David Bahn – Reflections

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Numbers 31-33, Psalm 76.

Numbers 31:1-6

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.” ³ So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord’s vengeance on Midian. ⁴ You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war.” ⁵ So there were provided, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. ⁶ And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe, together with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand.

In Numbers 31, God commands Israel to go to war against the Midianites. Their destruction is to be decisive and total. This will not be a distant or clinical act of war. It will be brutally up-close and personal. Such passages are difficult for us to comprehend. And in the context of the current Middle East conflicts, few of us want to talk about war, much less read about the brutal treatment of women and children recorded here.

The command concerning Midian in Numbers 31 is one of the most troubling passages in the Old Testament. Yet the biblical narrative gives important background that helps explain why the judgment appears so severe.

The immediate context is the episode at Baal Peor in Numbers 25, where Midianite women enticed Israel into sexual immorality and the worship of Baal. The text tells us this was done through the counsel of Balaam (Numbers 31:16). The result was a devastating plague that killed 24,000 Israelites. In the biblical narrative, the attack on Midian is therefore presented as divine judgment for a deliberate attempt to destroy Israel spiritually, not merely a military conflict.

The command itself is described as the Lord’s “vengeance for Israel” (Numbers 31:3). In the Old Testament, such commands are rare and tied to specific moments in Israel’s history. Israel was not given a standing command to destroy other nations indiscriminately.

Passages like this tempt us to place God in the dock, as C. S. Lewis famously put it. We put God on trial for actions we deem troubling or unjust. That is a dangerous posture to take. And even when we struggle with such texts, we must not ignore the far more frequent testimony of Scripture concerning God’s mercy and kindness.

The Old Testament repeatedly describes the Lord as merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (ḥesed). This refrain—especially from Exodus 34:6–7—became something of a creedal description of God’s character and echoes throughout Israel’s Scriptures, even as God also maintains his righteous judgment against evil.

Should you want to see how often the Old Testament bears witness to God’s mercy and steadfast love, consider these passages:

Exodus 34:6–7; Numbers 14:18; Psalm 23:6; Psalm 86:15; Psalm 103:8–13; Psalm 136:1–26; Isaiah 54:10; Lamentations 3:22–23; Jonah 4:2; Micah 7:18–19.

Yet the fullest revelation of both God’s justice and his mercy is seen in Jesus. On the cross, God did not ignore the judgment sin deserves; he took it upon himself. And there we see most clearly the God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love toward us.