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At the opposite end of the spectrum, Yahweh gave Moses the highly moral ten commandments which included not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to accuse another falsely, not to covet another's possessions, to respect your parents, and thou shall not kill.
How do we rationalize such commandments with what Moses and his Israelites did to Sihon, Og, and the kings of the Amorites plus all their subjects, or what the Joshua--Yahweh partnership subsequently did to the inhabitants of Canaan and Jericho--even to Yahweh holding back the sun in order to give Joshua time to kill off the rest of Jericho's inhabitants?
The only way to reconcile these conflicting behaviour patterns appears to be to conclude that Yahweh was God only of the Israelites, a God who rewarded them when they did as he asked, but punished them when they went astray. For the rest of mankind, Yahweh appears to have had absolutely no responsibility or regard.
We see this state of affairs hinted at in Jesus' day through Jesus' treatment of the Samaritan woman of Sychar, and through the parable of the good Samaritan. With the story of the Samaritan woman (John 4:7-27), when Jesus asks her for a drink, we discover that a Jew and Samaritan would not drink from the same vessel. Later in the same story we find that a practicing Jew would not even speak to a Samaritan woman.
In the parable of the good Samaritan, when asked by a lawyer, "who is my neighbour," Jesus told a story of a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho being set upon by robbers and left on the road half dead. First a priest, then a lawyer, see the man, apparently dead, and both pass by on the other side of the road, presumably through fear of defilement by the dead. Next comes a Samaritan who takes pity on the man, takes a closer look and finding him still alive, dresses his wounds, and takes him on his donkey to an inn. (Luke 10:25)
Jesus then turns to the lawyer who posed the question and asks, "which of the three acted like a neighbour?" To which the lawyer was forced to answer, "He who showed mercy."
Again in Matthew 8:5-13, Jesus heals the servant of Roman officer. And in selecting those who would become his apostles, he includes Matthew, a hated tax collector, a servant of Rome, and an outcast from Jewish society.
The Pharisees, in particular were fastidious about observing Torah Law. In seeking a reason to accuse Jesus, they kept watch to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. A man with a paralysed right arm was present in the synagogue. Jesus bade him come forward, then spoke to the Pharisees. "I ask you: what does our Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To help or to harm? To save a man's life or to destroy it? Receiving no answer, he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so and his hand became well again. The Pharisees were filled with rage, asking among themselves what they could do to Jesus. (Luke 6:6-11)
In this and other instances we have seen that the Pharisees put rigid adherence to Torah Law ahead of the real needs of a human being. And because Jesus saw God as caring about what happened to human beings in history, he saw the culture of his Jewish society as something in need of far-reaching transformation, not something simply to be patched or legitimised.
Moses was deemed to have written the five books of the Torah, hence presents as one who gave complete approval for what today would be described as the barbarous acts of Yahweh against Israel's enemies.
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