03.03.2015 Old Testament: Num 31.3–11

To read the Bible in a year, read Numbers 30–31 on March 3, In the year of our Lord 2015

By Don Ruhl

The Midianites resisted Israel, and the Midianites paid for it, not because of Israel’s arrogance, but because the Midianites were sinners before the Lord and He used Israel to punish them,

So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm some of yourselves for war, and let them go against the Midianites to take vengeance for the Lord on Midian. A thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the war.” So there were recruited from the divisions of Israel one thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war…and they killed all the males. They killed the kings of Midian…Balaam the son of Beor they also killed with the sword. And the children of Israel took the women of Midian captive, with their little ones, and took as spoil all their cattle, all their flocks, and all their goods. They also burned with fire all the cities where they dwelt, and all their forts. And they took all the spoil and all the booty—of man and beast (Numbers 31.3–11). 

The children of Israel were not to take the women, and Moses rebuked the warriors for it, and ordered the deaths of the women, except for the virgins.

Similarly let no nation today stand in the way of the kingdom of God, for then they shall be opposing the God of heaven, and that is a war they cannot win.