Numbers: Faith, Law, and History

War Against Midian, Part 1

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: War Against Midian, Part 1

Genre:

Track: 59

Dictation Name: RR181AF59

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy, and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my strength and my redeemer. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we thank thee that all things occur in thy due season, the sun and the rain, the showers of blessing, that thy purpose, O lord, for us is altogether righteous and holy. Give us grace to be patient, to know that thou art God, to wait on thee and to know that thy will shall be done, and it is thy kingdom, not that of man, that shall come. Bless us now as we give ourselves to thy word, and grant that, by thy spirit, we may be strengthened and blessed. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Our scripture is from Numbers 31:1-12. War Against Midian, and this is the first of two on this subject. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of Midian. Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war. So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand. And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword. And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire. And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts. And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.”

This chapter of which we this week will consider only the first part, and the heart of it next week, is regarded by many as the most infamous chapter in all the Bible. Enemies of the faith have, over the centuries, made routine use of it, and many who call themselves Christians skip over it. It is important for us in understanding this chapter and will come to the meat of it next week, to see first of all who the Midianites were. They were a nation related to Israel. In Genesis 25:1-4, we see that their ancestor was Midian, a child of Abraham by his second wife, Keturah. Moses’ first wife had been a Midianite woman, but her father, Jethro had separated himself from Midian and was a man of God, a priest. The Midianites lived by raiding, and in Judges 6-8, we see their habit of coming in at harvest to strip the people bare of their harvest and to leave them starving. Now, these were the Midianites there in Canaan. There were other groups of Midianites elsewhere who were not of the same radical evil character, more of which we will see next week.

The Midianites were close to the Moabites in their culture and outlook. Numbers 25, when at the counsel of Balaam, the women of Moab and Midian involved the men of Israel and their fertility cult rites. We see that the woman killed by Phinehas was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur listed in Numbers 31:8, in our text, as the king over one of the Midianite city states. There were, as I have said, various clans of Midianites, some more powerful, some more peaceful, and some later, more friendly to Israel. Those now before Israel were peoples dedicated to raiding and to fertility cult practices. Allen Edwards said of the Midianites, that they were sex worshipers, and their women very promiscuous. Now for Allen Edwards to say that, means it was very much the case. However, there is almost no research that has been done on the subject of Midian, ancient Midian, and even on fertility cults in general. They have received too little attention by scholars, despite their widespread prevalence. Perhaps the subject comes too close to home, and it also vindicates too many things in the Bible.

There is another gap in our knowledge here, a medical one. Again, I will come back to that next week. No attempt has been made to trace the relationship of fertility cult practices to the spread of venereal and other diseases and epidemics, although in answer to a question many years ago, one scholar admitted that there were doubtless many connections. He expressed no interest in the problem. Given the rapid rise of numerous sexually transmitted diseases as a result of the sexual revolution of the 1960’s on, it seems very curious that no serious consideration is given to a long history of certain practices and their consequences. In fact, only recently has one scholar called attention to the fact that Medieval Europe had begun to abandon the faith and turned into a sexual revolution, although that wasn’t the name when the Black Death hit, and according to this scholar, the practice of the time was that sexual promiscuity would be a protection against the plague, and to contract venereal diseases would make you immune to the plague, and so the result was a mass orgy of promiscuity all over Europe, and Boccoccio’s Decameron is one witness to that fact, that this was their resort.

It is interesting that with all the books published on the Black Death, only one recent book, in a paragraph, refers to this fact. This chapter is regarded as highly offensive, because God here commands the destruction of the Canaanite branch of the Midianite people. Any move against the ungodly and against criminals is unpopular with evil peoples. A man whose inner infinity is to evil will tolerate evil more than the good. This is the problem with modern juries. Their sympathies are too often with the criminal. In some cases, even with rapists. Justice cannot function in the abstract. It requires a godly people as judges, juries, and citizens. God makes clear in verse 3 that this is really His war, and as we shall see next week, it was not particularly popular with Israel.

It is against the Canaanite Midianites, and God assumes the initiative and the responsibility for this war. Since Balaam was one of those slain, it means that he had either returned from his home or stayed on in order to plan some strategy and to strike at both God and His people. It seems clear from Balaam’s presence that more assaults would be made on Israel’s faith, morality, character, and existence. There is a remarkable aspect to this campaign. It was a sudden unexpected strike against a hostile Midian, which however much it may have been preparing a new strategy, did not expect Israel to take the initiative. We are told later on in this chapter, verse 49, that not a single Israelite died in this campaign. The campaign is called the Lord’s Vengeance on Midian. That nation’s effort to pervert all Israel into fertility cult practices had incurred God’s wrath.

