This chapter of the Bible might be the hardest one for me. We can all find sections that don’t sit well with us or teachings that grate against our cherished truths, and I think that it is important to really pay attention to those things. You see, these are the parts of the Bible that teach us the most. If I read my favorite Bible verse again and again (and you should do that) it will give me comfort and reassurance. It will remind me of a belief about the world and God that I already hold dear, and that is valuable, but honestly insufficient. Insufficient because God is bigger than my understanding. The parts of the Bible that contradict my expectations and offend my sensibilities are the ones that grow me the most and require the most submission to God. When God is telling me what I want to hear and expect him to say, submission to him is easy! Am I willing to let God be God when I don’t understand? That is the most important question because it shows me if I really believe in the God who is or if I have fabricated a God that only fits what I want God to be. It is fundamentally about who gets to be in charge; when I see God make decisions that I wouldn’t make, can I resign myself to trust him? What can we learn from Numbers 31?

Destruction is part of God’s work in the world. That was hard for me to type, and it was probably hard to read, but it is true. There are many examples in the Bible, so how do we make sense of them? The times when God brings destruction, it is always limited. Destruction is never the point, but there are times when it is necessary to cease the exponential increase of suffering and injustice. When God brings destruction, he does so to put an end to a greater destruction that is going to happen. God is divine and doesn’t owe us an explanation, but often gives us one anyway. God also only brings destruction after there has been ample opportunity to change course. We see this in the story of the destruction of Sodom in Genesis 18, and to learn more, read my devotion on that passage from last month. When we read this story about the destruction of the Midianites it is critical that we remember that God isn’t destroying them because they are Midianites. Moses married a Midianite woman, and Jethro’s father-in-law was not only a Midianite priest but someone Moses looked to for advice and support as he led God’s people.

So, we must remember that this war waged by God isn’t about race or about who the Midianites are, but about what they have done and what they will do. Only God knows the hearts of people, and only God can make the most somber call to say that enough is enough. If God is really God, he has the right to unmake what he has made. We know God’s heart, and this isn’t a blithely made choice, but God uses war to end the injustice and idolatry of Midian. Why? Because God is enacting the great rescue of the whole world from sin through the faithfulness of the Hebrew people, and this plan culminates in Christ. Too much is at stake, and because Midian tried to undo God’s salvific work, history itself was at an impasse. By making space for God’s chosen people when their enemies would have done away with them, God was choosing nothing less than to bless the world through Jesus.

God of all wisdom, humble me. I am a simple person who cannot understand your ways or contemplate the terror of the choices that you have had to make. Knowing that you are love, and that you do not will any to perish, I cannot imagine how you experience war. I have empathy for the families that are torn apart and the lives lost; how much more do those horrors affect you? Thank you, gracious God, for choosing to save us even though we have fallen so far from who we are meant to be. Never forget your unfailing love, and let your kingdom come. Amen.

Questions for reflection:

  1. WWI was called the war to end all wars. That obviously is not how that turned out, but if the wars that God fought to make a space for his people so that salvation could come through the Son of David named Jesus, could you use that term for these wars? (see Psalm 46:7-11)
  2. War is never God’s hope or goal. What is God’s goal in this section of Numbers?
  3. What would have happened if God sat idly by while the Hebrew people were either destroyed or consumed by the idolatrous nations around them?