Big Healing Book - The Lord Kills, Brings Down to the Grave, and Makes Poor

Objection: The Lord Kills, Brings Down to the Grave, and Makes Poor (1 Samuel 2:6-7)

1 Samuel 2:6-7:
The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.
The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.

This is a companion to the “God creates evil” objection, only using a different verse and coming from a slightly different angle. Of course, these verses also state that God makes alive, brings up, makes rich and lifts up, but the objector is of the opinion that God in His sovereignty does these things to people on a mysterious basis that we won’t figure out. Thus, we supposedly cannot claim long life or prosperity because it’s all up to God’s will for each individual. (The objector then goes on to make another easily debunked claim that James 4:13-16 proves that God might not want you to live a long time. I have handled that separately, as others have made that argument without the argument covered in this section.)

The objection is offered as a “refutation” of the “healing gospel” and the “prosperity gospel,” but it is neither. Besides, there is only one gospel anyway, and it does happen to include healing and prosperity along with other benefits, forgiveness of sins being the foremost one.

First, the objector misses the point of human involvement that results in different consequences. Do you suppose that “God’s will” (based on the objector’s viewpoint) is more likely to be prosperity for a hard-working, diligent, honest person than for a slacker who plays massive multiplayer video games on his parents’ couch all day and feels that he is entitled to other people’s money because he breathes the air? Does the fact that the first person prospers more prove that God singled him out for prosperity in contrast to the second person? No, it’s God’s will for BOTH of them to prosper (3 John 2), but one is giving God something to work with and one isn’t.

Throughout Scripture, there are those whom God prospers and others whom He brings low. The humble prosper while the proud set up their own destruction. We see consistently that His obedient people are the ones whom He lifts up and prospers, while people who set themselves against His people are destroyed. This carries over even into New Testament prophecy, where doom still awaits those who would attempt to wipe out Israel.

It is still a very bad thing to stand against Israel, so it is important that officials in other countries support rather than condemn Israel. That doesn’t mean that we have to support every individual thing Israel does. I certainly don’t support its misguided “gay rights” efforts that are certainly a departure from the Law of Moses that Israel used to adhere to – and I don’t mind saying so. That doesn’t make me anti-Israel. I support Israel in the general sense that I would want to be in a country that defends Israel rather than in one that tries to attack it.

So if you attempt to destroy Israel (which is not the same thing as being critical of certain Israeli actions), even to this day, God may take you out. He won’t take you out for that reason if you stand with Israel.

So which side you are on (exalted vs. taken down) depends on where you stand and what you do, not to God’s supposedly sovereign individual decisions.

Second, if God’s will for one person is premature death, demotion and poverty while His will for another is long life, promotion and prosperity, would that not make God a “respecter of persons” (King James talk for “player of favorites”)? It would seem so to me! The objector fails to address WHY one person would be honored and another brought down. God is certainly not arbitrary or fickle. He Himself declares that He will not favor one person arbitrarily over another, which would make Him a “respecter of persons,” contrary to Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11, Ephesians 6:9, Colossians 3:25 and 1 Peter 1:17. (See God Does Not Play Favorites for more thoughts along this line.)

Third, you can see repeatedly that God promised Israel that when they were on His “good side,” He would prosper them and bless them in all kinds of ways (the first 14 verses of Deuteronomy 28 are a good example), but if they were on His “bad side,” He would curse them and cut their lives short (the rest of Deuteronomy 28 after the blessings in the first 14 verses are a good example). So the Scripture at the start of this section simply affirms the same kind of thing. Lest you get worried, the way today to get on God’s “good side” is to get saved! In fact, even if you are evil today, He still loves you and wants you to come to repentance and enjoy His blessings after getting saved.

Fourth, the context of the passage makes it VERY clear that God’s people are the recipients of the GOOD things in these verses while their enemies are the recipients of the BAD things in this passage. Consider the entire passage (the part that the objector uses is in boldface):

1 Samuel 2:4-10:
The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength.
They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.
The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and he hath set the world upon them.
He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

In context, there is no question what point God makes in this passage, and it is certainly NOT the point the objector is trying to make by tearing two verses out of the larger context. In fact, the context ruins the objection by demonstrating the opposite! As one of God’s people (if you’re a Christian), you should expect prosperity, exaltation from the dust and dunghill, preservation, strength, and defense from your enemies!