Numbers 31 is one of the most disturbing chapters in the bible. The LORD commands the Israelites to commit genocide upon the Midianites. They are to slaughter everyone except the virgin girls who are then distributed with the booty. I am not going to try to justify the verses, simply explain the context.
Here is the reason the slaughter was ordered. It was because the Midianites, as worshippers of Baal of Peor, had perverted the people of God. This goes back to Numbers 25 where, in verse 5, God commands "Each of you shall kill any of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor." The rest of 25 describes a moment when that happens. So, the vengeance of the LORD plays out upon the Midianites for leading the people astray. Even Balaam, who blessed the people four times in the chapters leading up to 25, is killed in the vengeance. The rest of 31 is the division of the treasures of the Midianites, to the people and the proportion to God.
The law of Moses is very specific in the application of the death penalty. Curse God and die. Pull someone away from God and die. Transgress the day of the Lord, the Sabbath, and die. Disobey your parents to a point where they cannot bring you under God's control, and you die. It is black and white. The Midianites caused the people to turn away from God and they died. In 16, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram challenge God's authority invested in Moses, and they die.
Jesus on the cross was a matter of life and death for all of us. Our sins call for the judgment of death, but Jesus paid that price for us. It is the final sacrifice. We keep reading about the sacrifices throughout the Law of Moses.
32 almost sees God's anger rise up against the Israelites. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh want to settle in the lands just conquered. Does that mean they will abandon their fellow tribes who will cross the Jordan? That will bring death. Only when they promise to join in the fight, is a domestic genocide avoided.
In Romans 2 and 3, Paul is laying the case to move the church out of its Jewish foundation to the world of the Gentiles beyond. If you believe he is in conflict with the Jerusalem Church for his Gentile outreach (as Reza Aslan does), he is trying to undercut the authority of the Jerusalem church by undercutting that Jesus was for Jews alone.
First, he lays a foundation that obedience to the law of Moses can happen instinctively among Gentiles as well as by design among the Jews. He carries on the discussion from 1, where disobedient worship leads to wickedness and sinful behavior. He divides people according to the choices they have made. Those who do as God would have them do have God's blessings. Those who turn away to evil shall be punished. This is the time before Jesus was sent.
From 2 to 3, he considers the Jew who claim to know the law of Moses but who do not obey it, 'preach against stealing' but steal. Circumcision, the mark of the covenant with Moses, does not, by itself protect the Jews from God's judgment when they know God's law but refuse to obey it.
Then he develops the argument further, that both Jews and Greeks break the law of Moses and are sinners. But herein comes the hope. The law of Moses does not offer right relationship with God. Rather, salvation comes through Jesus, "since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." But this is not a matter of universal condemnation, but universal forgiveness.
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