God does not take apostasy or sin lightly. We read in Exodus 32:9-following, and in Numbers 11, and in 14 that God was ready to execute all Israel except for Moses’ intercession. James tells us that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, who is now ready to pray for our people and their redemption. We must remember, too, that in spite of Moses’ intercession, all the older generation save two were sentenced to die in the wilderness. This was not an obliteration of all Israel, but it was a great judgment. Because this was a war ordered by God, Phinehas, son of the high priest, Eleazar, accompanied the solidiers and was, according to verse 6, to a degree, a leader. The battle was a successful surprise attack. In an age of total war, it is hypocritical to condemn the attack on Midian as wrong.

Balaam is listed in verse 8, together with the five kings of Midian’s city states as among those slain. Given the legal language of the Bible, this means that Balaam had gained high status in the Midianite counsels of war and of state. Balaam’s counsel that the Midianite women make themselves available to Israelite men in fertility cult practices had led to a plague that killed some 24,000 men. We know from history that a people with no exposure to a new disease, venereal or otherwise, often have no resistence at all. Israel, about forty years in the wilderness, had no such immunity, and as a result succombed to diseases which the seducing women had much tolerance to. In late 1940’s, on the western Shoshone reservation, we had a very mild winter. The war had just ended, and the Indians were moving from wagons to cars, and as a result, measles came in. I was burying two a day for some time. There was no immunity among the children and among the older, because the last touch of measles and the only one previously ad been in 1911, and it had wiped out a sizable portion of the people. Isolation had protected them. As a result, their immunity to it was non-existent.

Balaam had cleverly found a means of not only corrupting Israel but also killing its manpower, because it was the men who contracted the disease. His presence with the kings indicates that more of the same strategy was being planned, perhaps more deviously, this second time. Baal-Peor is the Baal of Peor, essentially the same god known in the Greco-Roman world as Paraphus{?}, and all the virgins had to prostitute themselves from a very early age to the Baal of Peor. It was a naturalistic religion whose premise was, in Alexander Pope’s words, “Whatever is, is right.” It has been a faith advocated in our time by Kinsey and his staff, Lenny Bruce, Hugh Hefner, and many others.

Calvin’s comment is very pertinent, and I’m going to quote it as some length. He said, “Among the other prerogatives which God conferred upon His church, this one is celebrated, that He armed the godly to execute vengeance upon the heathen, to execute upon them the judgment that is written, and although the spirit declares that this should happen under the kingdom of Christ, still he refers to ancient examples, one of which wellworthy of remembrance, is here recorded. The Midianites had organized a wicked conspiracy for the destruction of God’s people, and God in undertaking to punish this cruel act of theirs, gave a striking proof of His paternal favor towards the Israelites, while His grace is doubled by His constituting the ministers of His judgment. This passage therefore, shows us how anxious God was for the welfare of His elect people, when He so set himself against their enemies, as if he would make common cause in all respects with them. At the same time, we must observe this additional favor towards them, that although the Israelites themselves were not without blame, He still deigned to appoint them as judges of the Midianites. Inasmuch, however, as He everywhere prohibits His people from indulging the lust of vengeance, we must not forget the distinction between men’s vengeance and God’s own. He would have his servants by patiently bearing injuries, overcome evil with good, while at the same time, He by no means abdicates His own power, but still reserves to Himself the right of inflicting punishment. Nay, Paul, desiring to exhort believers to long-suffering, recalls them to the principle that God takes upon Himself the office of avenging. Since then God is at liberty to execute vengeance, not only by himself but also by His ministers, as we have already seen. These two things are not inconsistent with each other, that the passions of the godly are laid under restraint by the word, that they should not act when injured, nor seek for vengeance or retaliate the evils that they have received, and still that they are the just and legitimate executioners of God’s vengeance when the sword is put into their hands. It remains that whoever is called to this office should punish crime with honest zeal as the minister of God and not acting in his own private cause. God here, entrusted the office of vengeance upon His people, but by no means in order that they might indulge the lust of their nature, for their feeling ought to have been this: that they should have been ready to pardon the Midianites, and still that they should heartily bestir themselves to inflict punishment upon them.”

Now a key verse is verse 6, which orders Phinehas to lead the way and to blow the holy trumpets. This meant that the war was fought with God’s blessing and under His orders. Both Jewish and Christian commentators have struggled to explain away this chapter or to apologize for God. Given the evils our present age, both perpetrates and tolerates, this is arrogance indeed. Such people will not allow God to require judgment. As a result, we live in a time of God’s judgment upon the nations. In God’s universe, men may tolerate evil but then God moves against all such men and their evils. Let us pray.

Our Father, thou art God and it is thy will alone that must be done. Give us grace to hear, to believe, to obey, to know that while vengeance belongeth only to thee. On occasion, thou hast ordered in thy revelation judgment to be executed upon a nation, that thou hast ordained civil authorities to execute vengeance, justice, in thy name, and that where we are derelict, thou wilt execute judgment upon us. O Lord, our God, teach thy church everywhere to know thee and to fear thee, to know that thy word is truth, and that thy word alone shall prevail. In Christ’s name. Amen. Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes, Bob?

