In the beginning everything was good and God’s goodness and life reigned on the earth. Then everything changed. Evil entered the world and as a result, people started to kill. But does God kill?
So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.
EXODUS 4:23
The first man and woman knew God. They were with the all powerful, all knowing source of all goodness and life as children with a parent and enjoyed the blessings such a relationship with Him afforded them. They chose however to exalt their own council over His by partaking of the knowledge of good and evil after He told them not to because they would die and in doing so, birthed a nature that was separate from Him, a nature that gloried in itself over Him. Offence had now entered the world and death through offence as the knowledge of good and evil would testify against that nature affirming God as good and that which was not God as evil. God was still with them and they could always choose Him and His council over themselves, but an alternate path had now been forged.
The first man and woman then had two sons and over the course of time one of the sons brought an offering to God of the fruit of the ground. The other son also brought an offering to God of the firstborn of his flock but unlike his brother’s offering, his was of the very best that he had. Reflective of the value he attributed to God, God respected him and his offering but not his brother’s so his brother rose up against him in anger and killed him. Fuelled by the nature that gloried in itself over God, people would now kill to exercise authority over each other to gain dominion, power and control.
So people multiplied on the earth, everyone having a nature that was separate from God that regarded itself over Him and the evil of people became great on the earth. Every intent of the thoughts of their heart was only evil and the earth was filled with violence. There was however one man and his family who chose God over themselves. The man would seek to turn people to God and His goodness but none did, so God brought a flood upon the earth to destroy the evil, killing all who had chosen it.
People multiplied on the earth once more and it would be through a nation that God would reveal Himself to the world. Oppressed in a land that wasn’t theirs, the nation whom God called His people were living under cruel bondage being afflicted by the ruler of the land who feared they would rise up against him. The ruler even commanded all their newborn sons to be killed so their numbers wouldn’t increase, but God would bring them out from there to Himself.
Through a series of supernatural events, God established His power and authority as God over the power and authority of the ruler and his gods in the sight of all whilst repeatedly commanding the release of His people, but the ruler refused. God then told the ruler that His people was His firstborn son and that if the ruler did not release His son to serve Him, God would kill the ruler’s firstborn son along with all the firstborn sons of his people. For the firstborn son was considered the beginning of a man’s strength, the one who upheld his father and his father’s name, power and authority. But the ruler refused. Knowing God’s power and seeing Him accomplish what He said He would accomplish time and time again, the ruler and his people chose rather to uphold themselves and the power and authority of their gods in defiance of God and His power and authority, so God executed judgment and struck all the firstborn of man and beast with the plague.
God then came Himself. As a man, the firstborn Son of God He would establish His authority on the earth once again, but in a way that had not been known before. Those who sought to exercise authority over Him to establish their own rule and reign wanted to destroy Him so they rose up against Him and killed Him. By His death, resurrection and ascension back to heaven however, God had established His authority for all eternity. For all who receive Him partake of His goodness and life and rule and reign over their nature that is separate from Him, His sacrifice fulfilling the judgment against it, confirmed by the knowledge of good and evil and in doing so, upholds Him and His name, power and authority forever.
God does kill, but not as people kill for people kill to exercise authority over each other for the purpose of self glorification. The all powerful, all knowing God, the source of all goodness and life however destroys evil and in times past, killed those who chose it. Having now established His authority on the earth as a human being for all of humanity, those who believe in Him and receive Him as God receive the blessing His goodness and life affords, but those who know He is God yet reject Him and seek to exert their own authority over Him will ultimately suffer at His hand. For He is God and His goodness and life reigns. By His very existence and nature, judgment is brought to bear as the knowledge of good and evil affirm Him as good and that which is not Him as evil and as evil cannot stand in the presence of His rule and reign because it must rule and reign itself but can’t, it perishes along with those who choose it.