All right, good morning, church family.
Let me invite you to find your seat.
And as you find your seat, let me encourage you to open your
Bibles to the Book of Numbers or type in your device the Book of
Numbers, Chapter 31. This morning we're going to be
in numbers 31, one through 18. We've been going through numbers
for several months and maybe even been a year.
But now that we've been going through it, and last week we
looked at all of Chapter 30, and this morning we're going to look
at part of Chapter 31 titled the sermon this morning is this
Waging Holy war on Sin? And so I will read the text as I
go through it in the exposition. So let me open us in a word of
prayer and then we will jump into our sermon this morning.
So if you will pray with me, Father, I pray as we look at a
text this morning that I imagine for some of us, if not maybe
most of us, may be difficult to read that it's, it's it's never
easy to read about war and, and just your commands, God.
And how do we process that? And how do we especially process
that in light of the New Testament, in light of Jesus and
the new covenant? And what does this mean for us
and how do we apply this? So God, would you help us to
wrestle with this text this morning?
Help us not to be offended by it.
Help us not to dismiss it, but help us to to remember that all
the scriptures inspired and all of it is profitable, all of it
is for teaching and reproofing, correction and training in
righteousness, including texts that deal with holy war.
And so God, would you give us insight now into your word?
I pray in Jesus name, Amen. In Greek mythology, after a
decade of failed siege against Troy, the wily hero Odysseus
conceived a bold stratagem, the construction of a colossal
hollow wooden horse, a faux offering to the goddess Athena,
secretly filled with elite Greek warriors.
The Trojans, encouraged by the captive Greek Synod and hoping
that the war had ended, wheeled the horse inside their
impregnable, impregnable walls. Despite urgent cautions by the
Prophetess Cassandra and Priest Laocoon, whose cries of beware
of Greeks bearing gifts were tragically disregarded, by
nightfall the hidden soldiers emerged from the horse open
Troy's gates to the returning Greek fleet, and the once proud
city fell in a single devastating strike.
That's from ChatGPT by the way. Brothers and sisters, do you
have any Trojan horses in your life?
Sin that looks like a gift but is in fact a means of death.
We must always maintain a posture of war in the Christian
life. We are always at war because
there's always an enemy lurking, sometimes lurking, right in our
midst. We must always be waging holy
war on our sin. And that's what the sermon is
about this morning. So we're going to start with the
next vision of the text, and then I'll give us application at
the end. So let's start looking at verses
one and two. We'll read it section by
section. Numbers 31, verses 1 and 2.
The Lord spoke to Moses saying, avenge the people of Israel on
the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered
to your people. So the chapter begins with God
giving Moses a command. Avenge the people of Israel on
the Midianites. Now of course this raises 2
questions. Number one, who are the
Midianites? Well, they are a people group to
the South of Israel. Midian was originally a person.
He was a son of Abraham, but he was not born through Sarah, but
rather Abraham's concubine Katura.
So the Midianites are not Israelites.
Israelites are only those that descend from Abraham and Sarah,
which would be Isaac. So they're not Israelite.
The second question is why does God say to avenge the people of
Israel on them? Well, if you remember from
Numbers 25 that we looked at a few weeks ago, the Israelite men
had begun to whore with the daughters of Moab and Midian.
One of them brought a Midianite woman to his family right in
front of the congregation, right in front of Moses and everybody.
And as a result God sent a plague upon the people of Israel
and 24,000 Israelites died. At the end of that chapter God
gave Moses very specific instructions.
He said harass the Midianites and strike them down, for they
have harassed you with their Wiles, with which they beguiled
you in the matter of pure. And so now the time has come for
that command to be with the field.
The time has come for Moses and the Israelites to carry out the
Lord's vengeance on Midian. Now after Moses finishes this
war, God says you're going to be gathered to your people, which
means you have one more war to fight Moses and then you're
going to die. Then you're coming home.
Look at verse 3 to 6. So Moses spoke to the people
saying, are men from among you for the war that they may go
against Midian. To execute the Lord's vengeance
on Midian, you shall send 1000 from each of the tribes of
Israel to the war. So they were provided out of the
thousands of Israel, 1000 from each tribe, 12,000 armed for
war, and Moses sent them to the war, 1000 from each tribe,
together with Phineas the son of Eliezer the priest, with the
vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his
hand. Now, this war that they're going
to fight against Midian is not part of the conquest of the
Promised Land, all right? So make sure we understand that
it's not part of the conquest of the promised Land.
