And remember, not all out of Israel are Israel, but God shall call those not His people, His people, for the same Lord of all is rich to all who call upon His name. Praise Him!

In Deuteronomy 9:4-6, the Israelites are getting ready to enter Canaan for the second time, and Moses says [my paraphrase]: “God is not giving you this land because you’re so great. You’re a stubborn, stiff-necked people. God is doing this because they are so wicked”.

In Ezekiel 18, God twice says (vs. 23 and 32) that he does not enjoy the death of the wicked, but prefers when they turn from their wickedness.

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Now consider Numbers 14 in light of these two passages. In Numbers 14, the Israelites have explored Canaan for the first time. They see giants there, and the people freak out. “We’re going to die if we try to fight these people, the Lord can’t do anything for us, let’s pick a new leader and go back to Egypt”.

And God, after some initial anger, says “I forgive them, but aside from Caleb and Joshua, not one of these people is going to live in Canaan”.

And the people are like “wait our bad we’re willing to fight now”, but God isn’t willing to fight with them. The Canaanites beat the Israelites BADLY in their first battle, and the Israelites couldn’t try again for 40 years.

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God had just killed a LOT of Egyptians to get the Israelites out of Egypt. A LOT. First the people pelted with hail, then all the firstborn children of Egypt, and finally Pharaoh’s army. And now the Israelites wanted to go BACK?!

I don’t think God took the Egyptians’ deaths lightly. I’m inferring, of course. But God had killed so many Egyptians, and inflicted so much suffering on the Egyptians, to get the Israelites out of there, and he was planning on killing even more Canaanites than Egyptians. And the Israelites didn’t really care! They wanted to go back to Egypt! They weren’t sure they wanted to go into Canaan! All those deaths of all those people meant nothing to the Israelites . . . but I think they meant something to God.

Which is why he kept treating the Israelites so harshly when the Israelites rebelled! If Israel wasn’t going to trust him, wasn’t going to follow him, then their lives weren’t worth more to him than Canaanite or Egyptian lives, and he’s just as soon kill the Israelites in the desert than kill the Canaanites living comfortably in their homes. Only when they were somewhat actually willing to bear the title of “God’s people” was God willing to kill anybody else to make a place for them. And then every time Israel went back on their covenant with God, God was more than willing to give the land to somebody else (Babylon, Assyria, Rome, etc.) who might do better with it.

So I guess my partial answer is that God didn’t take the genocide lightly, and felt the death of all those Canaanite and Egyptian people dearly . . . but that he still thought it was worth the incredible cost, still knew that he could do something better than he could otherwise.

Many times our questionings of God simply stem from a stubborn denial of Him. When He allows some evil to go unpunished in this world, we say, “How can a good and all-powerful God allow evil to exist?”. But when He executes judgement upon evil, we say, “How can a loving God command His people to kill?” We just do not want Him to exist! That is, until He makes Himself known to us in His mercy and grace, and we accept Him, and there is no more doubt, but peace in faith.

Luke 7
31 What then will I liken the men of this generation? And what are they like?
32 They are like children, the ones sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another and saying, We played the flute to you and you did not dance, we mourned to you and you did not weep.
33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine and you say, He has a demon.
34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking; and you say, Behold, a man, a glutton and drinker, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!
35 And wisdom was justified from all her children.

Acts 28
25 Moreover, being in disagreement towards one another, they were leaving, Paul having said one word that, The Holy Spirit spoke well through Isaiah the prophet towards your fathers,
26 Saying, Go towards this people and say, Hearing you will hear and never understand, and looking you will look and never see:
27 For the heart of this people was fattened and the ears heard heavily and their eyes they closed, lest they might see by the eyes and might hear by the ears and might understand by the heart and might turn back and I will heal them.
28 Therefore be it known to you that, to the nations the salvation of God was sent; they will hear.
(Paul quoted from Isaiah 6:9-10)

However, to act presumptuously without God’s explicit command is far worse than to sin consciously knowing full well that God disapproves, because to say “God says…” when God did not is to usurp God’s authority and make Him a liar. Let us hold first to what God put first: You will love the Lord your God in your whole heart and in your whole soul and in your whole mind. This is the first and great commandment, moreover the second is like it: You will love your neighbour as yourself.

And although born with a sin nature, those who have not reached the age of knowing good from evil are gathered into the presence of God as part of His Kingdom.
This point of witness about the nature of God’s Holy character as compared to man’s depravity must be emphasized to bring understanding to why God would have to kill some bent on evil to lovingly preserve alive many more who would otherwise be overwhelmed by that projected magnified evil if allowed to continue as would be more characteristic of an unloving deity.