The Slaughter of the Midianites - Numbers 31

The Bible is quite violent. Any one reading a-Bible-through-a-year plan knows this, thus the blog posts have been a bit intense lately. Yesterday I read about the slaughter of the Midianites, in Numbers 31, where during Israel's conquest into their inheritance--the Promised Land--God directed them to kill every male, every male child, and every woman who was not a virgin of the people of Midian. This, according to Holy Scripture, was a war of the execution of "the Lord's vengeance on Midian" (31:3). God through Israel was judging the nations, specifically, the nation of Midian.

Why? Well, one of the reasons God gives, is because of the sin of Peor where the Israelites "play[ed] the harlot with the daughters of Moab" because "they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods" (Numbers 25:1-2). This made God angry, because God hates idolatry. He hates that which is elevated above Himself, and He hates it when His people bow down to false gods. Israel, in fact, spared the women, but God would have none of it, and would only spare the "girls who have not known man intimately" (31:18).

Let's be honest, to put it mildly, seems a bit drastic doesn't it? Yes, it is drastic. It is severe. It is extreme. It is so, because God is holy and He is just.

Why did God do this and yet spare so many other evil nations throughout history? I do not know; but it is a lesson, and not just a metaphor, because this really happened--sword and screams--and all that goes with it, but I know from this story, from this happening, that God is holy, righteous, and an avenger of His own Name.

Christopher Wright tells us how to read this difficult story:

"I have to read the conquest in the light of the cross...when I do set it in the light of the cross, I see one more perspective. For the cross too involved the most horrific and evil human violence, which, at the same time, also constitututed the outpouring of God's judgment on human sin. The crucial difference, of course, is that, whereas at the conquest, God poured out his judgment on a wicked society who deserved it, at the cross God bore on himself the judgment of God on human wickedness, through the person of his own sinless Son--who deserved it not one bit." The God I Do Not Understand, 107.

Maybe one of the reasons why you and I turn away from the slaughter of Midian and mostly choose to ignore these types of passages is because we are the Midianites. We are the idolatres. We too deserve God's judgment.

Maybe we ignore these kind of stories, because our view of the cross is too small. We see the cross-event as a nice picture of God's love and forget that it is the culminating point of God's great wrath and His triumphing love. Sin is judged at the cross and it is judged in horrifying violence upon one perfectly innocent. We are stunned at the fact that God wouldn't spare the idolatrous Midianite women, but the cross should stun us more--God would not spare His own innocent Son, but instead gave Him up. The Midianites weren't innocent. Jesus was and is, yet the son of God died a violent and Godforsaken death, in the place of sinnners so sinners would never face the judgment of God.

Read the slaughter of Midian in light of the slaughter of the son of God.

What the Selah!

Eugene Peterson, one of the best living Christian wordsmiths, offers this humorous take on the meaning of Selah--an oft repeated word in the Psalms--of which biblical scholars still can't figure out the meaning:

"Lacking a clear consensus from the scholars I have felt free to offer the less scholarly but more entertaining suggestion that Selah is a Philistine expletive that David learned during those hard years when he was banished from Saul's court and knocking around with ruffians and outlaws in the wilderness. He used it whenever he broke a string on his harp." Answering God, 148.

I like it.

Selah.

Jesus is not Soft

For my morning Bible-readings I came across some passages in the Psalms that were a bit, well, bloody.

"The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." Ps. 58:10

Lest one think that is just an OT Psalm, my Bible-reading-plan led me to Jesus' words about those who get slothful toward his coming and begin to engage in drunkeness and obnoxious revelry; those who lose their sober-mindedness toward his Return:

"...the master of the slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Mat. 24:50-51

Not exactly a Bible-verse your kids are going to find in Sunday School Bible-memory drills, or the Bible-verse laden sweathshirt you will purchase for your Grandma next Christmas.

Jesus' cutting people into pieces isn't exactly what we want to hear, but there it is in your Bible. When the Son of Man comes to earth for the second time it is not to die humbly on a cross, but to gather the elect and punish the wicked.

Any Christian pacifist will cease to be one someday, because Christ will be leading the final war.
The book of Revelation is quite clear.

How should we then respond to this? Should I get out my sword? No, I should live a life that seeks to die daily to myself and for others, trusting that vengeance is not mine to take, but will be taken someday by my Lord, and it will be swift, ferocious, and just. I should also tell of the Jesus, the Lamb, who died in the place of sinners, and saves all who call on His name, because the Day is coming when He will not save, but will damn.

This is sobering--Jesus is not soft, but he is loving, and holy, and righteous, and good. Turn to him all the ends of the earth and be saved, because the day is coming when every eye will see Him come again and some will cry out for rocks to fall upon them in fear of His coming.

Self-Progress - Institutes of Christian Religion 9

John Calvin:

"...he who is most deeply abased and alarmed, by the consciousness of his disgrace, nakedness, want, and misery, has made the greatest progress in the knowledge of himself. Man is in no danger of taking too much from himself, provided he learns that whatever he wants is to be recovered in God." Institutes of Christian Religion, Book II, Chap. II, 231.

Nobody, well hardly anybody, says this kind of thing nowadays, which is why guys like John Calvin are good for the soul. It rescues the modern person from thinking more highly of themselves than they ought.

The "greatest progress"? Wouldn't many say that is nothing close to progress? Progress is thinking of yourself better; of realizing self-actualization; of esteeming yourself more...not of being conscious of your disgrace, your nakedness, your want, your misery; yet that is where, Calvin says, is the greatest progress of self-knowledge you can find. Most consider this foolishness. For many this is not progress but retrogression.

