I don't think the god of the Old Testament is or was anything. I think the Old Testament is a combination of oral tradition and writings intended to coalesce and encourage a people taken into captivity in Babylon.

The real question (in my opinion) is what people DO with Old Testament.

Most modern Jews and progressive Christians have formed moral philosophies centered on lovingkindness, using Old Testament stories to examine and question human practices and customs —rather than to say they know the nature of God.

Modern conservative Christians who take the Bible literally, however, are in huge majorities in the United States, and their belief systems and practices are often frightening and effectively evil.

They model themselves on the behavior of a god from ancient oral traditions, behavior that more thoughtful religious believers take as metaphors and cautionary tales.

It doesn't really matter what the God of the Old Testament did in those ancient stories. It matters what people today DO with the stories.

We all have choices. We can choose to attend a synagogue or church that emphasizes love and charity, or we choose to attend a Baptist or Pentecostal church and scream obscenities at queer people while funding the campaigns of racist politicians who demonize refugees and separate them by violence from their children.

It's not the god of the Old Testament doing those things. It's people. Other religious people who read the same stories don't behave that way.

It really is about moral discernment and choice — and about the consistent choice of conservative Christians to side with evil.