Genocide in the Bible

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Thoughtfulone said:
Yeah…no.
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You are kind of missing the point. You have to understand that, in the beginning, all was as God said it was: good. But after the Fall, sin entered the world. Out of love, God tried to establish covenants with mankind to bring them back into divine life with Him. Each and every time, mankind broke the covenants in grievous sin. Original Sin had taken its toll, and it was clear that mankind simply could not fulfill his covenant obligations.

And so God, understanding this, made concessions to the Hebrews, allowing them to do things that, otherwise, God would not allow. After all, the Hebrews were culturally no different than any other nomadic tribe at the time - they were violent savages that pillaged and raped. You cannot turn barbarians into angels overnight, and so God worked with the weaknesses of the Hebrews and allowed for an arc of moral (and theological) development in salvation history which culminates in God fully and truly revealed in the Christ (and the Church).

God is like a tutor working with a bad student, provisionally accepting his bad work but helping him along the way. This is why Christ can say “You have heard it said _____, but I say to you _____.” When the student is ready, what was provisionally accepted is no longer tolerated and new knowledge is introduced.
 
And what of Divine commands? It’s obvious that God doesn’t take no for an answer, an example being Jonah. So if a person nowadays was instructed by God to kill someone is it right for them to be punished for not following instructions?
 
Windfish said:
You are kind of missing the point. You have to understand that, in the beginning, all was as God said it was: good. But after the Fall, sin entered the world. Out of love, God tried to establish covenants with mankind to bring them back into divine life with Him. Each and every time, mankind broke the covenants in grievous sin. Original Sin had taken its toll, and it was clear that mankind simply could not fulfill his covenant obligations.

And so God, understanding this, made concessions to the Hebrews, allowing them to do things that, otherwise, God would not allow. After all, the Hebrews were culturally no different than any other nomadic tribe at the time - they were violent savages that pillaged and raped. You cannot turn barbarians into angels overnight, and so God worked with the weaknesses of the Hebrews and allowed for an arc of moral (and theological) development in salvation history which culminates in God fully and truly revealed in the Christ (and the Church).

God is like a tutor working with a bad student, provisionally accepting his bad work but helping him along the way. This is why Christ can say “You have heard it said _____, but I say to you _____.” When the student is ready, what was provisionally accepted is no longer tolerated and new knowledge is introduced.
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I understand that, which is why God allowed divorce, but there is a difference between that and murdering babies, don’t you think?
 
buffalo said:
\

If a cancerous tumor invades the body does the surgeon only remove part of it?
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Oh yes, you remove everything including those that already spread outside the tumor to prevent it from reoccurring.
 
How about this quote:

Jeremiah 50:21-22

21 “Go up, my warriors, against the land of Merathaim
and against the people of Pekod.
Pursue, kill, and completely destroy[a] them,
as I have commanded you,” says the Lord.
22 “Let the battle cry be heard in the land,
a shout of great destruction.

So, I want hear the context of this passage how to justify it.
 
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