2/24/2009 9:20 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: The purification
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Numbers 31:11-24
Message of the verses: “11
They took all the spoil and all the prey, both of man and of beast. 12
They brought the captives and the prey and the spoil to Moses, and to
Eleazar the priest and to the congregation of the sons of Israel , to the camp at the plains of Moab , which are by the Jordan opposite Jericho
13 ¶ Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the
leaders of the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp. 14
Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the captains of thousands
and the captains of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. 15 And
Moses said to them, "Have you spared all the women? 16
"Behold, these caused the sons of Israel
The first
thing that I wish to do is to paste a note on verse seventeen from a man named
Adam Clarke whose notes are on the Online Bible: “Verse
17. Kill every male among the little ones For this action I account simply on
the principle that God, who is the author and supporter of life, has a right to
dispose of it when and how he thinks proper; and the Judge of all the earth can
do nothing but what is right. Of the women killed on this occasion it may be
safely said, their lives were forfeited by their personal transgressions; and
yet even in this case there can be little doubt that God showed mercy to their
souls. The little ones were safely lodged; they were taken to heaven and saved
from the evil to come.” This verse
would seem to be the most difficult to understand in this section and so that
is why I copied and pasted this note.
This
reminds me a little bit of when king Saul was told by the prophet Samuel to go
and kill (I think it was) the Amorites and he did not do as he was told and the
Lord was very upset with Saul for not doing what he was suppose to do. In the same way Moses was upset that the army
of Israel did not destroy all of these Midianites for it was the women who
would have tempted Israel men the most since just a little while ago there were
a large number of the children of Israel killed in a plague because of some of
the men had committed adultery with these women and now they bring them into
the camp along with the little ones. I
agree with Adam Clarke in that the killing of the little boys was mercy to them
for if they would have grown up in the environment of their parents who
worshiped idols they would have probably learned that same thing from them.
These
12,000 soldiers had to be purified according to the Law of Moses after touching
a dead person and all of the booty had to be cleansed as well and all of this
took a week so they all had to stay outside of the main camp for a week.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: There are times when God’s justice is
difficult to understand, yet God is God and He can never do wrong even though
at times it is hard to understand and to endure.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
- Learn to be content.
- Trust the Lord in both the good times and in the bad times.
- Trust the Lord to direct my path today.
- Put on the spiritual armor.
- Give myself to the Lord for worship and service today.
- Have my mind renewed by God’s Spirit through God’s Word.
2/24/2009 9:42 AM
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