Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20120701.htm

Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XLV: Aligning With God's Perfect Holiness For Great Blessing
(Numbers 31:1-54)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Skeptics of the Bible have long alleged that Numbers 31, the passage we are scheduled to study today in our exposition of the book of Numbers, is primary evidence that the God of the Old Testament is not the Good God it claims to present, that the Bible is thus not God's inspired Word, and that the Christian faith is false. (apologeticspress.org, "The Killings of Numbers 31")

    The verses attracting the most attention are Numbers 31:17-18 NIV that read: "Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." (Ibid.) Critics charge these verses show "God seemingly gives no reason for killing defenseless women and male children. In addition, it has been suggested that the young girls mentioned in the account were spared so that the Israelite men" could abuse them. (Ibid.)

    Due to such Scripture passages, noted early American deist and opponent of Biblical Christianity, Thomas Paine, in his work, Age of Reason, 1795 (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1924, reprint), p. 90 wrote: "Whence arose the horrid assassinations of whole nations of men, women and infants, with which the Bible is filled . . . but from this impious thing called revealed religion, and this monstrous belief that God has spoken to man?" (Ibid., "The Killings of Numbers 31")

    Consequently, skeptics have echoed such criticism to where today, it is a popular view taught in secular colleges and universities.



    We then ask, "If God's character, the Bible's truthfulness and the whole Christian faith are at stake, what happened in Numbers 31, and why?!"

    Need: "If our whole faith is at stake, what happened in Numbers 31?"

  1. First, the Midianite virgins were not kept alive for Israel's men to abuse: Exodus 21:7-11 reveals they were meant to be concubines or wives of their masters or their masters' sons, so God gave them the rights of wives or daughters, Z. P. E. B., v. 5, p. 456; net.bible.org.
  2. Second, the Midianite women and boys were horribly corrupted, so they had to die to protect Israel's own social structure:
    1. Numbers 25:1-15 shows pagan Midianite Baal Peor cult prostitutes had seduced 24,000 of Israel's men into adulterous Baal Peor idolatry, so God in Numbers 31:1-2 directed Israel to attack the Midianites.
    2. From Numbers 31:16, we learn the Midianite action had been advised by the diviner Balaam who aimed to make Israel's men sin and incur God's wrath, leaving Israel vulnerable to defeat by the Midianites.
    3. Thus, after Israel's soldiers slew all of the Midianite warriors but had kept their women and children alive, Moses was furious that the very women who had seduced Israel's men, leading to the execution of 24,000 men in Israel, had been kept alive, Num. 31:15-16 with 25:9.
    4. These Midianite cult prostitutes, who were exceedingly lewd (The Wycliffe Bible Com., 1971, p. 149), would corrupt the men if allowed to live, destroying Israel's society, so they had to die, Num. 31:17b.
    5. The Midianite boys also had to die for two reasons: (1) rearing them in Israel would destroy the inheritance of Israel's sons, Ibid.; Numbers 31:17a. (2) Also, Baal cults practiced incest (Lev. 18:4-27), so untold numbers of the boys were already badly abused, and could not be allowed enter Israel and unleash their learned abuse on others.
    6. Only the uncorrupted Midianite virgin girls could enter Israel's society without harming it, so they were spared, and given the rights of wives or daughters in Israel's families, Numbers 31:18; Ibid.
  3. Third, the LESSON of Numbers 31 is that God does not tolerate sin, but if His people Biblically address it, He greatly blesses them:
    1. Numbers 31:1-2 reveals that God does not tolerate sin in ANYONE:
      1. God's call for Israel to take vengeance on Midian is given with His reference to this war being Moses' last assignment before he was to die for his own sin, Numbers 31:1-2; 20:1-13. Thus, rebellion in even the great prophet Moses required his death before God.
      2. This follows God's required execution of Israel's 24,000 men who yielded to the seduction of the Midianite women, Numbers 25:9.
      3. Accordingly, God called for the death of the Midianites who had fueled God's judgment on Israel's men, Numbers 31:1-2; 25:1-3.
    2. Israel handled the Midianite wrong in God's will, Numbers 31:3-24:
      1. The Midianite warriors, overseers who consented to Balaam's plan to have their women seduce Israel's men, were slain, Num. 31:3-7.
      2. The Midianite leaders, including Balaam who counseled the plan of seduction, were slain for their role in the sin, Numbers 31:8, 16.
      3. The Midianite women, the vehicles of Israel's seduction, though at first only captured by Israel's army, were directed by Moses to be slain for their seductive role in Israel's sin, Num. 31:9-12, 13-18.
      4. Of necessity, the Midianite boys had to be slain to salvage Israel's existence opposite Balaam's original plan, "II, D" above.
      5. Only the Midianite girls could be salvaged without destroying the nation, so they were honorably assimilated in Israel, "II, E" above.
      6. After God's required executions occurred, Israel's warriors heeded His directives in the Law on ritual purification, Numbers 31:19-24.
    3. Accordingly, God greatly rewarded the nation Israel, Num. 31:25-54:
      1. God richly blessed Israel with the spoils of war, Num. 31:25-47:
        1. The spoils were equally divided between the men who had fought Midian and the rest of the nation, Numbers 31:25-27.
        2. God had the soldiers give 1/500th of their share of the spoils to the priests and the nation 1/50th to the Levites, Num. 31:28-31.
        3. The spoils listed in Numbers 31:32-47 were massive, so Israel was very blessed for fulfilling God's will to punish Midian.
      2. This blessing was especially noted by the soldiers who executed God's punishment on the Midianites, Numbers 31:48-54:
        1. When Israel's soldiers numbered themselves after fighting the Midianites, they found none of them had died, Num. 31:48-49.
        2. Grateful for God's protection, the soldiers gave another 6,700 ounces (419 lbs.) of gold worth $10 million from their spoils, Num. 31:50-53! (Ryrie St. Bib., KJV, 1978, ftn. to Num. 31:52)
        3. This donation went into the tabernacle treasury as a memorial of God's blessing for Israel's proper handling of sin, Num. 31:54.
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ for salvation from sin, John 3:16. (2) When called of God to do so, may we Biblically punish sin, siding with God's perfect holiness and find His great reward.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 (1) Though some skeptics try to claim the Bible's God in Numbers 31 was cruel toward the Midianite women and children, the opposite is actually proving to be true TODAY (as follows):

