Conquest of the Midianites

It appears that participation in pagan sex rituals had become pandemic and flagrant, as evidenced by the altercation involving Phineas and the speared couple. The fall-out for the nation of Israel was the plague that killed 24,000, but there was retribution to be paid to the Midianites as well. At God's command, an army of 12,000 was sent in to destroy them. No doubt His hand was upon the mission, as not a single casualty was sustained on the Israelite side. But all five Midianite kings were executed as well as our old friend Balaam, who was said to have advised the Midianites in the scheme to lure the Israelite men into idolatry. This episode offers a further clue as to who Balaam was. He had been prevented from cursing the Israelites at Balak's request, Balak being the Moabite king and neighbor of the Midianites. He must have hoped for another chance to work with Balak, because he apparently remained in the land as his strategic adviser. So regardless of whether or not he started out as a follower of God, he did not finish as one.

When the soldiers return with the spoils of war, Moses was angry to find that they had not killed the women who were complicit in the sin involving Baal worship . Only the young girls and virgins, neither of whom could possibly have taken part in the sex rites with the Israelite men, were spared. The text reads that the Israelites were told that they could "keep them for themselves", which meant that the girls became their household slaves as was permitted for prisoners of war. A certain percentage were set aside for the Lord, to be servants used by the Levites in the service of the Tabernacle.

This again seems like a really harsh punishment, but I read a great analogy that helped me reconcile it. The pervasive sin of idolatry and intermixing with pagan women was like a cancer in the nation of Israel. If God tolerated it, it would continue to spread. That is human nature and we see it with our own children. The "cancer" had to be cut out from the community in order to maintain it's health and vitality. When a person's life is at stake due to cancer, that tumor must be excised in order to preserve the life of the one afflicted. The cutting away of the cancer is painful and regrettable, but absolutely necessary. We have to remember the bigger picture, that the Israelites could not possibly have seen. God was using their lineage to bring forth the Savior of the world and to set up the back-story for his life and sacrificial death. In God's economy, this would have been a no-brainer, for the integrity of His people and His plan was at stake.

Tomorrow's reading: Numbers 32-33