1S2-13: A Part Of God Most Christians Would Prefer To Ignore

“Adonai kills and makes alive;
he brings down to the grave,
and he brings up.”
1 Samuel 2:6

Verse 6 of Hannah’s prayer says something interesting that most Christians would prefer to ignore.

It says that “God kills and makes alive”.

This isn’t referring to God passively sitting on the sidelines and allowing killings to happen…

No, this verse is talking about very vigorous PROACTION on the Lord’s part.

He will ACTIVELY kill and take life when His justice requires it.

This shouldn’t come as any surprise to us.

Recall Noah’s ark.

At that time, God KILLED pretty much all of mankind save Noah and his family.

Or how about these verses?

“Y’hudah took a wife for ‘Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.  But ‘Er, Y’hudah’s firstborn, was evil from Adonai’s perspective, so Adonai killed him.  Y’hudah said to Onan, “Go and sleep with your brother’s wife — perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her, and preserve your brother’s line of descent.”  However, Onan knew that the child would not count as his; so whenever he had intercourse with his brother’s wife, he spilled the semen on the ground, so as not to give his brother offspring.  What he did was evil from Adonai’s perspective, so he killed him too.”-Genesis 38:3-10

So you can see there are times when God will personally take matters into his own hands and execute the death penalty on the wicked.

And by the way, the phrase “to kill and make alive” is a  good example of “merism”.

This is a literary device used to express the extreme boundaries of the potential outcomes any human being can experience.

Saying God “kills and makes alive” is a poetic way to say the Lord is sovereign over life and death and everything in between.

This also ties in well with the next statement that says God sends down to SHEOL and He brings up from SHEOL.

SHEOL is the Hebrew word for grave.

This speaks of the Lord’s sovereign control over not just life and death…

But also if He so wills He can even resurrect a dead person and bring him back to life.

We already have one historical example of this in the form of Yeshua.

Finally, a reminder here homies.

Hannah’s prayer is being directed to God’s Chosen people here.

ONLY Israel…

And those who are grafted into Israel.

The unbelieving world need not apply.

CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

“…because He has fixed a day in which
He will judge the world in righteousness
through a Man whom He has appointed,
having furnished proof to all men
by raising Him from the dead.”
-Acts 17:31