ELIJAH: THE DEATH PENALTY

How could a loving God be so brutal, initiating such violent and vicious bloodshed and death?

Moses, speaking for God, instructed the conquering Israelites to completely exterminate their enemies! “When the Lordyour God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and he drives out many nations before you—the Hethites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you—and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy” (Deuteronomy 7:1-2).

So, when Joshua led the children of Israel into battle against the city of Jericho, everything was “doomed by the Lord to destruction” (Joshua 6:17, NKJV). “Every man and woman, both young and old” (Joshua 6:21) was executed (except Rahab and her family).

After fire fell from Heaven on Mount Carmel, Elijah instructed the onlooking nation, “ ‘Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let even one of them escape.’ So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon and slaughtered them there” (1 Kings 18:40).

Elijah’s actions were compliant with God’s Law. Every false “prophet or dreamer must be put to death … You must purge the evil from you” (Deuteronomy 13:5).

And there’s the answer! “You must purge the evil from you!” God commanded the execution of their enemies to remove the temptation and “purge the evil.”

The same principle applies today… not bloodshed, but a radical removal of evil influence.  

Writing in the New Testament, Paul says, “Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self” (Colossians 3:5–10).

Like Elijah, we need to execute the enemy! We need to “put to death… sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed…”

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).