[Audience] Didn’t Israrl have the policy before they advanced into war, to make known to their enemies that they would succomb, they would take them over {?}

[Rushdoony] In every instance in the wilderness, they had been fighting a defensive war. This was the first offensive war.

[Audience] I don’t know where I read it, and I think it was in Numbers, that they stood before their enemies, blew trumpet, and then said, “If you will succomb, we will,” I don’t know what favoritism they gave them, but because {?} the fact of giving in, I know one tribe made a covenant with them and they left them alone. Do you remember which one that was?

[Rushdoony] Well, this was in the conquest of Canaan, the Gibeonites, but even their covenant was made on the basis of a falsehood.

[Audience] They were {?} their rule,

[Rushdoony] That comes subsequent to their conquest.

[Audience] I just thought they always, I don’t’ know why I get this in my head.

[Rushdoony] That’s in Joshua, but apart from that, it was always a declared warfare. This was an act of justice, of God’s vengeance. Any other questions? Yes?

[Audience] Did the Midianites extract tribute from their subdued nations that they overcame?

[Rushdoony] Yes. They would leave them virtually starving, and they would take whatever they pleased of individuals and the harvest in particular. They had a habit of so stripping the fields that the people would barely be alive. In other words, not enough to starve them totally to death, but enough to keep them in a condition that they could harvest the people of their crops and of persons regularly.

[Audience] Seems to be a characteristic that’s been alive and well for centuries in the Russian Empire. They did that with their satellites and now we’re paying tribute in lieu of the satellites which are now broken and destitute.

[Rushdoony] Yes. There was a very interesting article in a recent issue of “Insight” by someone who had gone over there to do business, and this was shortly before Gorbechev’s retirement, if you can call it that, and in the hotel where he was staying was this Russian who kept trying to peddle some rubles on an exchange for dollars at a bargain rate, and he consistently refused to do so, and when the men he was to confer with, because he was there apparently on government business, came, he called attention to the man, and they laughed. Oh they knew Greesha{?} very well, and why was nothing done? Oh, he’s a factory worker. Well, he’s here all day long, how does he work? He doesn’t. He doesn’t. The faculty supervisor checks him off as present every day and takes his pay, and Greesha{?} will collect a pension, so he does business here, and when the American was shocked by all this, he was told they laughed at him. You don’t understand. This is the way all of Russia operates, and so what came home to him was they cannot survive. There is no free market possibility there. It’s all graft. It’s all envy. Apart from the slave labor camps, where is the production. The faculty was a fascade, and Greesha{?} was an entrepreneur, in an evil sense, taking advantage of the corruption as everyone else was, and to the men he had gone to confer with, who could have blown the whistle on Greesha{?} and did not, it was an everyday fact of life you lived with.

Now, this is the kind of thing that prevails. You cannot change that kind of thing, and it has prevailed throughout history without a change of faith. Kubla Khan, forbad, I believe it was on penalty of death, any gambling in China in his time, and the Chinese are great gamblers. Why? Because they would be losing money that rightfully was his. They had to keep it so he could take it away from them, and of course, they converted to paper money. The descendants of Ghengis Khan were not fools. They were evil, but they knew how to destroy a country. They converted it to paper in order to be able to destroy the entire country, and that’s how they maintained their power. No change of faith. No change of character, and the same evil prevails everywhere in the world. So, we are returning steadily to barbarism, and our schools, state schools are producing barbarians. I know that on one of my trips, one teacher who was substituting, she was retired, said in many of the schools, about all you can expect to do durign the hours is to take the roll. Much more than that is next to impossible. Would you say that’s true, Bob?

[Audience] That’s very close {?} I have a question. When God accepted Israel, when God accepted Israel as His chosen people, were all automatically saved? Were all hearts changed?

[Rushdoony] No.

[Audience] Because he specifically speaks of Saul and David as changing their hearts, plus he anointed them and made them king, but he speaks of no body else, it seems.

[Rushdoony] Well, many we know were godly and many were ungodly. He chose them in his sovereign grace and was good to them. They had their ups and downs of faith and lack of faith, and paid for it, paid for it more than other nations round about, just as we shall if we continue our present course, because wherever God favors a people with His grace and mercy, there the judgment is especially severe, so we are beginning to see the judgment upon Europe, and we are beginning to see the judgment upon us, as the whole world, but God will strike against those whom He has most favored, and that’s why it is so fearful when those who had the benefits of the most godly kind of upbringing turn against the faith, or treat it casually, or feel that God’s law doesn’t somehow make requirements, demands of them. Then they are particularly judged. Peter says judgment begins at the house of God, and our Lord says, “To whom much is given, of him shall much be required.” So, those nations that have been most favored by God pay the greatest penalty. That’s why we are told that the judgment that befell Israel in the Jewish-Roman war was the greatest disaster in all of history, and there will be none to equal it, because they crucified the Lord of Glory. Any other questions or comments? Well, if not, let us conclude with prayer.