Why? Because Midian is not part of
the promised land. This is rather a separate kind
of war, the war of vengeance. But notice not Israel's
vengeance. The text says execute the Lord's
vengeance. God said in Deuteronomy 3235
vengeance is mine and so now God instructs them to enact his
vengeance on Midian. He says send 1000 men armed in
battle, 1000 from each tribe. There are 12 tribes so 12,000
men are going to go into battle. Meaning all of Israel is to
partake in this war right? Not just one tribe, all to
equally partake in this battle. Interesting that the only
individual that God points out in this text of this battle is
Phineas. Phineas.
Now why is Phineas mentioned? Well do you remember Phineas is
the one who kicked off this war? He started it if he he killed
the first Midianite when he drove a spear through a the
Midianite woman, Cosby. But here in this text, Phineas
is not going to battle as a warrior.
Phineas is going to be going now as a priest.
Remember, he's the son of Eliezer.
So he is a priest. He's going into battle with two
items. Number one, he's going with the
vessels of the sanctuary. Now it's not clear what these
vessels are. Possibly the ark, possibly the
priestly garments, possibly the Urim and Thummim, maybe some
combination thereof. But he's going with the priestly
holy vessels. Two, he's going to go with the
trumpets for alarm in his hand. Now, what are the trumpets for?
The trumpets have two purposes. They're both stated in numbers
10. Number one, to know what camps
are to set out first and in what order.
So you know when you have 12,000 people and you're trying to
March in the battle, like who's supposed to go 1st?
And these trumpets would let them know who is supposed to go
1st and in what order they are to go.
The second reason for the trumpets God states in Numbers
10-9 where He says that you may be remembered before the Lord
your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.
In other words, when Phineas blows these trumpets in battle,
God will remember them and He will save them.
Look at verse 7. They ward against Midian as the
Lord commanded Moses and killed every male.
So the battle begins and in the battle the Israelites kill every
Midianite male. Now, three items to point out A
this doesn't mean they killed every Midianite male everywhere.
Doesn't mean every Midianite male everywhere.
We know this because we see the Midianites in the Book of
Judges. They're there so they don't kill
every Midianite male. So how do we make sense?
How do we reconcile this? Here's how to reconcile it.
The Midianites were actually a large confederation of tribes,
and they would be associated with smaller groups.
So here it is those Midianites that are associated with the
Moabites that are picked out for vengeance.
So think of it as like Midianites are just a large
confederation of tribes they would associate with, like the
Amalekites, the Moabites, and so forth.
And it's the Midianites that associate themselves with the
Moabites. Those are all the males that are
killed. But there's still other
Midianites that are going to be living, and we see them in
Judges B. This is not the only time when
the Israelites were commanded to put everyone to death or to put
most to death. When they begin the conquest of
Canaan, God is going to tell them to devote the cities to
complete destruction. When they start conquering the
promised land, when they they go into Jericho and they go into
the Hibites and the Jebusites, they're going to, God says
devote them all to complete destruction.
We even see this in first Samuel 15 when God told Saul when they
fought against the Amalekites, he says devote to destruction.
All of them do not spare them, but kill both man and woman,
child and infant. Which then raises the last Point
C How is this just? How is this just?
Yes, the sexual immorality, but does that warrant killing all
the males? How is that just?
I'll address that in the application.
Look at verse 8. They killed the kings of Midian
with the rest of their slain Evie, Reckham, Zur, her and
Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam, the
son of Bior with the sword. Now it's not uncommon in battle.
This is still true today where soldiers died, but if one side
wins the entire battle, they will spare the generals or spare
the kings. But this is not the case here.
The Israelites kill all 5 king Midianite kings.
Now we don't know these other ones are, but we remember Zur,
right? Zur.
It was his daughter Cosby that Phineas killed.
She was a daughter of one of the leaders of Midian.
And in this war, there's one of the person they killed.
They killed all the males. They killed the five kings.
There's one of the person they killed, Balaam, the son of
Biore. Now who is that?
