Sensitive readers of the Old Testament may be disturbed by the long descriptions of the wars waged in the land of Canaan and the brutality displayed by the Israelites against their adversaries. "How could God ever command this?" the earnest thinker asks.
It is true that the Old Testament depicts God as "a man of war."Ex. 15:3; Also, certain individuals, as well as the children of Israel collectively, honestly felt that God had at times given them commands such as, "Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed."I Sam. 15:18;
Old Testament passages like this one often leave the present Christian reader somewhat bewildered. Perhaps he reads them with the Christian concept of God in mind—the concept epitomized in the Bible by "God is love."I John 4:8; He finds it difficult to reconcile these two opposing views of God—the one destructive, the other saving. But these are not two different gods, only two radically different concepts of the Almighty—the one crystal-clear ("God is love"), the other in need of further light.
