Numbers 28-31

February 20

Numbers 28-31

Even though the Israelites continue to rebel against God time after time, God continues to bless them and extend His grace to them. In order for a holy God to remain dwelling with His people, the people must continually cleanse themselves of their sin. God expects them to walk in obedience to Him, but provides provision for them when they do not. Sin cannot be winked at and ignored. There are consequences for our disobedience. God gave the Israelites daily, weekly, and monthly offerings to be made by the priest in order to cleanse Israel of her sin. He also gave them annual feast to celebrate to remind them of God’s deliverance of them from their enemies.

Chapter 31 deals with Israel’s battle with the Midianites. The Midianites included the Moabites who seduced the Israelites into sin. This battle seems gruesome by our standards. God instructs the Israelites to take vengeance on the Midianites. The Israelites wipe out every Midianite man they find and also kill women and children and take all their possessions as booty. Why would God make such a command? How does this apply to our world today?

First we have to remember that the Midianites represent those who bring temptation to God’s people and encourage them to turn away from God. God had instructed the Israelites not to associate with the gods of the people in the lands where they were going. The Israelites did not listen to God and not only were involved in sexual immorality, but also turned toward the idols of the Midianites so committed idolatry. God’s desire is to cleanse His people of all sin. The Midianites were a source of corruption, so God had the Israelites remove them.

We must understand that this is not a command for Christians today to wipe out those who do not believe in Jesus. But what we do need to apply to our lives is that we need to remove the sin from our lives. We can purge those things or people who tempt us to turn our backs on God so we can do our own thing.  We can get rid of material thing that lead us away from God. We do not wipe out people in the name of God, but we don’t have to hang out with people or go places that tempt us.

God wants us to love Him with all our hearts, minds, soul, and strength. Anything that interferes with that relationship needs to be removed or changed.