about God taking payment for services rendered when the payment is evil. The fact God was with him before doesn't matter because God already knew what the payment would be. It would be the equivalent of me telling someone I'm going to pay you to off someone and you overhearing. You decide to take the job before I actually ask you in person. When I ask you to do you you never say no, you perform the act and then I pay you. How is that not services performed for payment? You had the opportunity to not take the job. You had the opportunity to tell me you'd do it for free. Instead you did the job knowing fully well I'd pay you.
As for the heaven, you're skipping the important part. Jephthah told his daughter he was going to kill her. Not in the moment but months before it would happen. She woke up every day knowing soon she was going to be killed by her father. Every time they saw each other they thought about that future moment. She couldn't make plans because soon her father was going to kill her. She was a dead woman walking.
Then when the day came it wasn't some quick, painless put you to sleep kind of act. Burnt offerings were a specific ritual. You bleed out the offering. She probably laid there choking on her own blood with her father looking down at her. All for the sake of allowing her father to win a war. He could have sacrificed himself, could have disobeyed God. But instead she was laying there dying for her father to win.
My point of the other scenarios, they are all examples where God stepped in and changed the natural order of things. None of those people were dying. God turn a woman to salt, took control of bears to eat children, smite a guy. God has the ability to step in and change reality and yet here he didn't knowing full well before any of it happening what would transpire. To equate this to the image, God nudged the bullet knowing full well the firefighter was going to be killed. He could have nudged it in any other direction, could have given the shooter a heart attach, could have let it hit the Cheeto. But instead he performed the necessary action to make someone else be killed.
You said it's not the problem of evil, then proceed to basically say "if God is real, why do these bad things happen?" If God stopped these instances, the goalposts will be moved to as to why evil happens at all.
Saying that discussing heaven is "skipping the important part" then defining the "important part" as two months of suffering compared with an eternity of bliss doesn't compute either.
In all of these instances, it's humans disobeying God and you're blaming God when the consequences are faced. To quote Samuel, the writer of judges: