God Ordered A Slaughter [Numbers 31]

¹Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²"Take full vengeance for the sons of Israel on the Midianites; afterward you will be gathered to your people."

³Moses 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.

As I look at the current religious wars, particularly in the Middle East, I am disgusted and sick to my stomach at the senseless killings. Just yesterday, ten Christian medical people were killed because of their religion. Unarmed men and woman who were dedicated to ministering to poor villagers were slaughtered! Then, I feel all self righteous because we Christians don't do that sort of thing. We are so much better than that and boy am I glad I am on the right side of this mess! Then, I read Numbers 31 and my little self righteous bubble is popped as I face the fact that my God sent His men to slaughter a whole people group of men, women and children because they were enticing Israelites to sin. Now what do I do with that?

I don't have all the answers, but I have spent over 30 years studying this God of the Old and New Testaments. And I know that He is the Creator of heaven and earth. I know that He is a good God who pronounced that His original creation was good at one time. I also know that man chose to disobey God's one command and all of creation became perverted and that man became the enemy of God. At that time, death entered the world and murder not too much later. Wars were inevitable and the history of man is the history of murder and wars. Meanwhile, God has been working throughout history to bring about peace because He is a God of peace, Jehovah Shalom. Part of God's plan included the set apart people of God (the Jews) in the Old Testament through which God progressively revealed Himself and worked His plan including slaughters of those who would come against God's people.

Through His set apart people, God gave us His Word and our Savior, the King of Peace, Lord Jesus. No longer are we instruments of God's vengeance, but ambassadors of His love and salvation through Jesus. Jesus did not invalidate the Old Testament with all of its violence, but is the fulfillment of it. All of these Old Testament things needed to happen to get us to where we are today. According to Paul in Romans 15:4, For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Although, Numbers 31 and many passages in the Old Testament horrify our New Testament minds, God is the same God through it all and He has been and is truly good and just and righteous and faithful and compassionate and merciful and loving and truth and all the rest. We need to know the things in the Old Testament in spite of our struggle to accept the violence so that we can be encouraged and have hope. Only as we turn to God in our struggles will we ever find hope in these awful episodes of God's story!

God, we praise You that You have entrusted us with the whole story. You have not protected us from the violent past and Your part in the awful destruction of whole people groups, but that these things are there to instruct us and encourage us and give us hope. We can't understand all of that, but You do. Please be our guide as we struggle through these difficult passages. By Your grace, grant us the encouragement and hope that Paul spoke about in Romans. We can't, but You can!

Beth Warlick, 8/10/2010

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