A lot of the religious excusing of god seems to be down to word play.
If you say "don't touch that Elf-on-the-shelf, if you do YOU'LL DIE!" then it is absolutely correct for someone else to say "no you won't", because ... no, you wouldn't.
If you rely on "ha, but I killed them anyway!" to stop it being a lie ... I think you have bigger ethical problems than lying.
God is a murderous piece of shit. And he also lied. Focusing on the lying is missing the more important elephant in the room.