@ghost-of-a-duke said
Oh, it's an ongoing disagreement between Kelly and myself. I view the God, as presented in the OT, as a tribal God who is jealous, petty and vindictive. I do not see the same God reflected in the NT, hence find the idea of Him being 'unchanging' implausible.
If God is indeed 'unchanging' then the Old and New testaments refer to different Gods. - Happy to provide examples.
Yes I can see where many think that about him. He was for sure a "more in your face" God. And he did seem to take more offensive action against some of the other nations around just as was discussed a little earlier. And yes it sounds horrible to think of all the innocent people and children that no doubt perished from those actions.
But just a couple points that have to be taken into account. If one were to go look at those events, always, always God gave some kind of warning in advance. And it was always a warning that any or all of a particular group or nation could have reacted to and repent or what ever God wanted of them.
It was that same case with Noah and the flood. The whole time that the ark was being built, Noah was also going to all the population he could and he warned them to change.
Same thing with Sodom and Gomorrah.
But in both of those cases, also with the flood, the badness and sinfulness had completely taken over all life there. Jehovah agreed to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if even just a couple people could be found that were good. None were.
Just a couple things to think about.
So in order for Jehovah to save what good there was on the earth, he had to take drastic steps at times.
Also Jehovah promised Abraham that the promised messiah (Jesus )would come thru his lineage. And that was a promise that he had to keep. So whenever another dangerous nation was going to attack or have some kind of dangerous affect on that happening, Jehovah had to step in to protect his people.
And.... all that did die from Jehovah protecting his people will probably have a chance at life again once the resurrection happens in the future that the Bible promises many times.
Remember there is always more then one way to look at history. A human viewpoint or a Godly viewpoint and what the big picture was at that time.