Godly Atrocities?

#7 - YOUR FACE TURNS PURPLE when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees! I feel a flush of lavender  rising  in my cheeks as I read this statement…LOL!!  OK, this did happen, we can all agree on that, the question is, WHY?  Keep in mind, these events occurred during the old covenant, and a time when nations lived and died by the edge of the sword.  It was a violent and harsh time in which to live.  That said, let’s take the case of the Egyptian babies.  As loathsome and heinous a crime as this may sound, Pharaoh was given a choice.  He had been asked to free the people of Israel, more than once, and each time his heart was hardened  to God’s request through Moses. The same thing for those in Jericho, the warning was given, and was met with refusal.  Even the Israelites, themselves, did not go unscathed, and many perished when God found them guilty of disobedience.  Some Bible scholars explain this carnage by reminding us of the fact that the slaughtered children, would have gone directly to heaven, sparing them from inheriting their parent’s sins.  Even the adults would later have the opportunity, during the new covenant, to accept Christ. If you recall, He descended to preach the gospel to the “captives”, and they were given a second chance. While I can’t fully explain God’s actions, I trust that despite how they seem to me, or the world, he has mankind’s best interest at heart.  Think of a father who tells the child he is about to spank, “This is going to hurt me more than it does you.”  While the “spankee” may not buy into that thinking, the father’s goal is to instill discipline in his beloved child.  A good father will feel remorse at the pain he inflicts, but it must be done.  We often forget how God must have felt, when he allowed his own, sinless son, to die as the ultimate sacrifice for a sinful world. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32. It has always been God’s purpose to draw people to him, but it has been our choice to be drawn. “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!” Ezekiel 33:11