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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The Lord said to Moses, "Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people."
So Moses said to the people, "Arm some of your men to go to war against the Midianites and to carry out the Lord's vengeance on them. Send into battle a thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel."
So twelve thousand men armed for battle, a thousand from each tribe, were supplied from the clans of Israel. Moses sent them into battle, a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, who took with him articles from the sanctuary and the trumpets for signaling. They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man. Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba—the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam, son of Beor, with the sword.
The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks, and goods as plunder. They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps. They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals, and brought the captives, spoils, and plunder to Moses and Eleazar, the priest, and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.
Moses, Eleazar, the priest, and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle.
"Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord's people. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”
"All of you who have killed anyone or touched anyone who was killed must stay outside the camp seven days. On the third and seventh days, you must purify yourselves and your captives. Purify every garment as well as everything made of leather, goat hair or wood."
Then Eleazar, the priest, said to the soldiers who had gone into battle, "This is the requirement of the law that the Lord gave Moses: Gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, lead, and anything else that can withstand fire must be put through the fire, and then it will be clean. But it must also be purified with the water of cleansing. And whatever cannot withstand fire must be put through that water. On the seventh day, wash your clothes and you will be clean. Then you may come into the camp."
Numbers 31:1-24
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Just as God had commanded, Moses, as did his brother Aaron prior, was about to die before Israel entered the Promised Land. Before that took place, we see in Numbers, chapter 31 where the Lord has Moses oversee one more important act before being “gathered to (his) people”.
This act involved vengeance upon the Midianites who had corrupted the Israelites into sexual immorality and idol worshipping through their women. You’ll recall that this sinfulness led to God’s judgment as He sent a plague which killed 24,000 (Numbers 25:9) before Phinehas, Eleazar’s son, took action and killed an Israelite man and Midianite woman who had brought their illicit relationship into the “entrance to the Tent of Meeting” (Numbers 25:6). When it was over, Israel had paid a steep price and now it would be Midian’s turn which would fulfill God’s command to Moses at the end of chapter 25 to “treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them”.
Of interest here is that we find God giving Phinehas a position of holy responsibility in the Lord’s vengeance of Midian, a reward for his prior faithful acts. God indeed rewards those who are faithful to Him.
So Moses formed an army which consisted of a “thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel” to “go to war against the Midianites and to carry out the Lord's vengeance on them”. And the army went into battle and “fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses”, killing every man. The scriptures share that the five kings of Midian as well as Balaam, the diviner who Balak tried to use against Israel, as ones killed in the battle. In regard to the latter, it’s obvious Balaam didn’t remain loyal to God as he ended up in company with Midian, most certainly professing that he could help them supernaturally gain victory over Israel. His betrayal cost him his life.
We also read where the Israelite army also “captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder”. They “burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps” and “took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals, and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho”. At face value, the army had been successful and victorious but there was a major problem created in the midst of their conquest for they had not fully carried out God’s command and this mistake would cost them later on.
The scriptures tell us that “Moses was angry with the officers of the army”, asking them, “Have you allowed all the women to live?" He then reminds the officers that the women “were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord's people”. God had commanded that His vengeance be carried out on the Midianites, all of them not just the men.
And so we find Moses ensuring that the Lord’s will be done, ordering the army officers to “kill all the boys” and “every woman who has slept with a man”. In other words, all those who had corrupted Israel for we must note that any women who had “never slept with a man” were spared. These orders from Moses were carried out and the spoils of battle that remained, whether people or material items, were purified before becoming the property of Israel as the sinfulness of Midian was washed clean so not to infect Israel again.
Friends, from this first part of Numbers, chapter 31, we can glean away some important principles for living the righteous and holy life that God desires.
First, God can and will bring judgment on anyone who decides to willingly disobey Him or deliberately corrupt His people in any way.
