God desires all of our love and all of our devotion but if we choose not to give it to Him than we should not expect Him to protect us from all of our bad decisions. You cannot keep God pleased with you and pursue the “pleasures of sin” at the same time. It was their choice to follow Him or not, and they chose not to; therefore they abandoned their connection to His wisdom and protection. Naturally, sad circumstances and consequences followed their bad decisions, but God is not to blame for them exercising their own free will.

askegg:
"Deuteronomy 9:20 says the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him"

Your god is a spoilt little child. When things don't work out the way he wants he breaks his toys and has a hissy fit. A deity who would destroy people for displeasing him is neither tolerant, loving, compassionate, nor worthy of worship.

Ray_Light:
When it is seen that Aaron was spared, God is unjust for being so forgiving. When it is shown that Aaron came very close to death, God is too harsh for being ready to destroy him. The point of these arguments does not seem to be about just or unjust, loving or unloving, but about choosing a contrary position to God on every account, no matter the case.

James Tracy:
The point of those arguments seems to be to show how God's behavior is presented as being at the very least inconsistent. It is not being forgiving of Aaron that is unjust, rather, it is the way that Aaron is treated specially compared to the many thousands of others that participated in the same activity.

Ray_Light:
There is no inconsistency when you take the whole story into context. Some are forgiven and some are not; the catch is that you have to ask for it. You seem to think that all were punished and only Aaron was spared. All who were repentant were forgiven. This “special treatment” is available to all who ask for it. To say that it is unfair to forgive those who show such penitence and humiliation because it is “special treatment” is to say either 1) all should be forgiven unconditionally, or 2) no one should ever be forgiven; this way no one gets "special treatment."

Your comment from earlier shows that you thought Onan was killed because he did not give his dead brother’s wife children (“Levirate marriage”). This showed you did not know/understand the situation. There is nothing wrong with that, most everyone would not know at first glance; I didn’t.
You asked “How many others have been struck down for failing to comply,” so I was attempting to show you that death was not the penalty for “failing to comply.” Onan could have done his duty or declined it, either way he would have been fine; but as you said, “instead he did something worse.”

“Once the meaning of the expression is known” does not mean meaning has to be “assigned,” but “known” and “understood.” How can anything be understood, even today, if words and expressions are not understood? Imagine how difficult it would be to understand a sentence with the phrase “behind the eightball” or “pigeonholed” if you do not understand the expression. Also, words and expressions often change over time, and the fact that they were originally in Hebrew can make it a bit tougher to grasp at first glance. Reading a book from only a few decades ago can lead to some real confusion if you do not understand that “gay” and “queer” were used much differently than they are today. Just because someone does not know what words and expressions mean does not mean the writing is flawed, but simply that a little study is necessary.