Saturday, January 22, 2011

January 22, 2011 (Numbers 29-33)

I'm going to start with the last chapter and go backwards. Chapter 33 begins with a recap of what had happened to the Israelites on their journeys. It says "At the Lords' direction, Moses kept a written record of their progress". Then it goes on to list all the stages of their march, identified by the different places they stopped along the way.  First of all, I wish I would have made a written record of all the places I've been and things I've done. My memory is atrocious! Chris recently was looking at some old photo albums and we discovered one from my missions trip to England back in 1985. I really, really wish I had a written log of the experiences of that trip. God did some amazing things and although I remember them in 'generalities' I would love to recount the details. So as a side note, this passage has reminded me that in whatever remaining years I have, I want to journal it through pictures and written words so that I can remember it all. Now, back to the story. So chapter 33 ends with these words:

50 While they were camped near the Jordan River on the plains of Moab opposite Jericho, the Lord said to Moses, 51 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: When you cross the Jordan River into the land of Canaan, 52 you must drive out all the people living there. You must destroy all their carved and molten images and demolish all their pagan shrines. 53 Take possession of the land and settle in it, because I have given it to you to occupy.  55 But if you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live. 56 And I will do to you what I had planned to do to them.”

I've highlighted the parts that had particular meaning based upon what I read before. God told them exactly what they were to do when they took possession of the land. But Chapter 31 details one of the raids where God told them to take vengeance on the Mideonites for leading them into idolatry. They raided the Mideonites and killed all the men and kings, but took all the women and children as plunder. When they got back to camp, Moses was furious that they hadn't killed them all, but gave the order to let all the young girls who were virgins to live, but to kill everyone else. I found that very confusing. God's specific commands were to drive out ALL the people. Why did Moses back down on obeying God's commands? Was it because God had also told him after this raid, he would die? Did he figure, "What the heck? I'm sick of being the 'bad guy'."

1 comment:

  1. They didn't get rid of all of the people in the land... Remember the Gideonites? The Israelites made a treaty and so they were stuck with the people, and they most likely gave up their gods.

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