How’s your holiday season shaping up? Have you been shopping online or in the stores to get the perfect gift for someone? Are you, like me, also distracted by the sales for that which you could use for yourself? It’s hard to ignore the email, offers, and ads from familiar companies that you know are reliable and have your perfect size. But allowing ourselves to follow those spaghetti trails hinder our searches for others or distract us from what we were doing in the first place. This world is full of bling and trinkets, not to mention big, alluring, high-ticket items like cars, houses, boats, or heafty retirement accounts. As Israel was about to enter the Promised Land, the nation was clearly distracted by the possibility of “better” or easier possessions. In Numbers 31-32, we read that Israel failed to exterminate all the Midianites for their earlier sin, and two tribes settled in the Transjordan instead of Canaan, compromising on God’s promise. This holiday season, let’s be more determined than they were, to live by faith not sight, refusing to yield to the world’s enticements, rejoicing in our heavenly inheritance from Christ without compromising.
A Holy War for Judgment
Our passage opens with God commanding Moses to perform his final act as leader of the children of Israel—to avenge the Israelites of the Midianites. The Israeli army killed all the Midian kings, males, and even Balaam. But they took the women and young children captives, rather than killing them. “War is hell. There is nothing glorious about war, nor should we have any romantic illusions about it…[and] it is surely never something to be desired or sought; nonetheless there are times in human history when war is necessary, either in self-defense or in pursuit of greater justice. We live in a world where evil regularly rears its ugly head and must sometimes be combated directly by force…When we pray, ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,’ we are seeking the day when that final war will come to earth, the true war to end all wars. That final war to end all wars is the backdrop against which we need to read Numbers 31. The conflict between Israel and Midian is no ordinary human war. Nor is it an act of ethnic cleansing on Israel’s part, with the Israelites seeking to wipe out every trace of a rival ethnic group, the Midianites…this war is part of God’s larger war on sin and evil…the continuation and completion of God’s judgment on those who were involved in the sins of Numbers 25. At that time the Midianites and the Moabites led Israel astray into the worship of Baal through the strategy of sexual seduction…Having failed to curse Israel directly, Balaam nonetheless found a way to bring the Lord’s curse on his people indirectly—by luring God’s people into idolatry. In that strategy, the Midianites were willing collaborators. The first stage of God’s judgment on that sin occurred at the time of its occurrence…the Lord also declared war on Midian for their part in the sin (25:16-18). Those who lead God’s people astray will be held accountable for their actions, as will those who are themselves led astray. Jesus said: “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.” (Luke 17:2)…The comprehensive death of those opposed to God…was designed to demonstrate to the Israelites (and to their neighbors) that the Lord is implacably opposed to evil. All those who set themselves against the Lord are doomed to destruction, especially those who lead his people into sin. Rebellious mankind cannot reasonably expect to persist in their attitude of cosmic treason forever. There will come a day when God declares the list of their sins ‘complete’ or ‘full’ and brings down the curtain on them in judgment. For this branch of the Midianites, that day had simply come a little earlier than it would for the rest of mankind.” (1)
The Confusion of Legalistic Thinking
Since Israel failed to exterminate all the Midianites for their earlier sin, “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.” (Numbers 31:14) “At issue here was the exact nature of this holy war. In Deuteronomy 20 the rules for holy war describe two distinct kinds of conflict. The first kind involved nations that were ‘far’ from Israel—in other words, people whose homes were not within the boundaries of the Promised Land itself. In the case of these nations, the Israelites were to kill all of the males but might take as captives the women and children of their cities and absorb them into their community. However, in the case of the nations that inhabited the Promised Land—the Hittites, Amorite’s, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—they were to exterminate the entire community, so that those pagan peoples would not remain in the land to be a snare for Israel, leading them astray into idolatry. The conflict in Numbers 31 fell between these two categories…their opponents were Midianites, and the conflict took place in the Transjordan, outside the boundaries of Canaan. Thus it would normally have fallen under the more lenient category of warfare against distant nations. That was presumably why the soldiers initially allowed the Midianite women to live. However, Moses was angry because he rightly pointed out that these women were precisely those who had already led Israel into idolatry…The adult women and the boys were also to be executed.” (2) As soon as we start living by rules rather than by our knowledge of God and his ways, we compromise in our devotion to him. Had Israel remembered God’s words, “Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites” (Numbers 31:2), they would have known to do what was required as judgment for sin. Here is our lesson: to live by faith in God’s plan for the last judgment, sharing his gospel of mercy, and rejoicing in our heavenly inheritance from Christ without compromising this Christmas.
Gifts for the Lord and His People
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Take the count of the plunder that was taken, both of man and of beast…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’…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.'” (Numbers 31:25-27; 48-5o) “As the leaders of the troops counted their people, they realized that not one of their soldiers had been lost in the conflict, and their hearts were moved to respond to God’s overwhelming grace…they freely brought the gold objects they had plundered…rendering the very best of the booty back to him…‘to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord’…Perhaps they recognized that they…were natural-born rebels against God, by nature children of wrath…[but] the Lord’s wrath upon sin had been poured out on his enemies, and they, by his grace, were all still standing…They reacted to the Lord’s grace with generous offerings…[For us] It is not silver or gold that makes atonement…but the precious blood of the Lamb of God, slain in our place…Jesus has been our substitute, bearing in his body on the cross the full penalty…There at the cross the Lord executed total warfare against sin in the person of Jesus…Through his death, our lives are spared…It is a fresh appreciation of God’s grace that moves our hearts to worship…The cross is a gift from God that demands in response the gift of everything we have and everything we are; our whole lives presented as living sacrifices, wholly devoted—or, rather, holy and devoted—to the service of the God who has loved us this much.” (3) At Christmas, we celebrate our Lord’s birth to begin his loving work of redeeming us through his sacrificial crucifixion and glorious resurrection.
