Read Numbers
30-31 & Mark
9:30-50
To discover:
As you read consider how you would justify these events to a
sceptic.
To ponder:
The section on worship concludes with limits on vows that
reflect the particular responsibility and authority given to men within
Israelite households. The principle is that oaths are binding and so should not
be made rashly. Jesus makes just this point: “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your
‘No’, ‘No’; anything beyond that comes from the evil one.” (Matt 5v37)
A woman is
exempt from keeping her vow if she is in her father’s house and he forbids it,
or married and her husband forbids it. However if these men say nothing, they
confirm the oath. If they forbid it much later, they are responsible for the
women’s guilt in then breaking it. The fact that the vows of widowed or
divorced women stand, show these laws don’t suggest women are not spiritually
mature or responsible enough to make oaths. Rather, they seek to maintain order
within households. They remind us of the need to consider not just ourselves,
but those close to us in the commitments we make. And they look to the NT call
for Christian wives to submit to their husbands, and husbands to lovingly embrace
their responsibility for their families (Eph 5v22-33).
Chapter 31
is obviously hard reading. It is clear the destruction of the Midianites in Moab
(there were others elsewhere) is Moses’ last act of obedience and God’s
command, bringing his judgement on them for leading Israel
into immorality and idolatry. However, God does not show partiality. He has
already put 24,000 Israelites to death for this sin (Num 25), and promises that
even Moses is about to die for his. So God regards doing what is right
according to his holiness and justice as more important than human life. And he
considers leading people away from him as particularly serious. Jesus taught it
would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around one’s
neck! (Lk 17v1-3)
Throughout God’s
orderliness is also displayed in organising the army and in the tithes. A
thousand men from each tribe enter battle with Eleazar’s son and articles from
the sanctuary and the trumpets. They signify God’s presence (10:9). Every
Midianite man, including Balaam, is killed. However, Moses rebukes the
commanders for saving the women, because they were the ones who sinned with Israel.
We learn too, that it was Balaam who enticed them to. All the boys and sexually
active women are therefore killed. These women might have been pregnant, so this
ended Midianite descent, but also safeguarded Israel
against being led astray again by the women, or by Midianite husbands when the
boys grew up. The girls are allowed to remain and marry the soldiers. They
therefore become part of the covenant people of God, and so share in their
coming blessings in the land.
Despite
this all being God’s will, the men and their equipment has become unclean from
contact with dead bodies, and so must be properly purified. Moreover, a tithe
“for the LORD” is to be given from the spoils. From the soldiers’ half, one in
five hundred people and various animals is given to the priesthood. From the
people’s half, one in fifty is given to the Levites. The detail is meticulously
recorded to show all was done “as the LORD commanded,” but also because the
spoil was part of Israel’s
inheritance. And in acknowledgement that “not one” soldier went missing, the
commanders brought an extra offering of “gold articles” acquired “to make
atonement.” This was a “memorial for the Israelites” (31v54), and so reflected
the commanders’ awareness of Israel’s
sins – perhaps with the Midianites.
Praying it home:
Thank God that through Christ he has pacified his great
anger at us because of our sin. Pray for his help to appreciate the
righteousness of his holiness, justice and wrath.
Thinking further:
Later we will see God commanding that Israel
destroy absolutely everything with respect to the nations in Canaan
itself. This event is different. It comes not as the judgement on the
Canaanites God predicted to Abraham (Gen 15v16-21), and which would require
absolute annihilation so that Israel
are not harassed in the land or enticed from the Lord. This was specifically
God’s “vengeance” on the Midianites for their sin with Israel.
Vengeance, ie. “retribution” is seen negatively today, partly because we
consider justice to be predominantly about rehabilitation, and retribution to
be uncontrolled and stemming from erratic, unreasonable and self-centred anger.
However, God’s anger and so vengeance reflects his righteousness and so is
utterly controlled, fitting and pure. Nevertheless, as this event shows, it is
also terrifying, revealing how serious sin is - especially that which leads
people from the Lord. It should therefore move us to cling to Christ.
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