There is a key qualification here, lest one think that Calvin is simply a sin-monger and on a self-negativity binge; it is: "provided." Provided one knows that Jesus has recovered all that was lost in the fall of man; provided one knows that in Adam all are dead, and in Jesus dead men are made alive again; provided one knows that the old man has been crucified and the new man has been resurrected; provided one knows that Jesus has restored and changed fallen humanity into a new humanity--this kind of self-knowledge is good for you.

So, yes, consider your utter sinfulfness and you will know yourself truly, and then looking at your sinfulness turn your eyes to Jesus and trust in him. He has recovered and restored all that you've lost in and of yourself, and replaced sinfulness with righteousness.

I pray phrases like this increase your view of the debaseness of yourself and the deliverance found in Jesus. Think worse of yourself and more of Jesus. This is a good thing, and demonstrates mental health and psychological wholeness. To me all this sounds like that crazy guy at the beginning of the New Testament, John the Baptizer, who would probably be categorized in the DSM-IV with a mental illness due to just eating grasshoppers and honey and wandering in the wilderness, but was one of the most mentally healthy men alive. He said, speaking of Jesus and himself, "He must increase, and I must decrease" (Jn. 3:30). Thank God for this kind of self-depreciation, which is self-progress.

A Colossal Problem with Christianity

Watchman Nee:

"A colossal problem exists among God's children today. The Christianity which they know is quite fragmentary. You obtain a little grace, I receive a little gift, and he speaks a little tongue. This man experiences some change in his conduct, that man possesses some measure of love; this one has patience, that one has humility. This is what is commonly known as Christianity. But is this Christianity? It is not, for Christianity is Christ. Christianity is not reward, neither is it what Christ gives to me. Christianity is none other than Christ himself.

Do you perceive the difference? These are two totally divergent ways. Christianity is not any one thing which Christ gives to me; Christianity is Christ giving himself to me." Christ the Sum of All Spiritual Things, 62-63.

Amen: kind of reminds me of the point of this guy's book.

Hang on to God's Lips - Calvin's Institutes 8

John Calvin:

"...it is to be observed, that the first man revolted against the authority of God, not only in allowing himself to be ensnared by the wiles of the devil, but also by despising the truth, and turning aside to lies. Assuredly, when the word of God is despised all reverence for Him is gone. His majesty cannot be duly honored among us, nor his worship maintained in its integrity, unless we as it were upon his lips." Institutes of Christian Religion, Book II, Chapter I, 213.

Active sinfulness comes from passiveness toward God's Word. If you are not hanging onto the lips of God sin will follow quickly. It's not enough to simply assume God's Word, one must pursue it, otherwise lies will become more attractive and the Devil will gain more power. To fight against the Devil, like Jesus showed us, is to hang onto the lips and words of God.

Ayn Rand: On what Children Need

Ayn Rand:

"The major source and demonstration of moral values available to a child is Romantic art (particularly Romantic literature). What Romantic art offers him is not moral rules, not an explicit didactic message, but the image of a moral person...It is not abstract principles that a child learns from Romantic art, but the precondition and the incentive for the later understanding of such principles: the emotional experience of admiration for man's highest potential, the experience of looking up to a hero..." The Romantic Manifesto, "Art and Moral Treason," 146-147.

I hope Rand came to see that the hero found in the Gospels is the person and place where children should look, and when looking should with childlike wonder trust Jesus who is found there.

Life is not Commonplace

Dr. Manhattan:

"...But the world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget...I forget. We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away. Come...Dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg..."

Moore, Alan. Watchmen. Chapter IX, 27.

Humor according to Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand:

"Humor is not an unconditional virtue; its moral character depends on its object. To laugh at the contemptible, is a virtue; to laugh at the good, is a hideous vice. Too often, humor is used as the camouflage of moral cowardice." The Romantic Manifesto, 133.

Human Duty under and in Providence - Calvin's Institutes 7

John Calvin:

"As regards future events, Solomon easily reconciles human deliberation with divine providence. For while he derides the stupidity of those who presume to undertake anything without God, as if they were not ruled by his hand, he elsewhere thus expresses himself: 'A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps," (Prov. 16:9); intimating that the eternal decrees of God by no means prevent us from proceeding, under his will, to provide for ourselves, and arrange all our affairs. And the reason for this is clear. For he who has fixed the boundaries of our life, has at the same time intrusted us with the care of it, provided us with the means of preserving it, forewarned us of the dangers to which we are exposed, and supplied cautions and remedies, that we may not be overwhelmed unawares. Now, our duty is clear, namely, since the Lord has comitted to us the defence of our life,--to defend it; since he offers assistance,--to use it; since he forwarns us of danger--not to rush on heedless; since he supplies remedies,--not to neglect them..." Institutes of Christian Religion, Volume I, Chapter 17, 186-187.

Calvin's Calvinism is not without human responsiblity. When you get sick--take pills. When you get cancer--pray for healing. When you lose your job--find another one. When you sin--seek God for forgiveness. When you need to get something done--plan to do it and do whatever is necesarry beforehand. When you preach--call sinners to trust in Jesus. When you have to go to work in the morning--get out of bed.

The list goes on...there is no blind fate here; there is no dry stoicism; live with all your might while you live and trust God in whom you live and move and have your very being.