In the Old Testament why did God instruct the Israelites to wipe out entire cities wherever they went?

There are times when the wicked have to perish so that the work of the Lord may go forward. There is a scripture somewhere that says "It is far better for one man should die than a whole nation perish in unbelief Same reason He flooded the earth except for 8 souls; and that he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah after the last righeous man and his family had left; and the same reason the earth will one day burn with fervent heat. The reason is mans pride and a failure to abide in the commandments of God Malachi 4:1 1 ¶ For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch Matthew 13:30 30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn Mathew 13:30 above describes what is now occurring.

The wicked and good are growing together in the world. At this present time they are slowly being separated, the worthy and good being drawn into Jesus Christ and the tares or the proud and wicked are being bundled together. In the end there will be a sharp, defining devision between the followers of Jesus and the followers of Lucifer(Satan) like there is a separation of people between the borders of rivers, cities or countries.

The wheat shall be gathered into the protection of the barn and the tares outside will be burnt Answer Intolerance. God of the Bible made himself known only to the Hebrews. Imagine a new religion walking across America and start a Genocidal War against Christians Answer The only three cities to be destroyed were Jericho, Ai and Hazor The Israelites most certainly went to a lot of other places than Jericho, Ai and Hazor The logical and factual conclusion is that they simply didn't go around wiping out entire cities wherever they went Thus this is a 'straw-man' question in that it is seeking to make a point on facts which don't exist.

The fact is that the Israelites came to live in Canaan and so they hardly wanted to have to rebuild it all from scratch. So, quite evidently, only those who were most strategically important or who offered the greatest resistance were destroyed.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.