Year 1, Day 146: Numbers 31

Holy War

For most of us modern American Christians, Numbers 31 is a bit of a difficult passage to read.  We are not often given the command of the Lord to begin a holy war.  We have a tendency to balk a bit when we hear the command from Moses – who got it from God – to kill not just the men but also the young boys and any women who were no longer virgins.  That is a difficult decree for many of us modern and civilized Christians to hear.  It may strike us a bit too close to the concept of jihad or other suck expressions.

However, faith is not easy and there are many lessons that we should learn whether they are comfortable for us or not.  As we get to the conquest of Canaan in the book of Joshua we are going to have many such lessons.  Part of our problem in dealing with these passages is that while we have conditioned ourselves to know that we cannot judge a person’s guilt, innocence, or their true nature – God can and does.  God can know a person’s guilt.

Return of Balaam

Now, with respect to the specifics of this passage – let’s take a brief overview.  We’ve already begun to speak of the effects of the war, so let’s pick up two more tidbits.  Balaam is slain and the text seems to indicate that not a single Hebrew soldier is lost in the process.  The issue of Balaam is another hard pill for me to swallow, because ultimately in the end he did offer blessings and not curses upon the Hebrew people a few chapters ago.  Yet, he did remain a Midianite.  He did return to his home with Balak and the other princes after blessing Israel.  We also know that he was really in it for the money anyways.  So ultimately I see why he was killed among the Midianites. 

I guess I struggle with this part of the story because here is a man who has all the evidence of the true God – he even gets prophetic messages from God – yet Balaam refuses to come to terms with God and come over to God’s side.  Perhaps I struggle with Balaam so much not because I see any great injustice done to him as much as I see so many people in this world who are in the same boat as Balaam and it saddens me.  We have all the evidence of God we could ever need, yet we run from God so often.

No Loss of Hebrew Life

The other interesting tidbit of the beginning of the war is that the report is no loss of Hebrew life.  This would be utterly amazing.  But when you think about it, what better way for God to begin the conquest of the land?  What better way for God to indicate Himself to this new Hebrew nation immediately after hearing of the final demise of the last of the wicked generation?  I think in those terms, this story makes a ton of sense.

Along those lines, notice that the people actually do what the Lord commands of them.  Four times in this chapter that expression is used!  (Numbers 31:7, 31, 41, 47)  What an incredible contrast to the rebellion of the prior generation.  In spite of strict orders, the people follow God’s command.  When we add this dynamic to the fact that the prior generation is dead, I think the fact that the text reports no Hebrew casualties makes even more sense.  At this point, the people are right in line with God.  Why shouldn’t things go well for them?

Return to Sacrifices

Finally, I’d like to talk a little bit about the sacrificing going on after the Midianite war.  First, notice that the soldiers were made to follow the cleanliness policy.  They killed – even at the direction of God! – and were subsequently unclean. 

That doesn’t mean they sinned.  Sin is going against God’s ways and clearly the people did not do this.  I think that this is one of the things that we really lose sight of in our modern way of thinking.  There are really two scales of judgment: holy and unholy as well as clean and unclean.  As we see here, a person can be holy and still be unclean.  A person can be separate from the world and following God’s direction but still become unclean because of their interaction with the world.  We must always be careful to not bring the idea of “sin” into the determination of “clean and unclean.” 

Sin more rightly belongs in the determination of “holy and unholy.”  When we sin, we go against God and are unholy – no longer separate from the world.  Yet just because a person is acting in a holy way – separate from the world – does not imply that their cleanliness is maintained, either.

This is important.  People assume that if they just follow God then they are great.  In one sense of the comment that is absolutely true.  So long as we follow God we are certainly one of His children and a child of the promise.  In that sense, we are holy – separate from the world.  But just because we follow God does not mean that we are ready to do anything for God.  Let me give you a real life situation leading up to one of the worst Sunday worship services I have ever led.

Several months after my ordination, Cara and I were in bed reading late one Saturday night.  Suddenly, we heard a car zoom past our house and we could tell that they were in no way obeying the speed limit.  About a quarter mile after our house was a sharp turn to the left.  We heard tires squealing and the horrible sound of a crash.  We lived in a pretty rural area and didn’t expect that many people heard this incident.  So we jumped out of bed and into our car and arrived quickly on the scene of an accident.  The car was overturned, there was broken glass everywhere, there was a huge smear of blood on the road, and the driver was nowhere to be found.  We called it in and began looking for the man until the police and emergency response team showed up.  Even after that we continued to help.  The man was eventually found, received the medical care he needed, and there was no loss of life.

Now, certainly that was something that I can lift up and say that Cara and I were acting in righteousness.  We demonstrated God’s care and compassion for the driver of the car.  However, the events of the night left me with little sleep and a mind that was not ready to focus on worshipping God during the service the following day – much less leading other people to worship God! 

Certainly there was no sin involved in the act of helping the driver, but at the same time I was not ready to do what God called me to do as a worship leader.  I was distracted mentally and spiritually.  I was worn out mentally and spiritually.  I was not burdened with sin from the event, but being out in the world had made me unfit for service in God’s worship.  It would have been better for someone else to lead that morning.

I hope this story helps bring about an understanding of what I am trying to say here.  Just because we are righteous does not mean we are clean.  Just because we do what God calls us to do does not mean that we are in a place to do anything we want for God.  Sometimes we need to follow God and realize that in following God we have made ourselves unfit for other aspects of following God.  So like the Hebrew warriors, we sit outside the camp purifying our minds and our bodies from our righteous interaction with the world.

I hope my point here comes across, and I hope this will give you something to ponder as you go through this day.

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