Pinchas zealously responds to this outrage by spearing the two to death, halting a plague and saving the nation. By Rabbi S. Weiss Hashem is the ultimate accountant. The slightest credit and debit is faithfully recorded, so that the ledger may be perfectly balanced when the proper time comes. We might ask why it is that Iyov received a seemingly worse punishment than Bilam. After all, the evil Bilam died a quick, relatively painless death, while Iyov had to endure a full year of all types of horrendous tortures.
Life is the greatest gift of all, and each moment of life is of inestimable value.
But we believe it is the Torah which sets the moral standards, and the Torah tells us that G-d alone gives life, and only He may rightly decide when life shall be taken away. Rav Moshe Tendler tells of a critically-ill aunt whom he went to visit on a Shabbat. Entering her hospital room, Rav Tendler saw she was in a coma, her chart noting that she was not being given any treatment. He called in the doctor, and insisted she immediately be given medication. An hour later, the woman opened her eyes and asked her nephew what day it was.