Day 067 (Numbers 31-32) - Year 7
07:58 Share

Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Remember the Midianites? Think back to Numbers 25. Balaam the prophet was on the mountain with Balak, refusing to curse the Israelites. Then, immediately after this, in Numbers 26, we see a scene where the Israelite men are whoring with the Midianite women, and a plague breaks out where God kills 24,000 people.

Then, Phineas, Aaron's grandson, personally kills an Israelite and the Midianite chief's daughter he's having a little rendezvous with, and that's what led up to where we are today. God tells Moses that his final assignment before death is to kill the Midianites. Moses rallies 12,000 men for the task, plus Phineas, son of the high priest, who acts as a sort of chaplain.

He takes some of the holy vessels, though he don't know which ones, and some trumpets. They kill all the men of the land. And you may have noticed that Balaam was included among them, because he advised Balak on how to trip up the Israelites, specifically using the wiles of the women.

After winning the battle, the Israelite warriors bring the women and children back to the Israelite encampment, which was what they typically did after winning a battle. But this isn't just any battle. This is a battle whose primary cause is these women. So Moses ordered the death of all the women who weren't virgins, the women who initiated the idolatry and the loss of 24,000 lives.

It's possible some of the soldiers had even brought back the very women who had led them astray. And even if they weren't the same women, this was still trouble waiting to happen. The husbands of all these idol-worshiping women were all dead now, so they would likely seek out new husbands from among the Israelites, which could recreate the problem all over again. By ordering them to be put to death, Moses was safeguarding against another possible outbreak of idolatry and plague—

After the warriors had purified both themselves and their plunder, all of which had been made impure through the deaths of the battle, God tells them how to divide the plunder between warriors, civilians, priests, and God's portion. You may have noticed that part of what they brought back from the land were 32,000 virgin females. So what did they do with these? These women, likely young women or girls, would be absorbed into the Israelite community and would eventually be allowed to marry into the Israelites if they turned to God.

and the portion of them that were the Lord's tribute likely ended up working in the service of the sanctuary. Afterward, the Israelites count up all their men, and not a single one of them had died in battle. That is remarkable, miraculous even. Then, because they took a census, they needed to make a ransom payment based on the lives God brought safely back from war. So they offer up gold from their plunder, roughly 500 pounds of it.

For this next section, we've included a link to a map in the show notes in case you're visual. First, what we need to know is that the Jordan River runs north to south. God's allotment of land for the 12 tribes was a little sliver of land west of the Jordan River and east of the Mediterranean Sea. It was long and narrow and roughly the size of New Jersey.

At this point in the story, the Israelites are on the east side of the Jordan River. They're not yet in the Promised Land. They're in the land they won back in Numbers 21 when they defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan. If you're looking at a modern-day map, the land they're currently in is part of what is modern-day Jordan.

The land is apparently pretty fertile because two of the more agriculturally driven tribes really like it. Reuben and Gad want to stay there, even though this isn't part of the land initially promised by God. They approach Moses about it, and he is not having it. He thinks they're just like their parents. They either don't believe God's promise to give them the land of Canaan, or they're afraid to fight the Canaanites when they do get there.

He's having flashbacks from when the ten spies doubted, and he got stuck living in the wilderness for 38 more years. He probably just wants to die already, and he's terrified that these guys are going to screw it up for him and everyone. But they're like, no, Moses, pull up a rock, sit down, let us explain. And they tell him they'll totally cross the Jordan River along with everyone and fight for Canaan, but they just want to be able to come back to this land when it's all said and done.

So Moses agrees, but he warns them that if they break their promise, they won't get the land after all. His response implies that they've made a vow to God, kind of like the ones we read about yesterday. Reuben and Gad settle into their land, and after defeating some additional people, so does the half-tribe of Manasseh. By the way, this is the first time we've seen the term half-tribe mentioned in the Bible.

Here's what happened. At some point, the people of Manasseh divided among itself. So half of the tribe of Manasseh will settle east of the Jordan River, outside the original land of the promise, along with the tribes of Reuben and Gad. These are known as the Transjordanian tribes because they are across the Jordan.

Since the promised land was always about a specific plot of land, this may or may not be a problem in the grand scheme of things. Historians and theologians have different views on this situation, but they mostly boil down to some version of these two opinions. A. That is not the land that God allotted them, so it's not holy land. Or B. Land that is won in a holy war also belongs to God, so this land is equally honorable for them to dwell in.

What is not contested is that God's name is all over these pages. So where did you see him at work today? My God shot was when I saw how seriously he takes my fidelity to him. Even though we don't see it being specifically commanded by God, Moses was commanding that all the temptation for Israel be eradicated when he called for the killing of all the Midianite women. He knew that falling into apostasy would mean the Israelites would be under the death sentence themselves.

The Puritan writer John Owen said, "'Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.'" Neither he nor I are talking about killing people here, but about killing temptation. Do I treat my temptations the way Moses did, like they're a predator out to destroy me? Or do I try to tame them and keep them for myself like the soldiers did? God is so vigilant for my heart, and He knows it's not easy to be strong.

He wants the temptations eradicated if they might lead me to forget that my deepest joy is found in Him. May God's Spirit always help me to remember that He's where the joy is.

If you've been watching The Chosen, you know Season 5 is coming to theaters on March 28th. And we've got a sneak peek for you where you can experience what it might have looked like as the religious leaders plotted to kill Jesus. We've linked to the full clip in our show notes. Tragically, Jesus has now forced us into a situation where to protect our people, we must consider drastic measures. If the people are following a man falsely claiming he raised Lazarus from death,

We make sure he's dead. A lot of you use our plan on the Bible app to keep you on track with your daily reading. And a few of you use our daily Instagram stories to keep up. But...

Did you know you can have your very own printed plan? That's right. You get a printed plan and you get a printed plan and everybody gets a printed plan if you want. You can color in the boxes as you go or put a sticker on each day as you finish or surround it with doily cutouts or whatever your heart desires. To print the plan or to download it to your device, go to the start page of our website, thebiblerecap.com forward slash start.

Then look for the print users section under step one or click the link in the show notes.