How can a loving God order people killed?
In the Old Testament, God commanded the Israelites coming out of Egypt to take over the land of Canaan and kill all of the inhabitants. This is shocking to us. Skeptics point to this and say that there must be something foul about the Christian God. Yet, the Bible makes it clear that God is not arbitrary; the Canaanite society deserved its fate as it was thoroughly polluted by its wretchedly evil practices, including the horror of child sacrifice (Deuteronomy 9:1-6, 12:29-31, 18:9-14, 1 Kings 14:24, 2 Chronicles 33:1-9, Ezra 9:11).
Thus God used the Israelites to administer specific justice, just as he later used other societies to administer justice against the Israelites (book of Jeremiah). Instances such as this in the Bible are each a particular limited circumstance in time, for a particular purpose established by God.
But the skeptic presses the point by asking, "But weren't some of those people innocent?" We respond that there is further context to such violence. As mentioned in the previous section about the question of people who may never have heard about Jesus, there are no innocent people. We are all sinful by nature and deserving of God's wrath (see Christian Cram Course). But at the same time, we are confident that God's plans are greater than our limited understanding. Since the God of the Bible is merciful as well as just, we are confident that if there were truly innocent people who were killed under God's command that he would provide mercy and rest for them in heaven. To the extent that even children were victims, if you believe that children are innocent, it is a reasonable assumption that God took them to a better place than the wretched society of the Canaanites.
Our span of life on earth is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the infinite time in the life to come. Recognizing this, it becomes easier to grasp that there is a much bigger context than our troubles and complaints here on earth.
Perhaps a modern comparison is worthwhile. Were the United States and Britain wrong to bomb German and Japanese cities during World War II, killing innocent citizens? If this action seems justified, perhaps we shouldn't be too quick to judge God in this Old Testament situation.
Moreover, God uses history to play out the human condition to show the need for a savior. It is history that demonstrates the incredible mercy God has shown by sending his son to absorb the penalty for man's sins.
The God who created life has the right to take it as well. Yet contrary to the short-sighted skeptic who claims that the Christian God displays an inferior morality, the Creator God of the universe sent his only son to demonstrate the perfect morality. The teachings and life of Jesus are universally acknowledged even by skeptics to be sublime (for example, read Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. And in a gesture of ultimate morality, God gave his only son to pay the ransom for the sins of the world. As Jesus said :
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).