Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Numbers 31
Vengeance on Midian
If you
have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Numbers 31 as we continue
our way thru this great Old Testament book in the Law of Moses. When were
looking just a few weeks ago at Numbers 29, the focus was on corporate worship
and on the worship of the sacrificial system.
When we
were looking at Numbers 30, the focus was on vows and we saw a connection
between vows and religious worship.
Well,
when we come to Numbers 31, the focus is on vengeance, the Lord’s vengeance on
Midian. The content of this chapter is not pretty. It’s yet another reminder
that the Bible is not a children’s book in the sense of being a story filled
with nice bedtime fairy tales. It’s a book of utter realism. It gives us the way
things are. It spells out stories that aren’t nice because we live in a fallen
world. And because the world is fallen and because sin always is attached to
misery, in a fallen world full of sin there are very hard things that happen.
Well,
with that introduction let’s look to God in prayer and prepare to hear His Word
read and proclaimed. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, this is your Word. We ask that as we hear hard things described
in it that you would open our eyes to fully appreciate your goodness and the
truth which you intend us to learn from it. These things we ask you to do in our
hearts by your Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Numbers 31, beginning in
the very first verse:
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
“Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered
to your people.” So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you
for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord’s vengeance on
Midian. You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war.”
So there were provided, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each
tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand
from each tribe, together with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, with the
vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand. They warred
against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every male. They killed
the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and
Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam the son of Beor with
the sword. And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their
little ones, and they took as plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all
their goods. All their cities in the places where they lived, and all their
encampments, they burned with fire, and took all the spoil and all the plunder,
both of man and of beast. Then they brought the captives and the plunder and the
spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the people
of Israel, at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
Moses and Eleazar the priest and all
the chiefs of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp. And Moses was
angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the
commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. Moses said to
them, “Have you let all the women live? Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice,
caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the
incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. Now
therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has
known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by
lying with him keep alive for yourselves. Encamp outside the camp seven days.
Whoever of you has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify
yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day. You shall
purify every garment, every article of skin, all work of goats’ hair, and every
article of wood.”
Then Eleazar the priest said to the
men in the army who had gone to battle: “This is the statute of the law that the
Lord has commanded Moses: only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the
tin, and the lead, everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through
the fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless, it shall also be purified with
the water for impurity. And whatever cannot stand the fire, you shall pass
through the water. You must wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall
be clean. And afterward you may come into the camp.”
The Lord said to Moses, “Take the
count of the plunder that was taken, both of man and of beast, you and Eleazar
the priest and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the congregation, and divide
the plunder into two parts between the warriors who went out to battle and all
the congregation. And levy for the Lord a tribute from the men of war who went
out to battle, one out of five hundred, of the people and of the oxen and of the
donkeys, and of the flocks. Take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the
priest as a contribution to the Lord. And from the people of Israel’s half you
shall take one drawn out of every fifty, of the people, of the oxen, of the
donkeys, and of the flocks, of all the cattle, and give them to the Levites who
keep guard over the tabernacle of the Lord.” And Moses and Eleazar the priest
did as the Lord commanded Moses.
Now the plunder remaining of the
spoil that the army took was 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys, and
32,000 persons in all, women who had not known man by lying with him. And the
half, the portion of those who had gone out in the army, numbered 337,500 sheep,
and the Lord’s tribute of sheep was 675. The cattle were 36,000, of which the
Lord’s tribute was 72. The donkeys were 30,500, of which the Lord’s tribute was
61. The persons were 16,000, of which the Lord’s tribute was 32 persons. And
Moses gave the tribute, which was the contribution for the Lord, to Eleazar the
priest, as the Lord commanded Moses.
From the people of Israel’s half,
which Moses separated from that of the men who had served in the army―now the
congregation’s half was 337,500 sheep, 36,000 cattle, and 30,500 donkeys, and
16,000 persons―from the people of Israel’s half Moses took one of every 50, both
of persons and of beasts, and gave them to the Levites who kept guard over the
tabernacle of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Then the officers who were over the
thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of
hundreds, came near to Moses and said to Moses, “Your servants have counted the
men of war who are under our command, and there is not a man missing from us.
And we have brought the Lord’s offering, what each man found, articles of gold,
armlets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and beads, to make atonement for
ourselves before the Lord. And Moses and Eleazar the priest received from them
the gold, all crafted articles. And all the gold of the contribution that they
presented to the Lord, from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of
hundreds, was 16,750 shekels. (The men in the army had each taken plunder for
himself.) And Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the commanders
of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tent of meeting, as a
memorial for the people of Israel before the Lord.”
