Moses

So I've been reading through Deuteronomy the last few days for my personal devotions. I know this isn't a new discovery in the history of the study of Scripture, but I'm struggling a lot more with it this time: if Moses were alive today he would be prosecuted for war crimes on the level with Saddam Hussein. I'm only in chapter four, but he has already committed genocide at least once or twice depending on how you look at it. Speaking of Sihon it is written, "So we captured all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, women and children of every city. We left no survivor" (2:34). And speaking of Og it is written, "And we utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women and children of every city" (3:6). In both cases they tool all the animals and spoils of the cities (2:35, 3:7). Both Sihon and Og were Amorites which is why you might consider it one act of genocide and not two.

How do you explain that one of the "heroes of the faith" committed war crimes? If your answer is simply, "because God told him too" then how do you argue with the Muslim terrorists who crashed into the Twin Towers "because God told them too"? Both Moses and the terrorists were seeking a reward; at least the terrorists were looking for one in the afterlife and not just land on earth.

The traditional explanation (other than the one listed above) is that God was judging the peoples who lived in that land. And Scripture supports that as back in Genesis 15 God speaks of his promise to Abraham, "Then in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete." As a sidebar, that's pretty amazing that God seemed to be patiently waiting for roughly 500 years to deal with the Amorites and how he orchestrates the events of history. Back to my point though, again it just makes me wonder about the contemporary parallel that many of the Muslim terrorists also think they are God's way of judging the infidels. Should we as Christians living in America believe we are under judgement by these attacks? Or is that an "old dispensation"? And did Moses really have to kill every child? Is it possible God did deliver the Amorites over to Moses to be defeated as an act of judgement, but Moses and the Israelites took it one step further on their own volition and completed the massacre? Perhaps I haven't come across it yet, but I have not seen where God instructed them to kill every man, woman and child and to leave no survivor.

Filing this under "things that keep me up at 4 am."