sorry for a delay on the response. i wanted to think of how to maybe fully explain myself here so i'm not seeming like someone angry at Moses. cause i'm not angry at moses or upset. so here i'm going to say this and helpfully this will clarrify what exactly i'm meaning.
Ok...I will not take it that you are typing this in anger. 
there just seems to be a different way that our modern culture looks at the world around us today. the idea of equal rights. a lot of the actions that people say God is violent are things that are breaking people's civil liberties. when was there a government sanctioned stoning/death of an adulterer, homosexual, person committing beastality? where is our cultural rule of thumb that we should not eat shrimp? where different types of linen? laws against tattooing? (i'm not meaning to discuss each of these individually.)
Those laws were written for the Hebrew (the Jews), called the law as I am sure you know. And we are no longer under the law....not that we can't learn things from the OT..we can, but of course we no longer live this way since we are now under the grace of Jesus Christ. the whole point of the laws were to show that people could not 'work their way to Heaven...that they would have to be perfect and never break a law, since God is perfect. The Hebrews wanted laws, guidelines to live by...they couldn't just truth the God would save them, so He gave them what they wanted to show them there was no way they could be saved...no one was 'good enough' by going around it this way. The God would simply save them because He loved them. The Jews are a stubborn difficult group of people...not much different then, then they are now. But at rate understanding their culture then would help you with some of this confusion...
in war it's not a "Divine Command" to take the virgins after we lay waste of place in war.
If you checked out the link that I provided on my first post on here, this 'taking of virgins' was explained...it did NOT mean they were raped by the soilders or used in some sexual fashione...in fact it meant young girls...little kids that would taken into their homes and raised as one of their children...it explains it better then I am. I will double check on that though to be sure. The athesit will have you believe they were being raped and were women, not children....the bible never says they were raped! never...people have a really bad habit of adding things that simply aren't there.
and we can justify the breaking of the Mosaic Commandment, ie 10 commandments, of not killing because of war to fight for freedom, justice(please don't turn this into a war debate, that's not my intent. even though i'm rather liberal, i'm very sympathetic to Bush and OVERLY sympathetic to our troops serving in Iraq.)
Then I am sure you know their is a difference between murdering someone just because a person is jealous or angry or is robbing them...compared to killing in a war to defend their country? This is covered in the NT too.
so here we are with different views of equal rights. even Christians that don't agree with, let's say homosexuals for example, clearly show that they believe they have the right to do as they wish, right or wrong (only the overly zealots go overboard.) that is just an example btw, not something to detere the thread. but in the Old Testament, it was a law they be stoned, showing they had no right to do as they wish.
You are right that a Christian cannot condone any sin that is committing sins themselves...this would indeed fall under removing the plank of wood from your own eye before removing the speck from your brothers.
this is what i was meaning with our modern culture. our views of Equal Rights has become more important than the laws that were supposedly forever. Christ Himself, stopped one of those laws from going to its fullest extent when He said, those without sin cast the first stone.
Jesus also said He came to fulfill the law...meaning since their was no way any of us could follow all the laws perfectly in the OT, Jesus fulfilled them for us...so we don't have too! That is why we live now under the two commandments Jesus gave us...in following those two you natural follow the Ten....the hundred of laws in the OT do NOT need to be followed at all any longer. Not if you believe Jesus is your savior.
and i'm sure PITA would love to see a lamb being sacrificed to please God.
PETA loves animals more then they love people...they also mock Christians on their site so I really don't care what they think...
so my point with this is just basically, i see it as impossible to TRULY understand those actions that we see happen in the Old Testament that we say, "i don't know why that happened, but God is still holy."
I don't say that! Did you not read my first post on here? I was trying to do a little education on here...I am trying to tell people we CAN and should learn about why God did what He did ...if we would stop judging Him long enough that is... Most on here simply want to deny the OT and bury their heads in the ground...how sad! They are missing out on such a rich relationship with our Father in Heaven! Its like if you have a relative you dearly love...but once in awhile they do something that scares you because you don't understand..so you just ingore it and pretend like its not happening....rather then trying to get to know them a little better...makes no sense to me!
it's like a last ditch effort to me, to remain believeing God is holy, without really trying to seek some clarity but yet justify actions that if another person would do, they would say, they aren't holy.
See that is where you are getting yourself confused and frustrated. The athesit say...God killed all those people by flooding the world! (mean old bad God they say)...if a person did that they would be thrown into jail!! See the fatal thinking here? They are comparing a mere human being to God who knows the future...we don't. Lets say God decided to not flood the world and let those 'wicked' people live....He could also see head in time and would see long before Moses was even born, these people would have killed each other and every human being on earth would be dead...and that would be the end of us. No Moses, no Daniel, no...body...no reason for Jesus to come, there would be no one left to save..
But a mere human being cannot make these judgements...cannot see the future, cannot see the past that far actually either...cannot see into the hearts of men and did not ever created men! They did not create life so have no right to take life either.
You cannot compare what God does to a mere human being..its like trying to compare an ant to what people do! Its senseless...don't fall into that trap.
this brings me to another issue. can God go above His law that He gave to humanity? i don't know if i can say that He can. it isn't an issue of omnipotentancy, or God being transcedent, but i guess it's how one views that. do they look at God's law is only for human beings and that He is not restrained to the laws He gave us. or the laws of God are about His character. or sometimes i wonder if we, meaning the human race, put God in a rough spot, to where stupid/violent/actions that go against civil liberties, we deem as holy actions because of supposed holiness that we are standing up for.
Go back and read my first post on here.
this example may not be applicable here, but i'm reminding of something i watched today on The History Channel. it was about the FBI vs. the KKK. it was very interesting to me, learning about the FBI had informants in the KKK, in an attempt to take down a murderous, biogatted group that was infringing on Civil Liberties. but the actions they used against this evil group were questionable in the terms of legalities as well. FBI informants witnessing murders, possibly witnessing church bombings, in an attempt to gain information to stop this evil group.
the same thing i wondered if happened when Moses and the Old Testament prophets believed they were doing the will of God of going against the pagan groups, but yet the actions were going against the basic law that was set before them.
No, because God told them do to what they did...they were following His instructions...please go to that link I provided on my first post...its long, just scan through it and read the parts that interest you...it will answer alot of your questions.
and your last part, reminds me of the old debate about the cannon, and the other books that church of the time of the cannonization deemed as unworthy to be part of the cannon. i have a hard time agreeing with any Christian that says there was a reason if it was written down. there were other books that along with that logic should be included, because there must have been a reason why those things were written down. but this is also the reason why my study Bible is the Catholic Bible, and i wish i could find a concise collection of all the other books rejected in the cannonization process.
http://www.carm.org/questions/canon.htm
http://www.carm.org/questions/lost_books.htm
i'm not really trying to debate with you whitestar, just discussion, cause i'm not saying you have to think like i do. just discussion about this topic from possibly two different points of views, two points of views that probably won't change anyways, but so far, i like how your discussing with me
God Bless you whitestar! <><