If you've been with us the past several weeks, you remember
Balaam. He was the Pagan diviner that
Moab had hired to curse Israel. But instead God used it as an
opportunity to bless Israel. And if you remember from that
text, Balaam, after unsuccessfully trying to curse
Israel 4 * 4 times, he tries to curse them to get paid by Balaam
4 times. God keeps them from being able
to do it. And at the end of those four
times, those 4 failures, the text says then Balaam rose and
went back to his place is to be a Pagan diviner for hire.
It appears that home Balaam went and joined the Midianites.
He doesn't go home. Now that brings 2 questions up
#1 what is Balaam Midian and #2 why did Israel kill him?
And he just got through blessing them four times by God's doing.
But why did they kill him? We'll get there shortly.
Look at verse 9. The people of Israel took
captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took
us plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all their
goods. Now in verse 8 is they killed
all the males. So what they do with the women?
They took them captive along with their little ones, meaning
the young children, right? These would be young, very young
children. What is the purpose of them
taking these women captive? One of two purposes, either for
wives or for slaves, for wives or for slaves.
They take plunder as well. They take all their cattle, they
take all their flocks, they take all their goods.
This plunder will be recounted in next week's sermon.
Now it seems like letting the women and the children live is
the honourable thing to do, is it not?
You go to battle if you kill all the males, right?
You let the women and the children live.
That's the honourable thing to do.
But let's see how this plays out.
Look at verse 10 to 12. All their cities and the places
where they lived and all their encampments, they burned with
fire, and they took all the spoil and all the plunder, both
of man and beast. Then they brought the captives
in the plunder and the spoil to Moses and Eliezer the priest,
and to the congregation of the people of Israel at the camp on
the plains of Moab, by the Jordan, at Jericho.
So they take all of the Midianites, spoil, all of their
plunder, which would mean gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, lead.
They take all their sheep, their cattle, their donkeys.
They take it all. After taking all this, they set
everything on fire, all the cities and all the encampments.
And then when they come home, they take all their captives,
the women and the children. They take all the plunder and
all the spoil, and they presented as a gift to Moses and
to Eliezer and to the whole congregation.
The narrator tells us that they're still on the camp, on
the plains of Moab, by the Jordan, at the Jericho.
So they're still by Moab now as they come back and they have
this gift, Moses is going to be thrilled, right?
This is going to be so thrilled to see all this plunder and all
these women and children, right? He's going to be thrilled,
right? Look at verse 13 to 15.
Moses and Eliezer, the priests and all the chiefs of the
congregation went to meet them outside the camp.
And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the
commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds who had
come from service in the war. Moses said to them, Have you let
all the women live? So Moses, Eliezer, and the
chiefs, they go to meet the returning victors outside the
camp. I think this is probably because
they would have been considered unclean.
So they go meet them outside the camp and when it Moses sees them
returning from battle victorious with prizes, Moses is angry.
Didn't see that one coming. This is like when you win the
game and the coach is angry. You're like, we won, why are you
angry? Why is Moses angry?
He's angry with the officers of the army.
Notice he's not angry with the people, he's angry with the
leaders. Moses asked him a simple
question, but it is pregnant with conviction.
Have you let all the women live Now why does Moses ask this?
Look at verse 16. Behold these on Balaam's advice,
caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the
Lord, and the incident of pure And so the plague came upon the
congregation of of the Lord. Moses says, Behold meaning guys,
listen, look, behold these, these meaning these women on
Balaam's advice, Balaam. What was Balaam doing to Midian?
You see, Balaam couldn't curse Israel to weaken them.
He tried four times. He couldn't do it.
He realizes I cannot weaken Israel by means of God.
God will not curse them. So I'll find a back door.
I'll find a back door called Moabite and Midianite women.
He says if I can't get God stem, here's what I'll do.
I'll get God to be angry with them.
I can get God to be angry with them for their sin.
And he gives them advice to do this.
Why was Balaam killed in battle? Why did they kill this prophet
in battle? Because Balaam had become a
stumbling block to the people of Israel, Jesus said 214 Balaam
taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel
so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice
sexual immorality. Balaam went to the Moabites in
the Midianites, and he told their kings and probably their
women, saying hey, go and entice these men.
In doing so, they will. Commit sexual immorality.
They will bow down to your gods, and their God will be angry with
them, and it will weaken them. And it worked.
It worked. But there are consequences to
that. Remember what Jesus said about
stumbling blocks? Whoever causes one of these
little ones to believe in me to sin, it would be better for him
to have a great millstone fastened around neck and to be
drowned in the depth of the sea. So they killed Balaam.
