Rev. Don Campbell
Numbers 31-32
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, March 8, 2019
“VENGEANCE BELONGS TO THE LORD”
Moses’ last act as commander in chief of Israel was to direct the armed men to take vengeance on Midian for their attack against Israel. Israel killed five kings of Midian and they also killed Balaam; however, they spared all the females. Moses rebuked them: “Have you let all the women live? Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves” (Num 31:16-18). These instructions sound cruel and heartless to us, but it would be more heartless to allow these women to seduce the Israelites to become Baal worshipers. We must never forget that these were God’s instructions.
This event does not reflect the Christian ethic, and it is not supposed to. Israel was a physical nation with physical boundaries. It had not only a right, but a duty to protect those boundaries not only from attacking armies but from subversive forces within. In contrast, Paul wrote: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). The only sword we are to wield is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17).
CONNECTIONS – Matthew 26:52, Luke 22:35-38, Acts 10
1. When Jesus said, “Put your sword into its place. For all who take the sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52), was he forbidding believers to arm themselves for protection? If so, what is the significance of Luke 22:35-38?
2. When Cornelius who was a commander of a Roman army unit was converted, Peter did not command him to leave the army (Acts 10). Is there any place in the New Testament where a soldier or police officer was commanded to abandon their vocation?
