BATTLE BEFORE THE CROSSING

We’ve had a lot of reminders from God through Moses as the people are finally about to enter The Promised Land.

Each reminder has been important and relevant to how God wants the nation He has called His people to live on the earth.

There is just one more matter to take care of though; and it isn’t a small thing.

TAKE VENGEANCE ON THE MIDIANITES

Those Midianites still need to be defeated.

If they are not put in their place right now; they will always continue to be trouble to Israel.  God didn’t just say “defeat them.”  He said “take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites.”

Are there still any Midianites  lurking around the corners of your days?  These are the people who hate God and try to knock down every progress that you make on the journey toward The Promised Land.

The Midianites were the only people that refused to let Israel pass through their land.  They had hired help to curse and defeat Israel without success.  They had prayed to their pagan gods, especially the god named Baal, for Israel to be defeated.

Their pagan ways were an insult to The One True God.

They had tried God’s patience and good will over and over again and these Midianites continued living evil and wicked lives in the land even after God showed up and performed miracles that testified to the truth.

They refused to give up their ways and they would not open their eyes.

God was done with them.

Judgment had been declared upon them.

THE LAST WAR FOR MOSES

Moses, knowing this would be his last battle, told the people to arm themselves and prepare to go to war.

The men of Israel were to carry out the LORD’s vengeance on the Midianites.  God directed Moses to send 1000 men from each tribe into battle.  There were 12,000 men in all; and they all were totally prepared for this fight.

Phinehas (Eleazar’s son) took the holy articles from the sanctuary and the trumpets for signaling the troops.  He led with the common battle cry of the sound of the trumpets which meant for The People of God to gather together for war.

GOD PROTECTED HIS PEOPLE

The Israelites fought against the Midianites and the Israelite army killed each one of them.

It is interesting to note that many of the victims were called out by name and recorded in the scriptures.

There was Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba – the five kings of Midian. None of these kings survived.

Also we hear of the death of Balaam (the unwise prophet) who was slain by the sword in this battle.

The Israelites spared no one; they even captured all of the Midianite women and children.

Israel also took the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder.

THE SPOILS OF WAR

When the battle was over, all of these spoils of the war were brought before Moses and Eleazar just outside the camp of the Israelites in the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River across from Jericho.

Moses, Eleazar The Priest, and all of the leaders of the community went to meet the returning soldiers outside the camp.   There must have been an amazing victory party that day.

When Moses saw these men with the spoils of this war; Moses became angry with the officers of the army because the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds who returned from the battle had allowed some of the Midianites to live.

PAGAN WOMEN DIE FOR THEIR PAGAN DEEDS

 “Have you allowed all the women to live?” Moses asked them.

 Then Moses reminded the Israelites why God did not want to spare even one life.  “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people.”

(Remember we studied that Balaam had advised Moab to use their women to entice the men of Israel with pagan forms of prostitution so that Israel could be defeated in that way?)

Moses wasn’t about to allow a way for a Midianite seed to ever reproduce a Midianite  child again.  God had wanted their heritage completely wiped off the map.

So Moses said to the Israelite commanders; “Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”

Does this sound harsh to your ears?  The Day of Judgement for all of the world will be even more harsh.  Every person, man, woman or child, will receive their just punishment; unless they have been covered in The Blood of The Lamb and redeemed.  Once God has declared judgement; it is too late.

God had declared his vertict for the Midianites.  He had put Israel in charge of carrying out this decision.

YOUNG MIDIANITE WOMEN BECOME PART OF ISRAEL

The only way the Midian women who were left could produce children and live would be through the seed of Israel.  There were innocent young women and they were spared by God.  This battle though should have wiped out all of the geneology of Midian.

After that was done; Moses commanded that the Israelite soldiers be made clean again.  They had been around death and they had slain others in battle.  Their hands were covered in the blood of their captives and they would be unclean for a period of time.

Moses said to them; “Anyone who has killed someone or touched someone who was killed must stay outside the camp for seven days. On the third and seventh days you must purify yourselves and your captives.  Purify every garment as well as everything made of leather, goat hair or wood.”

SEVEN DAYS OF CLEANSING

Can you read the above passage and not recall the requirements of the Days of Unleavened Bread?

Each household is to be cleansed and nothing with leaven (representing the sin that causes death) should be found within the houses of believers.

The third day is the Day of Early First Fruits; the day that the offering for our sins (Jesus) chose to rise from the grave into a resurrection of new life.  It is a time that signifies renewal and a change to a better life.

There is a holy day on the seventh day that gives thanks to God for His amazing power over our lives and how He cleanses and renews our souls.

Our homes and our spirits have been both physically and spiritually renewed at the end of these seven days.

Do we still think to take the time during that time to remember how much God hated paganism?  Here is yet another reminder.  It is one of the sins of the days of unleavened bread that we should be purging out of our lives.  It is a time of physical and spiritual cleansing.

The same, or similar things, happened for the warriors of Israel who had done as God commanded and removed the enemy of God from the outskirts of the new nation that was about to be formed.