Now the reason that Moses is so angry is because the commanders
of Israel let these very women live, the very same women who
led the Israelites into an idolatry.
Remember this immorality, idolatry.
It cost 24,000 Israelites their life. 24,000 died because of
this immorality and idolatry. And Moses is like, do you not
remember burying your brothers and sisters?
Do you not remarry? Remember burying these men who
died because of these women? So what is Moses going to do?
Look at verse 17 to 18. Now therefore killed every male
among the little ones, and killed 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.
Moses gives the Israelites 2 instructions here.
Number one, kill every male among the little ones.
Now I understand this sounds barbaric.
I, I'm, I'm there's no way to you know that or whitewash.
That sounds barbaric, doesn't it?
This is completely in keeping with God's instructions in other
places in Scripture. In the flood, God wiped out
everybody. Infants, children.
He wiped out everybody except for one family.
In the 10th plague, God put to death every first born of the
Egyptians, regardless of their age.
If your first born was six weeks old and you were Egyptian, your
first born male died. And with the Amalekites, God
commanded the putting the death of every child.
This is completely in keeping with God's instructions.
Another place. Now we may be wondering though.
OK OK, so that just means that God is he's, He's consistent.
He could be a consistent barbarian.
That just means he's consistent. Why do the children need to be
put to death? Surely they had nothing to do
with leading the Israelites into sin.
This is most likely to prevent future rebellion.
A Midian that these sons will one day grow up and avenge their
father's death #2 Second instruction.
God says no man by lying with him.
Keep alive all the young girls who have not known man by lying
with him. Now you may be wondering, like
as I did, why is this the line of demarcation right?
In other words, if you are a virgin, you can live.
If you're a virgin, you have to die.
Why is that the line of demarcation?
Well, let me back up for just a minute.
One way to look at it is that all the women should have died.
They all should have died, but God allowed the young girls to
be kept alive. Another way to look at it is
that women who had laid with men more than likely had already
begun worshipping false gods. If they were old enough and they
were married, or if they had committed this immorality, they
they more than likely had already engaged in worshipping
false gods. They were already says to put
these women to death so that they don't leave the Israelite
men into further idolatry. Now 2 questions remain.
A What does it mean that for the virgins you can keep for
yourselves? What does that mean?
Well, these young Midianite women who were virgins, they
could be kept and they were kept for what?
For either being wives or for being slaves.
You're like, well, why is that? Part of the principles of holy
war, part of how God set this up is that virgin women were
allowed to be captured by the Israelites and to become either
wives or slaves. This is outlined in Deuteronomy
20 and 21, which we won't have time to get into, but you can
read that on your own time. This is God outlines this
principle and Deuteronomy 20 and 21.
Now if you are wondering, what if a what if she didn't want to
be a wife? What if she didn't want to be a
slave? You could die.
We our starting point is not that we deserve to live.
Our starting point is that we deserve to die.
Everybody deserves to die. We all stand before holy God and
we all deserve to die. The fact that God lets any of us
live is unspeakable mercy and grace.
Second question is, is God OK with Israelite men marry
Midianite women? I thought they were always
supposed to marry Jews. That's actually not technically
true. The answer is yes.
He is OK with the Israelite men marry Midianite women. 2
examples to make this case. Number one, Moses married
Sephora. Zippora was a Midianite.
Moses also married a Kushite woman.
Apparently his brother and his sister had a problem with this
and God said, well here's leprosy if you have a problem
with this. So they here's another example,
Boaz married Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite.
So what was prohibited? It is clear that the Israelite
men were prohibited from intermarrying with the Canaanite
nations. They could not intermarry with
the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Jebusites,
parasites. They could not intermarry with
the Canaanites. Why?
Because the temptations to religious apostasy, in other
words, if they marry these Canaanites, they would clearly
apostasize. Or the temptation to apostasize
would be so strong. We even see that with Solomon,
who intermarried with foreign women, and it led him astray.
But if a non Canaanite woman, meaning a Moabite, A Midianite,
if a non Canaanite woman was a convert to Judaism, she would
have to convert to Judaism, just like Ruth did.
Remember, Ruth converted to Judaism.
She she chose to adhere to Naomi's religion.
Then the Israelite men could marry them, just as Boaz marries
Ruth. And that's true here too.
