The Answerer

I do not believe that God does that these days because if He did, He would let us know that He did it. This whole business of cancer and tumours cannot be simply nailed down to any single cause. Research tells us that there are many known causes and many unknown causes. Cigarettes can cause cancer, alcohol can cause cancer and diesel exhaust particles cause cancer too. A local lawyer has written a book Poison Oils. He believes seed oils can cause health problems and cancer from our food. Obesity also can cause many diseases as can chemicals in sprays and weed killers, etc.

I do know that God will punish people who wilfully break any of his commands. ‘Bad people’ can mean many things. Especially bad are people who know better, but wilfully break God’s commandments. Little children are not old enough to know God’s rules (one of mine died of cancer at 4 years old).

You may have heard some adults say someone is a ‘Philistine’. That means difficult and hard to get along with. In Bible times the Philistines were good at fighting and loved a good fight (war). They were Israel’s enemies. In one fight they captured ‘The Ark of The Covenant’. Bad move by Israel to put it where it could be captured, and a bad move by the Philistines to handle Gods special object as if it was ordinary. God sent “...tumours and rats among them...” and many died. They realised their error and made ‘guilt offerings’ of gold to placate God. They returned the ‘Ark’ after their god Dagon fell on his face – twice. In the second fall Dagon’s head fell off.

All this unusual story is recorded in the Bible. And, ”…seventy Israelites were killed” because they broke God’s laws by looking inside the ‘Ark of The Covenant’. God will not tolerate wilful disobedience and will punish the offenders. That story is in First Samuel, chapter 3 right up to chapter 6.