The bible teaches us a lot of things that we do not readily agree upon a cursory examination. Infanticide may be one prime example.

People say infanticide is wrong and accuse God for committing infanticide in biblical time. But we see a lot of hypocrisy here. US and China and many other countries have legally aborted multiple millions of unborn or newborn babies every year. I find people who support abortion rights or do abortions themselves and at the same time accuse God of infanticide to be hypocritical.

It is a fact that infanticide has become an acceptable and even legalized practice for humanity. People seem to have little or no problem with this practice.

Granted that humanity cannot really justify themselves in legalized infanticide, we need to ask: does God have the authority for infanticide? Why should he?

Let's extend the question further: does God have authority to kill any person, old or young? Why should he?

If God is the creator of all things, we are not in a good position to argue with him on the authority or sovereignty aspect. Since no one else is the creator of all things, no one else has that kind of authority or sovereignty to compare and contrast. Case is settled for the first part of the question.

But why would God kill people, even infants? That is a more interesting question.

Is God displeased with those the he chooses to kill? Very possible. God seems to be fed up with some people at times and decides to take them out of this world. So what does killing mean to God?

Killing to God may not have the same meaning of content as to human mind. For example, when a man kills a fellow person, that killed person stops living as a lively person and rusts to dust eventually. But when God kills a person, that person sheds his/her body (cloth for his/her spirit and soul) and enters into a new reality: another world! Killing to God is the passage of man from one world to another.

Killing to God means transportation of human spirit and soul from this world to another. Do we have a problem with God's killing? You may still argue with God about killing, but God is going to kill everyone of us. Is that not plainly true? We all shall be killed by one of many cruel ways and our bodies will rust to dust. Our spirit and soul will be transported to another world. (Only Enoch and Elijah in old testament time had the good fortune of not being killed before going to meet God. When Jesus returns, believers who are still living on earth will be granted this same privilege of directly being resurrected without death.)

OK, killing is almost universal. But some of us still have a problem with the cruelty aspect of infanticide or general killing. I will be the first to admit that being killed by any means is no fun. We see that many cancer patients struggle for months with excruciating pain before death. That is no fun. We see that a death row inmate of Missouri (for kidnapping and murdering of a 17-year old girl some 18 years ago) recently asked the US Supreme Court to stay his excution by legal injection on the ground that the lethal injection is cruel and inhumane. No matter by what method, some of us will complain about the cruelty of killing.

Some of the killing take longer than others. I will admit that quicker killing is better than a slow death. So is infanticide cruel? It is cruel to me and some others! But is any killing cruel? Yes to some people. Can we separate the cruel aspect from killing? Very difficult! Perhaps the pain associated with killing must be there by God's design. Imagine a nerveless or numb creature without the feeling of pain!

If killing is always cruel and not fun, then we really have to shut up and put up with the cruelty of killing. We cannot really want the protective and healthy feeling of pain while rejecting the pain of killing.

But Christian faith offers something hopeful. We actually look forward to the day of being killed since that will be our departure date from this lowly earth and our reunion date with our Maker.

We will bear with the temporary pain associated with the killing, for there is really no other way around it. Even a heart attack patient will have to endure a short duration of sudden pain. No one is immune from pain unless his or her nerve system is not working properly.

Jesus experienced the pain of killing on the Cross. Hmm, even the Son of God could not be spared of the excruciating pain and cruelty of killing on a cross.