All right, we'll stop there with exposition, application of the
text. You're like, where are we going
with this? How are we going to get
application from killing males and women and children and so
forth #1 Our first word allocation comes from the
passage in Nahum chapter one, verse 2.
And here's how that book begins. The Lord is a jealous and
avenging God. The Lord is avenging and
wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his
adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.
Nahum was written to console the people of Israel who had been
oppressed by Nineveh. You know why for so many of us,
why war is so like hard for us to swallow?
Because we've never known it. You've never watched a foreign
country come into your land and kill your children.
Do you know what I would feel towards someone else?
If Canada or China or Mexico or India or Pakistan came into
America and put my son to death and I had to watch my sons be
put to death right before my eyes?
I feel like this. I'd want vengeance.
I'd want a God who was jealous and avenging and wrathful, who
would take vengeance on his adversaries.
Lately, these days, it it seems like if you turn on the news,
you ever noticed that? Like if you turn on the news now
a large amount of what is reported.
The other side is it's like we don't even report the news
anymore. All we do is report how that
side is awful, and then the other side reports how that side
is awful. That's not kind of all it's
become. You click on one network, this
side's ruining the country. You click on the other network,
this side's ruining the country. That's kind of all it's become.
What is at the heart of all of this?
Why is that? What?
How did we get here? What?
What's at the heart of all this? I think there's a lot of things,
but I'll sum it up. Fear.
I think that there is a great fear that people have that
people are going to get away with sin or what we think is
sin. So if we think your policies are
sin, if we think your walls or commands are said, we are so
afraid they're going to get away with it.
And the other side thinks the same thing.
This fear can all too easily creep into the church and it can
creep into families as well. You see, we see the sin of this
world, right? I mean, just go out into the
world and we see the sin of this world, how it is impacting us
and especially how it's impacting our future
generations. If you have kids and you look
around, I mean, man, this is like not that it was like, you
know, like the 50s were sin was still there, but we see how sin
is impacting and there's there's a fear.
We always want to be vigilant about the surrounding culture,
but in the midst of all this, we must not lose sight of this
reality. The Lord is a jealous and
avenging God. The Lord is avenging and
wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his
adversaries and he keeps wrath for his enemies.
You see, Moab and Midian had LED God's people into sin. 24,000 of
them paid with for it with their lives.
There may have been wives who had to bury their husbands
because he engaged in sexual immorality.
There may have been daughters who had to bury their dads
because he engaged in sexual immorality.
But God was not going to let Midian get away with this.
God was not going to sit by and let Midian and Moab deceive his
people, lead them into a morale in idolatry and let them just
go. No, God commanded Moses avenge
the people of Israel against the Midianites.
Now, what does that mean for us? We're not waging holy war
anymore. We're not waging war on ethnic
groups. We're not waging war on
nationalistic groups. We're not waging war on
political groups. We're not waging war on
organizations or corporations for this.
We must remember this. Sinners will not get away with
their sin. God will avenge the sins
committed against creation, against the church, against
against women, against children. I want to encourage you that if
you are prone, not everybody, but if you are prone to getting
stressed out or anxious or maybe even angry at the sins world,
keep in mind our God is not a passive God.
He is an avenging God. He will avenge every sin
committed against US, against humanity.
He will take care of it. Two, God has called us to wage
holy war on our sin. God has called us to wage holy
war on our sin. When you read this text, there
are some graphic terms in it, aren't there?
Words like avenge, war, execute, vengeance, killed.
You see, God was not sending the Israelites to go and engage in
diplomatic relations with the Midianites.
He didn't say, hey, go see if you can seek out the terms of
peace with them. Go try to negotiate with them.
They weren't trying to find a compromise.
God sent them into Midian for one purpose and and the same
mission still stands today. Except instead of Midian insert
our sin, God has called us to wage holy war on our sin.
These graphic terms, they're not just an Old Testament facet.
But you read this and you think, oh man, this is Old Testament.
No, we see it in the New Testament as well.
Colossians 35 put to death what is earthly in you.
Galatians 524 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the
flesh along with his passions and its desires.
We are at war with our sin. We must always be at war.
My boys have been arguing about the same topic for the past
year. It was on every single day in
our house and it centres around this question.
Who is the GOAT in basketball? Is it LeBron or Jordan?
They argue about that everyday, 365 days a year now.
