Is God a God of Violence or a God of Peace?

Pastor Jim Verkest, Mosinee UMC
I believe that God has used war to accomplish His purposes in history. Certainly we find in the Old Testament God using the power of war to insure that the Hebrews will survive their wilderness experience on the way to the Promised Land. We find many examples of the Israelites using deadly force in the conquering of the Promised Land once Joshua took the Israelites across the Jordan River. Some of the biblical accounts are especially horrific as we hear the orders to kill every man, woman and child. This level of violence is justified because of the need to not put the Israelites in a position of being assimilated into the foreign cultures. In any event, the conquest of the Promised Land by the Israelites appears to be the will of God. The warring Israelites are empowered by God, often against numerically superior enemies.
We find in Isaiah how God also uses war to punish the Israelites. When the Israelites rejected God and began to worship idols, intermarry with foreigners, and violate the moral and religious laws of the Hebrews, they became a conquered people. The warlords of Syria, Assyria, and Babylon became the instruments of God. The nations of Israel and
Judah suffered destruction at the hands of these kings. Scripture tells us that it was Gods will that the Israelites be conquered. That they be killed, their cities destroyed, and the survivors enslaved.
Can we assume from these examples that God is a God of violence? To assu ...