Happy Sunday!

ACIM Lesson 170 –  There is not cruelty in God and none in me.
My morning lesson today brought forward in my mind a question that has gone unanswered for me since I began this path last year.  That question formed by research into ancient scriptures which seems to contain Divine direction to kill.   The Bhagavad Gita, the Old Testament, The Quran, and more ancient writings have stories of prophets and Sages being directed by God to kill other people to fulfill agreements and advance their own cultures.  This morning’s sermon by Joel Osteen contained the prophet Samuel directing Saul to kill every person and beast of the Amalikites.  The story went on to say that as Saul kept the King alive as well as the best livestock thereby Saul did not see the advancement to King that God promised.
So to my question, why do these old scriptures rely on killing?
Jesus brought a doctrine of love, to turn the other cheek.  Could it be that the lessons of humanity have evolved since ancient times?  Has the value of life become more significant to the creator?  The Ten Commandments are ancient and they contain the law “thou shall not kill”.  Was this perhaps the transition time?  But then I am further confused as the later doctrine spoken by Muhammed included the jihad, holy war.   During his lifetime Muhammad led many wars and battles to advance the teachings of Islam.  There is even the story of Muhammad’s massacre of a jewish group in Medina who may have plotted against the Muslims but did not take up arms to fight them.
Todays lesson states that there is no attack in God and when we attack we are moving toward fear and away from God; all attack contains judgement.  God does not judge.  We have lessons to learn and we are given free will to move toward the learning and toward atonement or away from God in separation.  When we don’t listen to guidance and grow through our lesson we repeat them in this life or the next.  There is no judgement, just teaching and guidance, until we learn.
Perhaps life is not precious on earth, it is just a classroom of learning.  So if lives are lost to benefit the growth of others, perhaps even the collective consciousness, then death is not to be feared.  This maybe easy to accept if for example to think of the Amalikites of the Old Testament as perhaps an inferior race who were no longer aiding in the advancement of humanity (perhaps they are all souls who came here just to be sacrificed to test Saul).  Should I think that if they were killed quickly it was OK as they didn’t suffer for long, doesn’t seem right to me.  And how do you compare that to children caught in a famine or war zone, children who are abused slaves who grow into adulthood in that condition.  Is this karma?  Is this souls sacrificing themselves hoping to teach others empathy while the rest of us ignore their plight?  Is it expected that awareness and enlightenment can be achieved by these children growing into adults under terrible circumstances without ever knowing love and belonging? Could it be that when you only have yourself you don’t go through the expectation of others fulfilling your needs and you can know internal guidance to become aware?  I just don’t know.
It is easier to dismiss death when it is far on the other side of the world.  If I had to deal with mass suffering here and with children that I love, could I consider a soul perspective of death as just a transition?  How would you console your suffering child?  Faith!
I can only pray and have faith that I would rely on the Holy Spirit to guide me and The Lord to ease our suffering.
As for my cruelty, I have always believed in turning the other cheek but I have not always lived by that.  I know that I will attack to try to control a situation and move things my way.  I need to live in my truth by acting to evaluate the situation consciously, state my position, and have no expectations on the outcome.