Of course I think it's LeBron simply because of his skill set.
But there are many, many people who still hold on to Jordan.
Why? It usually centres around this
idea. Jordan was a killer.
He wasn't there to make friends. He didn't play to make friends.
If you were playing against him, you were the enemy.
Today's NBA is a little bit different, buddy.
And you know, like hanging out with each other afterward.
Jordan wasn't hanging out with nobody except maybe Charles, but
he he, he had a falling out with Charles.
He had a killer mentality. God has called us to have this
same mentality with our sin. We're not trying to make friends
with it. We're not to negotiate, to
compromise with it. We're not to make excuses for
it. We're not provision for it.
We're not to justify it. We're not to defend it.
We're not to explain it. We're not to compare it.
There's only one thing that God has told us, commanded us to do
with our sin, and it is the same thing that He did with His Son,
and that is crucified. One of the reasons that the
cross was so graphic, you watch the Passion of Christ right now
that I'm not advocating that, you know, if you're like, I
don't watch that because it's visual.
And but if you watch that movie and you realize how graphic this
is, and I think even that movie probably did not do justice to
what a crucifixion was. If you read historical accounts,
it was barbaric beyond belief. One of the reasons that the
cross was so graphic was not only to atone for our sin and to
propitiate the wrath of God, but it was to give us a vivid
picture of what our mentality quality should be towards this
dragon that lives inside of us. This dragon rears his ugly head
and we are to pull out our sword and cut it off.
Cut it off. And brothers and sisters, let me
encourage you. Keep your sword near the bedside
of your soul. Because his head regenerates
every day #3 The question is never why did God kill so many
people, but rather, why didn't God kill everybody?
The question is never why did God kill so many people, but
rather, why didn't God kill everybody?
One of the perennial questions that is asked by atheist,
agnostics, humanist, secularist is this Why did God kill so many
people in the Old Testament? This is this is like one of the
central questions that you go to any university or any coffee
shop. In a in a liberal place that
this is one of the like, why did God kill so many people in the
Old Testament? I thought he was a God of love.
I thought he was a God of mercy. I thought he was a God of
compassion. We see right here that the
Israelites killed every single male, and even when they spared
the women and the children, they were later commanded to kill
some of the women and children. This killing will continue in
the book of Joshua where God commands them to wipe out the
Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the parasites, the
Hittites, and the Jebusites. It'll continue all the way with
King Saul where God commands them to wipe out all the
Amalekites. It'll continue all the Assyrians
where God in one night wipes out 185,000 Assyrians and the
listen, the question is why? It's a fair question.
Let's be It's a fair question, 100% a fair question.
It's just the wrong question. A fair question can be a wrong
question. The question is never why did
God kill so many people, but rather why God kill everybody?
Why did God let any of the Midianites live?
Why did God let any of the Moabites live?
Why is there a story of Ruth? You see the world, the the
atheist, the agnostics, the humanist, the secularist.
They look at something like the flood, the flood in the Bible
where God killed all of humanity except for one family.
They look at God and they ask. World and I ask God, why not
more floods? To me the question is not why
would God send a flood to destroy humankind?
The better question is, is why doesn't God send a natural
disaster every year to destroy humankind?
Why doesn't this happen every single year?
Because our wickedness deserves it, does it not?
I mean, just turn on the news and listen to the wickedness
that exists in this world. It is some unspeakable
wickedness. And my question is, why aren't
we wiped out every year and we just start over every single
year? You see, texts like this, they
only present a moral dilemma for us if we fail to properly
understand the glory of God and the holiness of God.
If our starting point is that we deserve life, we deserve X.
If that's our starting point. This will never make sense to
you. 4 Balaam teaches us the danger of being in the wrong
place at the wrong time. Balaam teaches us the danger of
being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Balaam should have never tried to come and curse Israel on it,
but he did anyway. He was prevented from further
sinning through a talking donkey, and God turned his
attempts to curse into an opportunity to bless.
Now you would think that Balaam would have learned his lesson.
I mean, when I read this story of Balaam, I'm like, surely you
learned your lesson, right? You know, you were humiliated by
a donkey. You failed at your job four
times, you didn't get Balak's money.
And once all your prophecies are over, all you had to do Balaam
was go home. Just go home.
See, God had given Balaam a gift.
God could have put Balaam to death, but he didn't.
