Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
All right, folks, let's open up in a word of prayer and invite the Holy Spirit among us.
Jesus, we give you the glory, God, for all things in our lives, Lord.
We know that you are the provider of all things, Lord, and we acknowledge, Lord, we are stewarding
these things for your kingdom, Lord. Even our time, we're stewarding God for you.
And we thank you for this time, Lord, that we can give back to you, Lord.
We pray that you honor that and let your spirit be among us, God, and bless this time, Lord.
I open up our minds and our hearts, God, to receive your word, to grow, Lord, in knowledge
of you, and to grow in a closeness to you and a closeness to each other, Lord. We pray that you
you open up your scripture, God, and bring it to life tonight before us, Lord, and bring fresh
new revelation to us through your word, God. We just give you all the glory and the honor in Jesus'
name, amen. All right, we are in Numbers 31 tonight, and you guys had,
last week it was Numbers 30 and talked about the seriousness of vowels and spoken word and
commitments. And we've talked about that before, the power of the spoken words and
how vowels are binding once spoken, so it emphasized personal responsibility and all that. So
Numbers 31 kind of takes a leap, and as we know, we're at the end of the Israelite's
journey in the wilderness, and we're at the end of Moses' role as the leader.
And this chapter actually kind of takes a jump back about six chapters,
you know, where the Midianites had come into camp and spread all kinds of
bad stuff. So this is the part where God is commanding divine judgment against the Midian
nation and not revenge. We're going to talk a little bit about that, but it's judgment for it.
So let's start and we'll read Numbers 31, 1 through 6. And I apologize, I don't have PowerPoint tonight,
I just didn't have the time, guys, and John Kratz, I know you're listening, I apologize especially to
you. So 1 through 6, the Lord said to Moses, take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites.
After that you will be gathered to your people. So Moses said to the people, arm some of your men
and go to war against the Midianites so that they may carry out the Lord's vengeance on them.
Send into battle a thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel. So 12,000 men armed for battle,
a thousand for each tribe were supplied from the clans of Israel. Moses sent them into battle,
a thousand from each tribe, along with Phineas, son of Eliza, the priest who took within the
circles for sanctuary and the trumpets for singling. So that's something we've talked about
before, how the Israelites used to send the priests and the Levites and the musicians out
before battle. So in order to understand what's going on here in 31, we have to jump back
to 25 and recall what we went through here. What did Midian actually do to deserve this
vengeance? So, you know, Israel was seduced into sexual immorality, which led to idol worship. So
Midian did not attack Israel physically with an army. They infiltrated them with their
immorality and their idol worship through Balaam's council specifically. So, you know,
one of the greatest dangers to us as God's people isn't necessarily the physical aspect
of it, but it's this idea of spiritual warfare against the church. It's this idea of
compromising, you know, where God has us. So, in Matthew 16.6 warns us against that. He says,
be careful, Jesus said, to them, be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the
Sadducees. And this is a warning to beware of corrupting influences. And he was using
leaven and yeast as a metaphor, how a small amount of this can get in and make a catastrophic
difference. So he's saying, be careful of this, you know, be careful of false doctrines,
be careful of immorality, be careful of these things, because even a little bit coming in
can infect, you know, an entire nation like it did here or infect us and then we infect
others. So this is a warning, you know, that Jesus had because he knew of this. So God had dealt
with, if you remember, God had dealt immediately with the Israelites who were involved with this.
So now he's dealing with the Midianites. So that jumps back to say, okay, why is this happening?
That's why it's happening. They brought this into Israel. He dealt with his own people,
and now he's dealing with these influences. So God commands Israel to execute the Lord's
vengeance over Midian. And we have to delineate here between vengeance and revenge, right? So
this is not revenge. This is divine judgment tied to his covenant protection. Big, big, big difference.
