Bible Discussion Thread

In this chapter, God tells Moses that he is to charge the Israelites to war against Midian for the sins that this people brought to the Israelites with Baal worship and sexual immorality. After this battle is won, Moses would die.

In this battle, 1,000 men from each tribe went to war. Phineas, son of Eliazer (the high priest) was to take the holy instruments to the battlefield along with trumpets.

I am wondering what these instruments were. Were they musical? Or were they worship implements?

So Israel went to war with Midian. They killed the 5 kings of Midian along with Balaam. They killed all the adult males, but they spared the women and children. God was not pleased with this since the women of Midian seduced the men of Israel to engage in the sin that brought a plague from God unto Israel for falling into sin with these women.

Perhaps the men of Israel felt merciful to these women, but God said to kill all of the women except those who were virgins (most likely young women under the age of puberty). They were also to kill all of the male children. In this way, Midian as a nation was wiped out. The young girls that remained were assimilated into Israeli culture and practice.

It is interesting to note that Moses' father in law, Jethro, was a Midianite along with his wife Zipporah. Perhaps they were a godly anomaly among the Midianites.

Balaam, who could not curse the Israelites because prevented him to do so supernaturally, but instead devised the plan to tempt Israelites into sin with the women of Moab/Midian, was slain in this war. God brought him to justice. Even though Balaam had spoken with God and had an angel intervene, he still was unrepentant and did not submit to the true God. He had a stubborn heart. It seems also that the Moabites and Midianites must have either intermarried or else formed an alliance prior to the arrival of the Israelites and were allies together in this land that they shared. ...cont.