Amen. And thus
ends this reading of holy, inspired and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal
truths upon our hearts.
How do
you make sense of a passage like this? This is violence and brutality on an epic
scale by anyone’s measure. If this occurred in our own day and time, the news
media rightly would characterize it as genocide, ethnic cleansing; the violent
removal of an entire people from its land and the extermination of their persons
by another ethnic group taking over their land. How do you make sense of this?
Well,
let me suggest four things as we begin to wrestle with this passage. When you
come to a passage like this in Scripture in which your first reaction is
adverse, your sensibilities are offended, you must discipline yourself to set
aside your adverse judgment or you will never learn the message of the passage.
Have you
ever found this out when you were talking with someone who didn’t like — say the
doctrine of predestination and they came upon a passage that spoke about
predestination? And they so didn’t like predestination that they were not
prepared to listen to what the passage was saying because they had a prejudice
against predestination which caused them to refuse to hear what the passage had
to say to them.
Also,
when you come to a passage like this where your sensibilities may be initially
offended by what you perceive to be some sort of a moral act of injustice. You
need to set aside your adverse judgment or you’ll never get around to
understanding what the passage is saying to you.
I’m not
suggesting that it’s OK for God to act immorally. He never does.
I’m not
suggesting that we have to give a free pass to the actions of Israel. Very often
that is precisely not what the Bible wants us to do with relation to Israel.
I’m not
saying that moral judgment has to be suspended and in frozen animation
indefinitely. But we must set aside our adverse judgment if we want to
understand what the passage is about.
Second:
we have to ask ourselves the question, “Why is this event recorded and why did
God command this? Why was this event recorded and why did God command this?”
Obviously because Paul tells me that all Scripture is given by inspiration and
is profitable for my reproof, correction, and training in righteousness that the
man of God may be equipped for every good work. He has a lesson for me to learn.
He has a lesson for you to learn. And I have to ask the question, “Why is this
recorded and what is it that God commanded this for and what does He want me to
learn?”
Third —
as we come to a passage like this it is absolutely essential that we remember
that the Lord has already proved Himself to be marvelously good and impeccably
upright in His dealings with us and all humanity. And that means that He
deserves, at the very least, the benefit of our doubts until we can understand
what it is that He’s doing, why He has recorded this, and why He commanded it
and what we are to learn.
So we
are to set aside adverse judgment in order to understand the passage. We’re to
seek to understand why it is recorded and why it is commanded and we are to
remember that the Lord himself has proved Himself marvelously good and
impeccably upright. And therefore, He deserves at the very least, the benefit of
our doubts.
I well
remember having a conversation with one of the brightest young women that I ever
had the privilege to teach and disciple in the context of my youth group in St.
Louis. And she had come from a liberal church background and had come to faith
in Christ in the context of the Bible-believing evangelical church at which I
was serving, flourishing under the pulpit ministry of our pastor, who was a
faithful expositor of Scripture. All the members of her family had come to faith
in Christ as well except for her father, and he later came to faith in Christ.
But because of her liberal church background she struggled with a whole range of
Bible doctrines, not the least of which was hell.
She came
to me one night after a Wednesday night Bible study at the church, and she was
deeply troubled to the point of tears, over the doctrine of hell. One reason she
was struggling with it was because she knew at that time that her father did not
trust in Christ. And she knew enough of the Bible’s teaching that those who do
not trust in Christ face the vast and eternal punishment and sentence of hell.
As she spoke to me, I was rebuked, first of all, because she showed a greater
sensitivity to the horrors of hell than I think I’d ever experienced. The very
tears in her eyes as we discussed the topic said to me that this was not some
sort of an abstract, academic subject for this young woman. This was a very
pious inquiry by a young believer wrestling with an awful reality — eternal
condemnation.
But in
that course of conversation, I said to her (after discussing for 30 minutes to
no avail), “Nancy, let me see if I’ve got this right. You are concerned that God
might be doing something wrong and send someone to hell.”
She
said, “Well, I mean, that’s a blunt way of putting it, but I guess that is what
I’m struggling with — that I think this might be wrong of God to send someone to
hell.”
And I
said, “Nancy, are you a sinner?”
“O, yes,
I’m a sinner!”
“And did
God save you because you deserved it or because of His mercy?”
“O,
because of God’s mercy. I deserved to be condemned for my sin. It was only of
God’s mercy that I’ve been saved.”
