What about the violence in the Old Testament?
The Old Testament describes a violent world honestly, and some passages are genuinely hard. Christians don’t pretend otherwise.
A few things help. Much is described, not approved; the Bible shows its heroes’ failures. Some battle language uses exaggeration typical of ancient writing. And where God brings judgement, it’s on long-standing evil, after centuries of patience (Genesis 15:16).
Most importantly, the story is going somewhere: to Jesus, who refused violence, prayed for his enemies, and took violence onto himself. That’s the lens Christians read the whole Bible through.
From the Bible
4Don’t say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, “For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land”; because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations. 5Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Deuteronomy 9:4–5
He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8