(a) The lead editorial in last Monday's nationwide paper, USA TODAY, p. 6A ("Sandusky child molestation case teaches wider lessons") told of some of the horrid abuses committed against boys by former Penn State assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky.

(b) However, it also noted how "10,000 young people had been victimized by 1990" by "priests . . . in the Catholic Church". Yet, "high-ranking church officials continued to cover up the abuse, and over decades knowingly left abusive priests unpunished and in positions of power where they could continue victimizing . . .", Ibid.

Opposite this, The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1986, p. 294 ("Inspiration of Scripture") asserts: "Foremost in the Catholic teaching concerning the Sacred Scriptures is . . . that God is the author of the Sacred Books," and Jude 7 of those Scripture books calls such abuse sin, and 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 directs that the guilty be removed from church fellowship. Thus, failure to heed its Scriptures on handling sin led the Catholic Church into the victimizing of 10,000 children!

(c) Nevertheless, some evangelicals are not far behind. The Coming Evangelical Crisis, gen. ed., John H. Armstrong, 1996, p. 37, reports some evangelicals are claiming "the authority of Scripture appears to be culturally relative," leading to "ethical revisionism" and being "increasingly open to homosexuality and abortion," Ibid., p. 41.

(d) This affects us locally, too: a woman attending a Gospel preaching church in our area was told by a doctor there that she should abort her unborn child because the baby might have problems!

Thankfully, she refused that doctor's advice, but this shows that even in our area, some evangelicals are moving away from submission to the authority of Scripture and thus from handling sin as Scripture directs, thereby putting even the vulnerable unborn at risk!

(2) Conversely, I thank God for the privilege just last week to tell one of our members about Exodus 21:22-23 that opposes abortion so she might share it with a pregnant woman who is thinking of getting an abortion to explain why she should not abort her baby!

So, heeding Scripture actually SAVES children! Thus, may we heed God's Word to address sin as He directs for blessing!