“Nancy,
has God ever done anything wrong to you?”
“No, no. He’s never done anything wrong to me.”
“So let
me get this straight. You sin and God’s never done anything wrong to you and He
doesn’t sin and He’s good and just and upright and merciful, but, you, Nancy, a
sinner, are worried that he might do something wrong?”
“O, I
see your point”, she said. “That’s a little bit ridiculous, isn’t it, that I, a
sinner, do deserve judgment might worry that God, who is righteous and upright
and impeccable and just, might do something wrong?”
“It
really is, Nancy.”
It was a
wonderful conversation that night, but that’s precisely what we have to do when
we come to passages like this.
But
there’s one more thing. Remember, I said four. There’s one more thing that we
need to take in to account four things that Moses tells you about this passage.
Now,
this is still all the introduction, you understand. These are not my four main
points. There are going to be four main points in this message if I can get
there. But I think that this important for us to work through because this is a
hard passage and there are many more like it in the scriptures.
We need
to take into account four things that Moses has told us in the passage.
First,
Moses goes out of our way to make it clear that this is an action commanded by
God. It is not an action initiated by Israel.
In other
words, this is not sinful, greedy Israel wanting to kill everybody in Midian and
take all their stuff. This is God who has commanded this to be done.
This is
made clear not only in this passage in the very first verses of God’s words to
Moses, but it’s made clear all the way back in Numbers 25:16-18. Do you remember
that after the sin of Peor, when Balaam told the Midianites, “Look, I can’t
curse Israel with magic, but here’s what you could do. You could send some of
your women over to them and have them commit adultery with those men and thus
inter-mingle your tribes and thus be spared the onslaught of these Israelites.”
And do
you remember that after that happened, and after God brought judgment on Israel
that God told Moses that the very last thing that he would do was what? Bring
judgment upon the Midianites for the action of Balaam and for the action of the
Midianite leaders in attempting to bring ruin to Israel.
And so
Moses is making it clear to you that this is not an immoral action on the part
Israel, but this is something which is done at the behest of God. God has
commanded it.
Secondly, Moses tells you in this passage that this is an act of justice not an
act of immoral revenge. It is an act of justice not an act of immoral revenge.
In fact, all throughout Moses’ law there is every check put on the sinful
tendency to immoral revenge, while at the same time God’s just vengeance is
displayed. The action here is justified as an act of God’s judgment. A righteous
verdict has been passed upon the Midianites. The Midianites wanted, and worked
for, the destruction of all of God’s people.
This
military action commanded by God against the Midianites is simply the just
sentence of God against the Midianites. This is a judicial act of the righteous
judge giving them the sentence that they deserve. This is not done at the behest
of ravenous, immoral Israelites, but at the command of a just God.
Third —
think about it, my friends, if these Midianites are not dealt with, two tribes
of Israel, which will dwell on their side of the Jordan, will be left literally
in mortal danger both physically and spiritually. The Midianites have already
tried to wipe out all the Israelites. What do you think they’re going to do when
they only have two tribes of Israel to deal with on their side of the river? Two
tribes of Israel would literally be left in mortal danger, physically and
spiritually, if the Midianites are not dealt with.
And
fourth, I want you to remember that the Lord was no less severe in dealing with
His own people’s sins as He is here with the Midianites. Do you realize that
after the sin with the Midianites that the Lord sent a plague that took the
lives of 24,000 Israelites? And there would have been more if it were not for
the zeal of Phinehas.
No,
God’s justice is impartial. And as He has brought here judgment on the
Midianites, so also he brought judgment on His own people.
So what
are we to learn from a passage like this? Four things.
I. God hates sin.
And the
first thing is obvious, isn’t it? God hates sin! He absolutely hates sin. He is
not indifferent to adultery. He is not indifferent to idolatry. He is not
indifferent to the spiritual adultery of Israel. And their physical adultery and
their spiritual adultery with Midian and Midian’s conspiring to destroy the
people of Israel through physical and spiritual adultery is something which is
detested in the eyes of God. And as sin always deserves death that is exactly
what is served up in this passage.
The
Midianites, by adultery, physical adultery, sought to lure Israel away from God
spiritually and thus destroy them. And God hates sin and so He visited death on
His people and He visited death on the Midianites.
II. Syncretism is perilous.
Secondly, we learn in this passage that syncretism is perilous. Syncretism is
perilous. Spiritual compromise with the worship of any other person or
thing than the one true God is perilous and even if it promises delight it
will only bring death. Sin always brings death, not delight.
