The God of the Old Testament: Why So Grumpy?

I would like to address a question that I have seen in several places, from many people. This question is basically, "Why did the God of the Old Testament order the slaughter of many nations? Isn't He a loving, compassionate God?" Here's why He did these things:

Even from the beginning, contact with the evil people of the world caused the downfall of the righteous. After killing Abel in Genesis 4, Cain was exiled and "had relations with his wife, and she bore Enoch" (Genesis 4:17). Adam and Eve had another son, called Seth, and Seth in turn had children like Cain had. The line of Seth was righteous, and the line of Cain was wicked. Genesis 6:4 tells us of the mingling of these two lines: "...the sons of God had intercourse with the daughters of man, who bore them sons."

Up until this point, there had been two distinct lines. The line of Seth were those that "began to invoke the LORD by name" (Genesis 4:26). Cain's descendants, in their arrogance and pride, built large cities and named these cities after themselves, practicing all types of evil, like Lamech, who "took two wives" (Genesis 4:19).

When the two lines came together and Seth's line took wives from Cain's line, evil spread throughout the world. In Genesis 6:5-8, We read about God's decision to wipe out the world. There was still one man, however, who had "stuck with" God... and we all know that this was Noah.

After Noah and his sons, along with their wives, had survived the flood, they all disembarked from the ark, but everything was not to be perfect. Ham, the son of Noah, sinned greatly and was exiled, leaving two other sons, the most righteous of whom was Shem.

From Ham (who had a son named "Canaan," as it turns out) came forth those that constructed the tower of Babel, trying to make a "shem" (Hebrew for "name") for themselves. God confounded their efforts to defy him (they were trying to build the tower so high that, if God tried to flood them again, He would have to drown himself to kill them).

From Shem's line came Abram, later known as Abraham, and so forth until Moses. Still, even then, the evil of Ham's line had continued to spread, and many nations had sprung forth from his loins. The Israelites, after escaping Egypt, wandered through the desert, and God tried to build their faith.

However, the people had hard hearts, and Numbers 25:1-5 tells the story of how the Israelites, while living among the evil people, fell into sexual sin and idolatry, worshiping gods other than the Almighty, One True God.

Basically, the reason for God's commands to kill the people of the other nations is that He was more concerned with the spiritual well-being of Israel (the only nation in the world that recognizes Him as God) than the physical well-being of the rest of the world, who were completely submerged in sin and falsehood.

God is unchanging, and He is all perfection. A study of Theology reveals that God's Justice=God's Mercy=God's Compassion=God's Wrath= God's Love= God's Knowledge. All that God is, He is perfectly and all He does, He does with a VERY good reason. Instead of dismissing these issues, please, let us address them and share them with all of our brothers and sisters.

Yours in Christ,
Daniel