Day 067- The Bible Recap

You recall back in Numbers 25 the Midianites, advised by Balaam, convinced God's people to worship Baal. The LORD told Moses it was time to avenge the people of Israel and commanded him to attack with 12,000 men...one thousand from each tribe.

Moses was angry they only killed the males (including Balaam) because it was the females that tempted them to fall into idolatry. But yet again they brought Midianite women back into their camps. One study I read said God took the Israelites "out of Egypt in one night. But it took forty years to get Egypt out of them." This brought to mind being in the world not of the world. 

Moses commanded all widowed women to be killed because there was a good chance the Israelites would marry them and be tempted into worshipping other gods and idols again. The LORD wanted to protect His people from lies and deception!

Not one of the Israelite's men died in the victorious battle...the LORD was on their side!

The people of Gad and Reuben had a lot of livestock so they asked if they could live in the land outside of Canaan. Moses was hesitant for a couple of reasons. One, he didn't want them to only do this to avoid fighting in the war to get to the promised land. And two, He also wanted to make sure their request didn't represent a lack of trust in the LORD to provide. Once both situations were accounted for, he agreed to them living outside the promised land.

One thing that was encouraging to me in this whole account is that if we follow Him, the LORD will fight for us! He doesn't want to see His people being drawn away by lies and deception!

~Ann Mays