I was listening to a Christian radio station trying to raise money for St. Jude Hospital (a worthy cause) and a dear mother, who evidently lost her child prematurely to a disease like cancer or something terminal, said, “I guess God needed my baby more than me.” While this statement may provide some modicum of comfort, it is completely theologically upside down.
God doesn’t need anything. Acts 17:25 makes it perfectly clear that God is the giver of all things and doesn’t need anything.
The very idea of a need implies a deficit or a lack of something. But this is impossible with God—for God is complete in all ways. He is never less or more of anything or anyone. He is the “I am that I am.” He is immutable—He cannot and does not change.
In Malachi 3:6 God states, “I am the Lord; I change not.”
He doesn’t need love; he doesn’t need fellowship; he doesn’t need another soul in heaven. Even when the premature death of a child is the will of God the taking of this life is not based on need.
He ordains all things for His divine will and pleasure. God declares the end from the beginning, but all this is never predicated upon a need.
In Isaiah 46:10, the prophet understands that God “declares the end from the beginning; and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:”
God doesn’t need anything. He is not lacking in anything and this is so important for several reason but one would be this. Consider how small of a god God would be if he needed an infant to die early to be more complete.
