About Jesus    Steve Sweetman

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Chapter 31

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Vengeance On The Midianites  (ch. 31:1 - 24)

 

I will not comment on every verse in this chapter.  I will only point out that God told Moses to fight the Midianites and kill them off.  When the battle was over, we note that God wanted all the women who had sexual relations with men to be killed.  Israel thus killed all of the mothers. 

 

This is just one more of a number of times God is associated with violence that makes it hard for many to understand, but as Romans 15:14 says, all of the Old Testament has been written for us to learn something.  Christians in New Testament times should be able to learn something from this.  So what can we  learn?

 

One thing we need to note is that the Midianite women were those women who prostituted themselves and seduced Israeli men to have sex with them and entice them to worship their Midianite gods.  It might well be that they were now being judged for leading many of God's people astray. 

 

We might also want to think of the Abrahamic Covenant at this point as well.  God told Abraham that whoever blesses Israel would be blessed and whoever curses Israel would be cursed.   Midian was an enemy of Israel.  This was probably God's judgment on them for being Israel's enemy.  I would suggest that nations today who consider themselves an enemy of Israel, the same might happen to them. 

 

Another thing to note is that God is very unhappy when His people mix and join themselves to people who aren't His, whether Jew or Christian.  We have to live in this world, but we do not have to allow the world to dictate to us how to live while we live in this world.  We are to remain pure and wholly given to Jesus.  

 

In verse 3 we see that Israel was to carry out "the "vengeance of God".  This means that God was very upset with the Midianites and He was going to use Israel to fight the Midianites.  So, when it comes to the pagan nations that surrounded Israel, the battles fought against them were on two counts.  One was to provide Israel with the land God promised them, which these pagan nations lived in.  The second thing to note concerning war with these nations is that war was meant to avenge God's anger on these nations.     

 

In verse 16 we see reverence to Balaam. He was a pagan sorcerer who gave Balak, king of Moab five prophecies from God.  He did well in that, but at some point He strayed from what God told him.  He encouraged pagan women to have sex with Israeli men and then turn them away from Yahweh. 

 

There are three New Testament passages that speak of Balaam, and they are all negative.  In 2Peter 2:15 Peter speaks of certain Christians who have followed "in the way of Balaam", and who love wickedness. In Jude 1:11 we see certain other believers participate in "Balaam's error", which was love of money.  Finally, in Revelation 2:14 Jesus speaks to the church at Pergamum who have people in the church who "hold to the teaching of Balaam".   I'd suggest that the church today keep their eyes open for the same things that are seen here about Balaam.  It is a never ending problem.     

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