And we often interchange revenge and vengeance, but if you think about it logically, you know,
revenge is more of this personal, emotional act or retaliation against wrong. If somebody
wrongs me, I'm going to naturally and physically and in the flesh, I want revenge against them,
while vengeance is more of a calculated, intense, you know, broader, maybe retribution for these
things. So it's in the vein of justice, whereas the revenge is not necessarily in the vein. It
might be justified in our minds, but it's not justice. And the other thing to keep in mind
here is that, you know, God is not eliminating people in a sense. He's eliminating the corruption
and the immorality that was destroying his covenant, his covenant people, right?
So let's move on. Seven to 14 says, they fought against Midian as the Lord commanded Moses and
killed every man among their victims were Evi, Rakem, Zor, Her, and Reba, the five kings of
Midian. They also killed Balaam, son of Beor, with the sword. The Israelites captured the
Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks, goods, as plunder.
They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled as well as their camps. They took
all the plunder and spoils, including the people and the animals, and brought the captives, spoils,
and plunder to Moses and Elazar, the priest. And the Israelites assembled at the camp
on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. Moses and Elazar, the priest,
and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp.
And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of the thousands,
and the commanders of the hundreds who returned from battle. So let's dig into this a little bit
here. So they defeated the Midianites with their military might, right? They killed the Midianite
kings. So what was Moses and the priests upset about? Well, they returned with captives and
plunder. So these verses reveal that Israel won the battle but almost lost the future and really
what God was sending them in to do in the first place because they stopped short of obedience
and completing, you know, what God had. Let's go on and get in a little bit into more of this
because the real threat was this seduction, this spirit, not necessarily just the sword.
They had killed the men and the warriors and all of this. So 15 through 16 says,
have you allowed all the women to live? He asked them. They were the ones who followed Balaam's
advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the PR incident. So that a plague
struck the Lord's people going back where he put the plague in in 25. So they obeyed partially.
And is partial obedience really obedience? No, it's not. It's really not. I mean, if God
commands us to do something and we do just some of it, we're not really being obedient to God and
because that's what this was all about. It's not, you know, it's not human temper. It's not Moses
getting agitated with this. It really reflects, you know, what God is saying because God requires
all. He requires 100% not partial in this. Let's read Luke 9 57 through 62.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, to Jesus,
I will follow you wherever you, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him,
foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
To another, he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me go first and bury my father. And Jesus
said to him, leave the dead to bury the dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.
And yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at home.
Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom.
And this can see, you know, when I when I was younger and read that, and I would say,
man, that seems kind of harsh. You know, all they want to do is, you know,
what they're doing asking to do is not of a sinful nature. It's not, you know, it's not
bad things. It sounds kind of like, okay, they want to do these final things and then
follow Jesus. But what Jesus is saying here is you can't half heartedly, you know, he was using
these stories and these metaphors to make a point, is that you can't put anything above
following Jesus and following him. There can't be anything, there's got to be this
hundred percent commitment. So this is this is what was going on with with with the warriors
that they were partially obedient. And look, I mean, you think about it, you think about
these guys going into we often think about it, just read it very, you know, very functionally
that they went in and do, but these are, you know, these are men that are out out doing this,
I'm sure it was not an easy thing to do. And probably they had mercy. But God was looking for
this complete thing to be done, because it was like, you know, you can't leave this partial
sin, you can't leave, you know, there can't be just a little bit, you know, you know, of battle worship.
Well, we just we just have a little bit of it, not a lot, just a little. So Jesus is making a point
and God was making a point and Moses was making a point here. Let's move on 17 through 18.
Now, kill all the boys, kill every woman who has slept with a man,
but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
This is a challenging scripture, isn't it? I personally, for me, you know, I think I've
shared this before, I find, you know, all of these verses, you know, where they talk about
wiping out, you know, all of the nation, I find them just really, really difficult to reconcile
in my heart and my mind, because, you know, I equate, you know, I equate God with his,
with my relationship with him and Jesus. And, you know, I can't imagine Jesus saying, hey,
you know, go in and just wipe out that entire village. So it's a very, it's a challenging
thought and it's a challenging scripture to wrap our head around. I used to think to myself, well,
you know, the God of the Old Testament doesn't seem like the God of the New Testament.