The Land on the Transjordan
The tribes of Gad and Reuben requested the land on the east coast of Jordan, to raise their large herds of livestock. Moses feared that doing so would discourage their brothers. However, the people of Gad and Reuben did not make this decision to avoid removing the Canaanites from the land; they just wanted the land. So, they promised they would fight with their brothers and not return to their houses until every tribe had received their inheritance. Based on this commitment, Moses allowed them to acquire the land east of the Jordan. Half of the tribe of Manasseh joined them. “In this chapter of the book of Numbers, we will see an ancient version of the problem of having too much…The temptation that faced the Reubenites and Gadites was to settle in a place dictated by their possessions, not by the Lord’s promise…The key word in the first verse is the verb ‘They saw.’ Seeing in the Bible…is often the exact opposite of faith…Eve ‘saw’ that the fruit of the tree of knowledge was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and so she ate the forbidden fruit instead of believing God’s Word that the fruit was not good. The result was disaster for humanity. Later, when Lot ‘saw’ that the plain of the Jordanian was well watered, like the Garden of the Lord or like the land of Egypt, he chose to separate from Abraham and settle in the unpromised land to the east of the Jordan (Genesis 13:10). Choosing with our eyes often leads us into spiritually dangerous places—places that may then be hard to leave because our possessions weigh us down and hold us there. Wherever our possessions are, there our heart is also. This was exactly what happened with the Reubenites and Gadites. Their wealth of cattle combined with the grazing potential of the Transjordan plain prompted them to ask if they might receive the area of the Transjordan…rather than crossing the Jordan with the remainder of the people into the Promised Land proper…somewhere other than where God had called them to live because it was more suitable to their lifestyle…This is surely a prime temptation of affluence: the more we have, the more comfortable we become with what we have, and the harder it is to give it up for the sake of others. We become inwardly focused on maintaining our own personal standard of living, and we easily lose sight of the needs of our brothers and sisters. We become self-sufficient and isolated from others…Moses pointed out the likely impact of their desire…[and] reminded the Reubenites and Gadites that their decision might well turn the fears of the remainder of the Israelites away from the Promised Land.” (4) “Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the Lord has given them? Your fathers did this, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.” (Numbers 32:7) “The halfheartedness of the Reubenites and Gadites might become contagious and lead to Israel’s failing to follow through with the conquest. Such an outcome would inevitably have resulted in the Lord’s judgment descending on the whole people, just as it did in Numbers 14. It is the same way with [us]…to settle down comfortably to enjoy what we have, without any thought of God’s call on our lives, never simply affects ourselves…If I am cool toward God, comfortably satisfied with what I already have, then that coolness will dampen my neighbor’s enthusiasm for God. Equally, if I am on fire for the Lord, passionately pursuing a life of holiness and service, then something of that heat will radiate out to those around me. We never live our lives in a vacuum. Our commitment, or lack of commitment, affects the body as a whole…Sight is content with the best that this world has to offer…Faith, however, looks beyond…this world, not merely when life is going badly but even when life is at its very best. Faith’s eyes are always set onward, always looking beyond this , always straining for a glimpse of the land of promise.” (5)
The Ongoing Conflict
But “The Reubenites and Gadites responded to Moses’ rebuke with a fresh initiative that met the desires of both sides…They committed themselves to a ‘No man left behind’ policy. That in itself was an expression of their faith, for if the Lord did not grant his people the land he had promised them, the Reubenites and Gadites would be permanently committed to a life of war…They followed through faithfully on their commitment to stay with Israel throughout that struggle to the very end and were finally sent home with Joshua’s blessing in Joshua 22…[Yet, when] they returned home in Joshua 22, they set up an altar near the Jordan River, at the border between their territory and that of the Israelites. That simple act almost caused a war to break out between the two halves of Israel, until the Reubenites and Gadites clarified the fact that it was not a sacrificial altar but rather an altar to act as a witness to their share in the Lord (Joshua 22:28)…The risk of misunderstanding and miscommunication were constantly present because of the land they had chosen as an inheritance.” (6) When Israel failed to exterminate all the Midianites for their earlier sin, and two tribes settled in the Transjordan instead of Canaan, the nation was in conflict. We will also experience internal and external strife unless we will live by faith, not sight. “How do we keep our eyes fixed on the goal of Heaven and our hearts longing with a holy discontent for the things that are above? The answer is to fix our eyes on Jesus.” (7) “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:11-14)
Related Scripture: Genesis 15:12-15; Numbers 25:17; Deuteronomy 20:10-18; Joshua 4:13; 22; 1 Samuel 15:1-3; 30:22-25; Ecclesiastes 2:1-11; Matthew 19:21-22; Luke 12:13-21.
Notes:
1. Duguid, Iain M., Numbers—God’s Presence in the Wilderness, Numbers 31, Crossway Books, 2006.
2. Duguid, Ibid.
3. Duguid, Ibid.
4. Duguid, Numbers 32, Ibid.
5. Duguid, Ibid.
6. Duguid, Ibid.
7. Duguid, Ibid.
December 7, 2023
Divine Wisdom for Daily Living by Joanne Colvin 