It was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy. (Joshua 11:20)
In John 14:8 we read the words of Jesus: Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. In times past, some people believed the God of the New Testament (Jesus) must be different from and superior to the god of the Old Testament. Jesus was trying to teach us that what we saw in him was what we got in God - they were one and the same (or three-in-one and the same).
I think most biblical scholars and theologians today would prefer to believe that the Old Testament understanding of God was probably immature, needing development. The biblical concept of herem is that God commanded Joshua to totally destroy the inhabitants of Canaan. Some thinkers are questioning if God would do that.
If you want to read more about this, try Greg Boyd's blog Christus Victor. Two specific articles that address the concept of Old Testament violence are Shedding Light On the Dark Side of God and The Command to Utterly Destroy. Or go to his blog and type herem in the search window. He dedicated a lot of print space to the subject in 2008.
Does it ever bother you that the God who commanded: You shall not murder, ordered Joshua to utterly destroy the Canaanites? What do you do with that?
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