But, you know, we can't avoid or soften or even sensationalize these things. This is,
judicial judgment. It's not barbaric revenge. It's not racial hatred. It's not just, you know,
blatant killing. You know, Israel is acting as an instrument of God to cleanse, is really what it
was. And we can, you know, a little bit later, we're going to, we'll look into how this translates
from a, you know, from this physical cleansing, you know, in this physical warfare to more of a
spiritual cleansing and spiritual warfare. But, you know, he was preventing, he was cutting off
this generational corruption, this generational immorality, which if given root, if given seed,
if allowed to go on, could have ruined the nation, could have ruined it from the inside out.
So challenging, yes. Difficult to understand, yes. But as we dig in deeper and really get the
spiritual aspect of it, you know, it opens our eyes a little bit. And when we correlate it again,
a little bit closer to New Testament grace, it becomes, it becomes much more enlightened. So,
verses 19-24 gets into this cleansing after the victory, after the battle.
So anyone who has killed someone or touched someone who was killed must stay outside
to 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.
Then laser, 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 will be cleaned.
But it must also be purified with water, with the water of cleansing. And whatever cannot withstand
fire must be put through the water. On the seventh day, wash your clothes and you will be clean,
and then you may come into camp. So, this gets back to months and months and months and months
ago when we were going through Leviticus. This is the Levitical law of purity and we went through
all of this. What had to be done, why it had to be done, and why it's symbolic of what Jesus did
for us. This ritual purity, this cleansing from defilement caused by death or even the
touching of death. So the warriors, they must be cleaned after battle and then even the objects,
even their clothing, everything needed to go through this cleansing.
And as I was reading that, I was trying to correlate and trying to think of
how does this relate to our walk with Jesus. And months ago we went through Romans as well.
And Romans 12, 1 through 2 talks about this continual transformation after salvation. I talked
about this a few weeks ago, this idea of continual transformation that we go through.
So it reads, presenting ourselves, therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in the view of God's
mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is true and proper
worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good and pleasing
and perfect will. This is after salvation. So this is a continual purification that we go to
and a transformation that we go through. Yes, yes, the blood of Jesus covers us and it cleansed us and
it saved us. But we often have to go through this transformation because holiness, you know,
holiness is a requirement of God. It's not a suggestion of God. It's a requirement
that he calls us to be holy because he is holy.
Verses 25 through 47. So this is about shared victory and God's ownership of everything.
The Lord said to Moses, you and Elazar, the priests 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 a tribute for the Lord, one out of every 500, whether people, cattle,
donkeys or sheep, take this tribute from their half share and give Elazar the priest
the Lord's part. From the Israelites' half, select one out of every 50,
whether people, cattle, donkeys, sheep or animals, give them to the Levites who are responsible for
the care of the Lord's tabernacle. So Moses and Elazar the priest did as the Lord commanded.
The plunder remaining from the spoils that the soldiers took was 675,000 sheep. That's a lot of
sheep. 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys, 32,000 women who had never slept with a man.
The half share of those who fought in battle was 375,500 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 to the Lord was 61. 16,000 people of whom the tribute to the Lord was 32.
Moses gave the tribute to Elazar and the priest as the Lord's part and the Lord commanded Moses.
The half belonging to the Israelites, which Moses set apart from that of the fighting men,
the community's half was 370,500 sheep, 36,000 cattle, 3,500 donkeys, 16,000 people.