In this
instance, isn’t it interesting that the children of Israel had born up and been
protected as supernatural magic had been waged against them, as the black arts
had been thrown against them. But when sexual indulgence was used as the
temptation and Israel took the hook with the bait and committed spiritual
adultery, anticipating the taste of illicit pleasures, the result was not
blessing, but divine judgment. The result was not delight, but death.
And this
passage reminds us that sin always brings with it death, not delight. And yet,
repeatedly when temptation comes to us, what does sin always offer to us? Some
kind of advantage. Lie on your resume. It will advance your career until it’s
discovered the day after the press conference when you’ve gotten the head
coaching position at a prestigious national university and you’re fired.
Spread
gossip to tear down your adversary. It will advance your own condition until you
are discovered to be the source of the slanderous information that has been
spread abroad about an innocent individual, and it’s not that individual, but
you who bears the responsibility and the consequence.
Take
delight in someone you’re not married to. In all the wrong ways, it will be
good. You’ll get all the things, all the emotional and marital attention that
you’re not getting in your present relationship. Sin always promises delight,
but it brings death.
Just as
the Israelite men anticipated delight in this immoral union with the Midianites
back in Numbers 25, and only experienced God’s judgment, so also for us today
any compromise in our worship of the one true God brings judgment and death.
III. Vengeance belongs to God.
Third —
this passage interestingly reminds us that vengeance belongs to God. As I said
before, the whole Law of Moses is designed to restrict, to confine, and to
outlaw acts of personal retribution apart from the law against others.
In other
words, it’s designed to restrict the ability of Israelites to engage in acts of
vengeance. And here, it’s made so clear that Israel is not doing this on its
own. God is commanding this to be done as an
act of judgment. And that very fact that the raid on the Midianites
is commanded by God reminds us that vengeance belongs to God.
In fact,
this raid on the Midianites is a picture of the final judgment. You know, when
we look at the extent of this, men and women and children and animals and
everything, and when we hear that refrain “all the sheep and all
the cattle and on and on and on. All, all fall under the what? The
judgment, the sentence of Almighty God because vengeance does belong to God. And
I want to say that on the day of final judgment Numbers 31 will seem like small
business. So terrible will be the great day of the Lord of his righteous
judgment against all who have rejected him and turned their back on his mercy.
Over and
over the refrain is given to us in Deuteronomy 32:35, Romans 12:19, Hebrews
10:30 — “Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord. “I will repay.” That tells us that
it is not our job in this world to exact vengeance, but it does not mean that
vengeance will not be exacted. It means that God Himself will bring to bear His
sentence in the final judgment and all that deserves to be repaid will be
repaid.
IV. We must be ruthless in dealing with our own sin.
One last
thing that we learn from this passage and it’s this — the pursuit of holiness
involves a ruthless dealing with the source and the occasion of sin.
In this
instance, it’s the sin of adultery with the Midianites and so both the
Midianites as the source and the occasion of the sin and the sinful in Israel
are exterminated. They are literally cut off. We say, “Yes, but that’s the Old
Testament.”
Really?
Turn with me to Matthew 5. Here’s Jesus talking about adultery.
Matthew 5:27
“You have heard it that it was said,
‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks on a
woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. And
if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you. For it
is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish than for your whole
body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it
off and throw it from you. For it is better for you that one of the parts of
your body perish than for your whole body go into hell.”
What
is Jesus talking about there? Ruthless dealing with the source and occasion of
sin.
Numbers
31 is just a picture of precisely what Jesus is describing in Matthew 5 — that
everything that is a source and an occasion of our sin requires ruthless dealing
in the pursuit of holiness.
And
there’s so many other things to learn from this great passage, but I leave these
with you tonight. May the Lord bless his Word.
Let’s
pray.
Our Heavenly Father, this is a hard word, but it is Your Word and we see how You
mean it for our edification and for our good. We acknowledge that You are the
just and righteous God and that You never bring reckless, irresponsible,
unrighteous judgment upon anyone, that Your judgment is always right. And that
as the Midianites sought to destroy your people and to undermine your promise,
they were the instruments of the evil one. And this judgment that You brought
against them, You foreshadowed the judgment that You will bring against all of
the wicked one day.
Grant, O God, that by faith we will not be numbered among them, but among those,
who though equally sinners, have been ransomed by the shed blood of Christ, who
Himself bore Your vengeance on the tree in our place.
We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Would you stand for God’s
blessing?
Grace, mercy, and peace to from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.