What is troublesome in the story, as you pointed out, is the seemingly arbitrary nature of God’s action in choosing whom to die, when to die, and how to die. We found someone who has such power of arbitrariness evil because in our experience, people cannot and do not have that kind of rights over another person, and so necessarily, anyone who has attempted to do so turned out evil. That is why totalitarianism is evil, slavery is evil, fascism is evil, etc.
But what if the person in question actually owns all life? God is the author of life. In fact, He is the essence of all life.Our life is not just His, but He Himself in essence. We owe our very life to Him.
Then whether it is evil is no longer whether it is arbitrary, because God has, and God alone has, more so than ourselves, the right to be arbitrary with our lives. In fact, in front of God, for me to say I can do whatever with my life would be wrong, would be evil, and unjust. It would be equivalent to when I have borrowed your luxury race car and say it to your face I can wreck it as I please.
No, God has more claim to my life than I have.
What it comes down to then is not whether God is arbitrary with our lives, because He is fully and justly entitled to be so. What it comes down to rather is whether we trust that God is good.
When someone who has the power to be arbitrary with our lives is evil, it is absolutely evil. When someone who can be arbitrary with our lives is good, it can be very good.
And God is Goodness Himself.
God can make life out of nothing. God can take life and yet have it live in bliss with Him. While lives of those around us are taken from us, from the eternal perspective, it is no loss to God since these lives are still with God, and no real loss for us for we shall meet again in eternity when we too exit from this life.
If we believe God is good, all that truly matters are looked after perfectly. We need not worry. The good God is in control.
But if I do not trust God to be good? Then no arguments, no proofs would help, because our only conclusion is that God is a tyrant who does not care.
Our human mind wants to know everything. And that is a gift. We should want to know God’s motives. But we also must realize we cannot know all God’s motives and reasons, for His reasons is a tapestry that connects with every life and every moment, stretching out to the beginning and the end of time. When someone’s life is permitted by God to end suddenly, we sure want to ask God why? But the deeper question remains: do you trust me looking after this my own beloved child?