What do we do with stories of divinely mandated genocide in the Old Testament?

Tales have prompted debate since at least the early days of Christianity

Painting by Nicolas Poussin, mid-1620s, “The Victory of Joshua over the Amalekites,” from the Hermitage Museum. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

If you believe that the Bible is divinely inspired or in some sense God’s instructions to humanity and find yourself troubled by the accounts of God-ordained genocide in the Old Testament, you’re in good company. Wh…