God: A Contradiction

As we continue to study the Bible, I increasingly see both inherent and growing contradictions present in God and the concept of "faith". We touched on this in previous classes: God as an omniscient and omnipotent figure, however, as a figure who cannot, or chooses not to foresee future mistakes and wrongdoings by both himself and the people. He shows himself as an omniscient figure in that he has many powers, knows the actions of others, knows which animals to eat and how to live, etc., however, he shows a sense of regret after the flood, and when he asks people to perform tasks for him and they do not act correctly, he punishes them harshly. If he knows some will fail, why even ask? Moreover, why can't he stop suffering? When he talks to Moses, (Exodus 2:3) he acknowledges the suffering and cruel treatment of "his people." Why can he interfere some times and not others? There is this supposed concept of free will, yet it seems free will cannot ever truly be attained when God permeates life and everyone must obey. Furthermore, God expresses that the human race is "wicked" and that humans are evil from youth. If this is true, why expect humans to be good? And when humans make mistakes that he should ultimately know they would make, why be cruel to them? Humans are supposed to have faith and trust in God, yet how can they do that when there is a constant threat of plague, famine, and other punishments? God states in Deuteronomy that he will love those who obey him, yet he is still an authoritarian ruler that would be feared in our age. (This is another question in itself: how do the people we see in the Bible truly regard him: with fear? Respect? Admiration? Disdain?) God contradicts himself on multiple occasions, such as when he states that killing in terrible and makes in a commandment not to kill- something one would be put to death for- yet kills mass amounts of people in frequently cruel ways. He also states in Genesis: "Obey me and always do what is right" (Genesis 16:17) yet what if those are at odds with each other? What does God think is right? Is obeying God always right? If so, then why didn't he just say, "Always obey me?" How did his hypocritical actions and character overall morph into the loving and wholesome Lord and savior that we know today?