Imaginary history

[Boojatta]

The tale is in Numbers, part of the Pentateuch ascribed to Moses by believers on the deity and book in question, and the chapter commences with the claim that "The LORD spake unto Moses saying...." Those are pretty plain words, Sir, and either they mean what they say or they constitute a deliberate falsehood. The instruction given would land any modern military commander in the dock of the Hague, and oblige any soldier to state, "Sir, that is an illegal order that I must refuse to obey."

That is part of this message...
That Will Never Do, Sir

... from this thread:
How do you define evil?

Let's assume for the sake of argument that Moses transmitted the commands and those commands were obeyed. Suppose that the commands had not been obeyed. Would there now be a dock of the Hague and would present day international law be such that the order would be illegal?

In other words, assuming that the order was given and was obeyed, then what would have been the practical consequences if the order had not been given or had not been obeyed?

For example, how much influence did Emperor Hirohito have on the formulation of international law? If Moses had not given the total destruction order then would history have been different in such a way that Hirohito would have had less positive influence or more negative influence?