CLEANSING OF FIRE AND WATER

 Then Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone into battle, “This is what is required by the law that the Lord gave Moses:  Gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, lead and anything else that can withstand fire must be put through the fire, and then it will be clean. But it must also be purified with the water of cleansing. And whatever cannot withstand fire must be put through that water.  On the seventh day wash your clothes and you will be clean. Then you may come into the camp.”

Here God is showing his people the road to sanctification.

They have done God’s will and kept His commandment and now God is going to take them up to a higher  and holier level of living.  They will go into the Promised Land clean and holy.

So they did this just as they were commanded.  They stayed outside the camp and cleansed themselves and the captives that were left for seven days; and then they came into the camp with the cleansed spoils of the war.

Everything that could survive the fire was put through the fire.   If it could not survive the cleansing of the fire; it was cleansed with water.

All of the dross and decay and disease was burned out and the objects they had obtained in the battle spoils were cleansed and made useful for brand new purposes.

DIVIDING THE SPOILS

 The Lord said to Moses,  “You and Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the community are to count all the people and animals that were captured.   Divide the spoils equally between the soldiers who took part in the battle and the rest of the community.”

“From the soldiers who fought in the battle, set apart as tribute for the Lord one out of every five hundred, whether people, cattle, donkeys or sheep.  Take this tribute from their half share and give it to Eleazar the priest as the Lord’s part.”

“From the Israelites’ half, select one out of every fifty, whether people, cattle, donkeys, sheep or other animals. Give them to the Levites, who are responsible for the care of the Lord’s tabernacle.”

COUNTING THE PLUNDER

 So Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses.

The plunder remaining from the spoils that the soldiers took was 675,000 sheep,  72,000 cattle,  61,000 donkeys and 32,000 women who had never slept with a man.

As the people entered the new land; they would now enter wealthy with herds of sheep and cattle and donkeys.  There would be an ample supply of strong, young women who would be able to give birth to the sons of this new nation and contribute to the growth of the nation of Israel.

PROVISION FOR THE LORD

The half share of those who fought in the battle was:  337,500 sheep,  of which the tribute for the Lord was 675;   36,000 cattle, of which the tribute for the Lord was 72;  30,500 donkeys, of which the tribute for the Lord was 61;   16,000 people, of whom the tribute for the Lord was 32.

The offerings that God required here were very small in comparison to the gain that each soldier accumulated.  They gladly gave tribute and the tribute given to God went to provide for the Levites who would tend to the Sanctuary in the new land.

 Moses gave the tribute to Eleazar the Priest as the Lord’s part, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

I am reminded of Abraham making tribute to Melchizedek in another great battle that had been held long before the nation of Israel had formed from the seed of Abraham.  God had given a victory in that day too.   This was now very traditional; to honor God as the One who had given victory in battle and to make tribute as a way of showing thankfulness.

PROVISION FOR THE ISRAELITE FAMILIES

The half belonging to the Israelites, which Moses set apart from that of the fighting men— the community’s half—was 337,500 sheep, 36,000 cattle, 30,500 donkeys  and 16,000 people.

PROVISION FOR THE LEVITES

 From the Israelites’ half, Moses selected one out of every fifty people and animals, as the Lord commanded him, and gave them to the Levites, who were responsible for the care of the Lord’s tabernacle.

PROVISION OF LIFE FOR A NEW NATION

 Then the officers who were over the units of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—went to Moses and said to him, “Your servants have counted the soldiers under our command, and not one is missing.

 Let that sink in a bit.

The Israelites had slain a whole nation of Midianites and not even one Israelite had been harmed in the battle.

ATONEMENT FOR THE WARRIORS

So the officers of the army brought as an offering to the Lord the gold articles that each of them had acquired—armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces.  These were offerings they used in hopes of making atonement for themselves before the Lord.

Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted from them the gold and all the crafted articles.  All the gold from the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds that Moses and Eleazar presented as a gift to the Lord weighed 16,750 shekels.

This reminds us of a prior lesson when the redemption price was gathered from the silver of each soldier in the original building of the wilderness tabernacle.  You may review that lesson here if you like: COME AS A CHILD LESSON 156 – THE AMAZING SILVER SOCKETS OF REDEMPTION .

A MEMORIAL BEFORE THE LORD

Each soldier had taken plunder for himself.

 Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds and brought it into the tent of meeting as a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord.

WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN FOR TODAY?

We are living in strange, wild, both horrible and wonderful times.  God is moving across the land and He is moving with purpose and destiny.  God’s people have spoken of these days for ages and ages and now it does seem as if we are fast approaching the end of time as we know it.

There will be another Promised Land.  It is The Kingdom of God where Christ will reign with His redeemed people when He returns for the second time.

It could be that we too are at a crossing over place.

Are you ready?

Finish your battles and make your sacrifices.  Lift up your offerings and ask for complete redemption for the souls of our nation.

Something big is about to happen and we are all a part of the plan.

Get ready!