Numbers 30-31
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites…”
Numbers 31:1-2a
I suspect that most of us are uncomfortable with the above command against the Midianites (though I also suspect we’d be much less uncomfortable if we were to substitute “Nazis” for “Midianites”). As much as I would like to avoid the topic of such commands from the LORD, we cannot. We need to face the fact that the LORD commands Israel to execute judgment upon various peoples, bringing wholesale death and destruction. How is this the act of a God of love?
Naturally, that is a question that has been debated for millennia, with an untold number of books and dissertations, reams and reams of paper, and more than a few web pages devoted to it, so it should come as no surprise that we cannot possibly provide a comprehensive treatment of the issue here. Nevertheless, it would be irresponsible to ignore it.
Although I cannot give a complete answer — indeed, I do not have a complete answer — I think we can at least state a few guiding principles:
- God is good
- God is just
- God knows the full story (and we do not)
- God is sovereign
- God does not change
- Sin is deadly (and deadly serious)
- Neither Moses nor Joshua is crazy, nor do they misunderstand the LORD, nor are they just making things up
I include that last point because we are often quick to “protect and defend” God (as if He needs our protection!) by simply saying that the whole notion of executing judgment on others is not really God’s idea but instead entirely a human construct, that it all just comes from Moses or Joshua, who just say it’s from God — like some lunatic mass shooter who claims, “God told me to do it!” That may seem like it would be an easy defense of God, but it would also destroy the integrity of the Bible. (What else does Moses get wrong then?) And if we dispense with the Bible, then all I can say to you for either this life or the next is, “Good luck!”
Most other attempts to alleviate our discomfort similarly go awry of one of the above principles. We may think God somehow changes between the Old and New Testaments, seeing God as quick to condemn in the Old Testament and always forgiving in the New Testament. (Neither idea is anywhere close to accurate.) Or we condemn God for being unjust here, setting ourselves up as better judges of character than He. (Now there’s a laugh!) Or we fail to treat sin seriously, and think that God should just offer blanket forgiveness to everyone (which really says we rather like our own sin).
We should all look carefully at our own hearts. Examine our discomfort (if any) with God’s commands to Israel to execute His judgment. Look to see what underlies that discomfort. It might just be that our discomfort comes from a false idea of Who God is, that our idea of God doesn’t quite line up with what He says about Himself. If that is the case, then what needs to change? God? Or our idea of Him?