Thank you all for you comments and assistance. I am no closer to understanding if the Fathers taught with much consensus about this subject or not. This seems to be to be a fairly major point of belief and it is suprising to me that I cannot find more information about it. There seem to be a few prevailing thoughts among Orthodox, but I could be missing some:
1. The historical books of the Old Testament have much symbolism and often exaggerate the record in order to make a spiritual point. Therefore, the things that seem to be inconsistent with the nature of God's love and mercy are to be understood symbolically. This view seems to make it easy to pick and choose what is literal and what is symbolic.
2. The historical books of the Old Testament were penned in a time and by a people who were violent and barbaric in many ways. They took God's instructions and added their own spin upon them and went way beyond what God had intended, even to the point of blaming God for their actions, as if God had told them to kill infants and children, instead of immobilizing a pagan army. This, of course, casts doubt upon the inerrancy of the Old Testament.
3. God was having mercy upon the Amalekites by killing every man, woman, child and infant, along with all the animals, by saving their souls by destroying their bodies. However, this idea to me just doesn't make sense, considering the alternatives, like sparing the infants and children and teaching them the true faith, would seem to be much more consistent with the Trinity of the New Testament.
I would continue to welcome any any commentaries by the Fathers or Church regarding this subject.
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