From the Israelites half, Moses selected one out of every 50 for the people and animals
as the Lord commanded him and gave them to the Levites who were responsible for the Lord. So
and I would encourage you if you like to study things, what have we said in the past,
numbers always mean something. They always equate to something. But this was super confusing to me
as I was studying. I read through it, I can't tell you how many times I read through it,
and I said, wait a minute, who got what? You know, how much did the priest gets and how much,
wait a second. So it's confusing when you read it, but it really breaks down like this. So half
of the spoils went to the warriors and half went to Israel. The priest and the Levites received
a portion taken out of each half. So in other words, from the warrior's half, one out of 500
is given to the priests as the offering. This is called the Lord's tribute as he was talking
about it. So you understand that? So one out of 500 was given to the priests out of the warriors
portion and the rest, rest they keep. For the Israelites, or in other words, the community is
what he was calling it. One out of 50 is taken and given to the Levites. So this supports the
10 of meetings, as we've talked about in the past. As I was reading through that, I originally
thought, well, did that whole half go to the priests? Well, no, actually a very small portion
of it went to the priests and God gave half of the victory to the people and their portion went
to serve him. So he says, divide what I have placed under your stewardship. And that's a real key thing
for us to understand. This is something that I've tried diligently to apply in my life
for the past 40 some years is I don't own anything. I don't own my stuff for my money or my house or
my time or my business or my kids or I don't own anything. I am a steward that God has placed
and a steward has to steward things in a way that gives honor to God. God owned the land,
God owned the victory, God owned the spoils. And he was turning over portions of that to his people
to steward. So 48 through 54 gets into this idea of a volunteer offering or a heart response
out of out of gratitude. So it says, then the officers who were over the units of the army,
the commanders of the thousand and the commanders of hundreds went to Moses and said to him,
your servants has counted the soldiers under our command and not one is missing.
So we have brought as an offering to the Lord the gold articles each of us acquired,
armlets, bracelets, sinlets, rings, earrings, necklaces to make atonement for ourselves before
the Lord. Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted from them the gold, all the crafted articles,
all the gold from the commanders of thousand, the commanders of hundreds that Moses and Eleazar
presented as the gift to the Lord weighed 16,750 shekels. Each soldier had taken
plunder for himself. Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from the commanders
of the thousands and the commanders of the hundreds and brought them to the ten of
meetings as a memorial for the Israelites. So think about this for a second. The officers
were so grateful to God that none of their men, none of their soldiers had been killed,
not one of them, and they were so thankful for that. They loved their people so much that they
said, in addition to this portion that went back to them, we're giving you this because we want
to honor what God did for us. It's a beautiful gesture and a beautiful thought from the officers,
and it's a model of something of gratitude that we should follow. So they gave gold voluntarily.
No one commanded them to do it. Moses didn't ask for it. God didn't ask for them to do it.
Reminded me of Luke 19.8 and how gratitude can transform our behavior, transform us,
and really compel us to want to give abundantly. When we realize the blessing of that,
Luke 19.8 reads, and Zacharias stood and said to the Lord, behold the Lord,
the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it
fourfold. 2 Corinthians 9.7 reminds us to be cheerful when we give. I've said this many,
many, many times over the years when we truly embrace this idea of giving from our heart
and really understanding that, you know, we are really just stewards of what God has given,
and when we give, the blessing, you hear people talk about this all the time, and sometimes
you just don't know until you experience, but the blessing of giving. When I was young,
young in the Lord, I used to hang on pretty tightly to my wallet and my money, and when the offering
basket would come around, I'd look at my wallet and maybe throw in a five or something like that,
or sometimes I wouldn't throw in any. If I had a heavy week with bills, I wouldn't put any in,
and as I began to mature in the Lord in it, when I began to have experiences of giving
and what God did in my heart through giving, it wasn't a ritual of, okay, I have to give 10%.
