As you have pointed out in some of your written work that this act does not fit with the Western concept of God being the big sugar daddy in the sky. Now we can certainly find justification for those people coming under God judgement because of their sins, idolatry, sacrificing their children, etc But a harder question is the killing of the children and infants. If the children are young enough along with the infants are innocent of the sins that their society has committed.
How do we reconcile this command of God to kill the children with the concept of his holiness? This resembles a bit on how Muslims define morality and justify the violence of Muhammad and other morally questionable actions muslims define morality as doing the will of God.
Do you see any difference between your justification of OT violence and Islamic justification of Muhammand and violent verses of the Quran? Is the violence and morally questionable actions and verses of the Quran, a good arugument while talking to Muslims? According to the Pentateuch the first five books of the Old Testament , when God called forth his people out of slavery in Egypt and back to the land of their forefathers, he directed them to kill all the Canaanite clans who were living in the land Deut.
The destruction was to be complete: every man, woman, and child was to be killed. These stories offend our moral sensibilities. The Bible itself inculcates the values which these stories seem to violate. Contrary to the vituperative rhetoric of someone like Richard Dawkins, the God of the Hebrew Bible is a God of justice, long-suffering, and compassion. God demands just laws and just rulers. He literally pleads with people to repent of their unjust ways that He might not judge them.
The Pentateuch itself contains the Ten Commandments, one of the greatest of ancient moral codes, which has shaped Western society. When the Lord announces His intention to judge Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins, Abraham boldly asks,. Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked!
