03/31/2025 – Day 275 – Numbers 29 – 32 / 31: 13-24 – “Their very survival as the holy community of faith was at stake…” / Questions without answers except prayer! Thoughts?
From “The Apologetics Study Bible” footnotes to our reading:
“31: 13-24. The purpose of holy wars was the eradication of impure elements, whether persons or property, from a given geographic region. This passage harks back to the idolatrous activity of Baal – peor (Chapter 25) and sets the stage for the instructions in 33: 50 -56 for occupying the promised land by dispossessing the Canaanites and eradicating the marks of their false religion. Hence it is integral to the main theme developed in the book of Numbers: the dangers of rebellion and idolatry. Critics who suggest this holy-war mentality was a crude feature of ancient cultures and not in keeping with God’s purpose for humanity have ignored the fact that these instructions we applicable at this critical point in the formation of the theocracy of Israel. Their very survival as the holy community of faith was at stake. Chapter 31 is consistent with the directives given in other pentateuchal passages, including Deuteronomy 7:5, 24-25; 12: 1-12; and 20: 16-2- (purging of idolatry) and Deuteronomy 21: 10-14 (female captives). However, the law of Christ, the law of love, supersedes the instructions for Israel in the era of Moses and Joshua. While God still abhors every kind of evil in society, and the people of God must diligently oppose its every expression, “holy war” of the kind recorded here is not the proper response.”
___________________________________
Questions / Comment (prayer!):
The key here I believe in the last two sentences in the commentary above is that “the people of God must diligently oppose its every expression…” So, take another look at my post of 03/07/2025: If DRC is 94% Christian , yet 6 million people have been killed in DRC since 1998, a number I still find hard to believe, how is that happening? The Hutu – Tutsi murders accounts for a significant portion, presumably christians killing christians.
But look at Nigeria, with 45% of the population Christian and roughly 50% muslim. Their martyrd deaths amount to around 4,000 in just 2024. How many of those were Muslim? If the number is indeed insignificant, then Muslims are accountable as a whole for looking the other way to speak. And likewise , if Christians were the perpetrators, Christians would be accountable for looking the other way.
The U.N. hasn’t done anything to stop the genocide. The Russian-Ukranian war would be difficult. But, many of the one million deaths in the Hutu-Tutsi conflict in Rwanda in 93-94 should have been saved had the U.N. stepped in. A ready force similar to the French Foreign Legion could really stop much of the genocide around the world. If the U.N. can’t do that, the U.S. needs to exit. For their climate control mis-information and global vaccination mandates are detrimental to souls across the globe. Globalism is a tool for the Devil and his minions.
Questions for fellowship generation, the lifelong sanctification process:
- What does the text reveal about God’s character?
- How has this reading generated prayer for you and/or us?
- What themes stand out to you in this bible study?
- How does our reading fit into the bigger picture (creation, the fall, restoration, etc.)?
- What verse(s) jumped out at you like never before? Is it explainable at this point?
- Do you have any questions you would like to put before the group as to how to interpret any particular verse(s) in our reading. Let scripture testify to scripture: Share with us where you sense contradiction between passages elsewhere.
- What did you find convicting and inspiring at the same time? Share with us how the Spirit of God is working within you as a messenger, both within and outside of our fellowship group.
- Share with the group how our study is calling or confirming to you a new mission to glorify God in our times.