He gave him a gift. And he he has a window to
repent. Balaam had an opportunity to
turn around to realize that God is, God is not, and he could
convert to Judaism, but he doesn't do it.
Why? Because he doesn't go home.
He stops in Midian on the way home and it cost him his life.
Balaam teaches us the danger of being in the wrong place at the
wrong time. One of my favorite warnings in
Scripture is what the father says warning his sons and the
book of Proverbs about the forbidden woman.
I love the counsel that he gives his sons.
Here it is. Keep your way far from her and
do not go near the door of her house.
Brothers and sisters, sometimes it is as simple as not being in
the wrong place at the wrong time.
If you're dating, don't be alone together in a house.
If you're married, don't be alone with somebody who's not
your spouse. Don't be the opposite gender.
Don't be alone with somebody who's not your spouse.
Maybe it means not going to the party where you know people are
going to be drunk. Maybe it means not walking
around the casino just out of curiosity.
Maybe it means not drinking all the tea that is being spilled at
the lunch table. Maybe it means not going on the
work trip where idolatry will be celebrated.
You see, God will give us the grace that we need to walk in
holiness. He will.
He will give us the grace we need to walk in holiness, but
make sure we position ourselves to be in a place to receive that
grace. Five, The church needs not just
leaders, but wise leaders. The church needs not just
leaders, but wise leaders. One of the difficulties is that
there are two different contacts of holy war.
A God commanded the Israelites to put to death all those living
in Canaan, every man, woman, and child.
But B, for wars, for people out, like Midian, God allowed them to
take the women captive. They could take the women
captive as either wives or slaves.
My guess is that that is at least in part why the Israelites
let the Midianite women live. I think they're like, well, this
is perfectly within keeping of the law, right?
They're not, they're not Canaanites.
We can let these women live. They can become wives for us or,
you know, they become servants on our our state and help us to,
you know, farming and whatnot. So why was Moses angry?
Moses was angry that that with the commanders of the people.
Why? Because Moses wanted them to
exercise wisdom. He wanted them to be wise.
Yes, yes, technically these are not Canaanites, but they are
behaving, being like Canaanites. They have let our people into
idolatry, be treated like Canaanites, and therefore they
should be put to death. You see, Israel had leaders,
they had chiefs of the people, they had commanders of the army.
But Moses wanted these leaders to exercise wisdom.
The church needs not just leaders.
The church needs wise leaders. Six last point.
Sin is attractive and has its benefits, and therefore the
temptation to keep it around, it'll always be there.
Sin is attractive it and it has its benefits and therefore the
temptation to keep it around. It'll always be there.
Why did the men keep the many night women alive?
Yes, I mentioned part of it. Maybe they thought that it was
perfectly in keeping with the law, but I would assume it's
deeper than that. I assume that the reason they
kept these many night women alive is the exact same reason
that the men engaged in sexual immorality with the night women
to begin with. Because they were attractive.
Because they were different. Oh, there were no Israelite
women to marry. There were.
There were plenty of Israelite women to marry. 10 is
attractive. It has its benefits and
therefore the temptation to keep it around will always be there.
Making money is attractive, is it not?
I was sharing a small group this week that if you start
investing, seeing that dollar sign go up, it's a high.
You check it and it it, it just goes up and up and up.
It's a high. You get a high from seeing that
number go up. Making money is attractive and
it has its benefits. This is true of just about
everything. Possessions, travel, children,
approval, success, alcohol, sex, sports, hobbies, all of it.
They're all attractive. They're all attractive.
They all have their benefits and therefore the temptation to keep
our sin around. It'll always be there.
David had the Kingdom, had the Kingdom, He had wives, he had
multiple wives, and yet that was too attractive.
Adam and Eve had the garden. They had every tree in the
garden, they could eat from all of them, and yet the forbidden
tree was too attractive. Solomon had the Kingdom.
God, anybody more than Bezos or Musk or anybody the the man was
filthy rich. He had a thousand women, and yet
these foreign women were just too attractive to him.
Saul had the Kingdom. He had the people's praises.
They they praised him, they loved the people, loved Saul,
and yet it was the women singing in the streets that was just too
attractive. I got to have it, brothers and
sisters, sin is attractive and it has its benefits and
therefore the temptation to keep it around will always be there.
Make sure you have no Trojan horses in your life.
Wage holy war on your sin. Let's pray.