Midian integrated with Israel with the purpose of turning them from God’s ways to their own sinfulness and the Israelites became willing partners, committing sexual immorality and worshipping false gods. As a result, both were punished by the Lord, the Israelites by the plague and the Midianites in war.
Today, we still have many believers who willingly choose to disobey the Lord’s word and will for their lives. Many non-believers also proactively attack the church and its believers, ever trying to corrupt them into sinful behavior, often successfully. Both should take note of what transpired in this chapter of Numbers because God can and will act again in judgment.
Secondly, we should be very careful about who we decide to associate ourselves with. In the case of Balaam, he aligned himself with spiritual mysticism and divinery before he encountered the one and only true God, a God who changed him and his outlook on life, at least in the short term. Balaam could have decided at that point to never associate with anyone else but Israel and their God, exchanging false worship practices for divine, righteous ones but instead, he chose to revert back to his old ways, teaming up with the sinful Midianites and losing his life as a result.
In our present times, people have the same decision to make, to either partner with the Lord God Almighty, the Maker and Master of all living things and those who are faithful to Him or affiliate with Satan and those who choose to willingly disobey the Lord, sinning against Him freely with no concern for consequence. In regard to the latter, many, like Balaam, meet their demise as an expense for their poor choices.
In the end translation, the message from God here rings loud and clear: Joining in with anyone outside of Him will lead to His judgment.
Finally, we see that there is danger in not carrying out the Lord’s commands properly. The Israelite army was expected to wipe out Midian so they would never rival Israel again. Unfortunately, this expectation wasn’t met and later on in the scriptures, we will see how the Midianites return to challenge Israel (Judges 6).
Today, when people choose to not carry out God’s will fully, they still pay the price for their disobedience just as it was with the Israelites and their failure to do exactly what God demanded to punish Midian.
Take sinful behavior for example. Believers read the scriptures and pray over their lives, receiving guidance from the Lord as to what He expects. This is especially true about anything in our lives that needs corrected as He convicts us through the Holy Spirit and then expects us to repent before taking appropriate action to correct our behavior.
In these instances, too often our efforts aren’t really sincere when it comes to fixing our shortcomings. After all, sin plays on our desires and many times, we are simply unwilling to fully separate from them. So we either pretend to change or make a decision to only partially do so, addressing only a portion of our transgression while reserving a part of it so we can continue to satisfy ourselves. And so what we so often learn is that when we don’t completely eradicate the sin that afflicts us, it comes back later to afflict us again, just as the Israelites will learn with the people of Midian.
As I close, some important questions for spiritual self reflection:
1. Do you feel that you can go through your life living as you want to, opposing God with no fear of consequence?
Our scripture passage today shows us this is a dangerous proposition.
2. Do you feel that you can partner with anyone you like, even when the people you are associating yourself with are engaging in obvious immorality and sinful behavior?
Here, I’m not talking about partnering with the intent to minister. Jesus clearly interacted with sinners because as He so well stated, He came for the sick not the healthy (Luke 5:31-32). I’m talking about when a believer chooses to hang out with people who flaunt sin and care nothing about being obedient to the Lord.
Our scripture today shows us that associating with the wrong people can lead to illicit influence and so that’s why it’s a dangerous proposition.
3. Do you carry out the Lord’s commands and expectations fully in your life? Or do you do just enough to try and make it appear like you’re onboard with the Lord when you really are not willing to give up sin that you delight in?
Our Lord doesn’t accept a commitment from believers that toes the line between righteousness and wickedness. He expects all who have faith in Him to be all in, as dedicated to Him as He is to them. To do otherwise is also a dangerous proposition.
Brothers and sisters, we know that God’s word is active and alive, powerful and true (Hebrews 4:12) and so when we study the scriptures, we should do so with the utmost seriousness with a willingness to fully comply with all He expects. For far easier and enjoyable to rejoice in the Lord’s favor than to suffer in His judgment. It was true in biblical times and it has been true through the ages.
Which will we experience?
God has left the choice is up to us and will respond accordingly.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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