Honestly, I don't even think about the 10% anymore. It's not even a number
that I think about and use as a guide, because I want to give abundantly. I want to give more and
more. In my personal life, in my business, I want to be able to give more. People that work for me,
many, many aren't even believers. I have a giving goal for every year, and I look at it very closely,
and Tammy and I look at it, and we say, we want to give abundantly more and more every year,
and in years when it's tight, I still want to give, because God blesses that,
and that's what was happening here. These commanders and these leaders were so blessed
by the abundance that God had given them, and so blessed by the grace that he had on them,
that they were compelled to give, and I think that's just a wonderful testimony.
As I reflected back on this chapter, I look at this battle that went on and this cleansing
that went on, and I think of what Christ did for us and the deliverance of where he brought
me and the sanctification that he brought me through, but then still the inner battle
that is going on all the time within me, that inner battle is reflective of this physical battle
that went on here in chapter 31. It's a physical battle. It's a battle for
purity. It's a battle to cleanse what came into that, and from a spiritual perspective,
this is, you know, the Old Testament had these physical battles and these physical enemies,
and in us and in the New Testament talks about sin and flesh and divided allegiance and spiritual
warfare. We have the covering of the blood of Jesus. We have the covering of grace
and forgiveness that's on us, but make no mistake about it. It's a battle.
We're just not out there, you know, with guns and swords and all of this stuff,
but we are out there battling against very, very real enemies that want to come into our camp.
They want to come into our camp. They want to come into us personally. They want to come
into Land's Dale life. They want to infiltrate just like the Midianites did,
and that's a fact, but it's a spiritual thing and not a physical thing.
You know, Jesus taught in Matthew 5, 29, 30, if your right eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away, for it is better that you lose one of your members
than that your whole body be thrown into hell. If your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away, for it is better that you lose one of your members
than that your whole body go into hell.
Obviously, this is not literal, right? So don't anybody go home and cut your hand off or your
foot or whatever, but it's a metaphor of the radical removal of sin in our lives, and Jesus,
as Jesus taught so brilliantly, he used, I don't want to say hyperbolic language, but he used these
metaphors to drive a point home about we cannot allow these sins to infiltrate our lives.
Matthew 6, 24, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Well, God must hate money, or God must hate wealth, right? No. Again, this is not the point.
He is using this metaphor to talk about we cannot have divided loyalty when it comes to God. We can't
just be, again, halfway in with God. We can't be semi-obedient to God, and he's making a point here
because, you know, money can so easily corrupt, but there are many things can so easily corrupt us
when we allow him to, but the point here is our loyalty to God cannot be divided. We cannot serve
two members, two masters.
So what Israel was commanded to destroy physically, we as believers must destroy
spiritually and battle against spiritually.
So in summary, you know, the core principles are the key points, the key takeaways that I like.
You know, compromise is more dangerous than conflict.
So when we compromise things, in other words, when we give in just a little bit for the sake of
this or the sake of that, it is dangerous. Partial obedience invites future destruction.
God demands undivided allegiance, and gratitude flows from recognizing God's mercy and his grace.
I think this chapter really revealed, you know, God who refuses to coexist with corruption
and immorality. You know, not out of cruelty, not out of punishment, but out of love,
and out of wanting to protect and preserve his people. And I've said this countless times as
we've gone through these Old Testament books, thank God for Jesus. Thank God for what he did
for us and his new covenant that he placed on us. So I'm going to close this in prayer,
and then we can break down into groups and just talk. I went a little longer, so we can just
have quick, we can have quick little meetings, right? Thank you, God, Lord, for this chapter,
Lord. Thank you for the spiritual lessons that we learned from this. We pray, God, you will
quick into our heart what it means, Lord, to walk with you, you know, with undivided allegiance,
Lord, in giving you 100% of who we are, Lord. Help us to guard our hearts and guard our lives
and guard our loved ones against things that can come in and corrupt us and pull us away
from you. We give you, God, everything and everyone in our lives, Lord. And we turn
everything over to you, recognizing, Lord, that we are but stewards of these things.
And give us the grace, Lord, to steward them in a way, God, that brings honor to you. Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His Word.
Don't forget to join us for Worship Lives Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day!