Waging Holy War on Sin (Numbers 31:1-18) [2025-8-3]

All right, good morning, church family.

Let me invite you to find your seat.

And as you find your seat, let me encourage you to open your

Bibles to the Book of Numbers or type in your device the Book of

Numbers, Chapter 31. This morning we're going to be

Numbers 31 · chapter mention

in numbers 31, one through 18. We've been going through numbers

for several months and maybe even been a year.

But now that we've been going through it, and last week we

looked at all of Chapter 30, and this morning we're going to look

at part of Chapter 31 titled the sermon this morning is this

Waging Holy war on Sin? And so I will read the text as I

go through it in the exposition. So let me open us in a word of

prayer and then we will jump into our sermon this morning.

So if you will pray with me, Father, I pray as we look at a

text this morning that I imagine for some of us, if not maybe

most of us, may be difficult to read that it's, it's it's never

easy to read about war and, and just your commands, God.

And how do we process that? And how do we especially process

that in light of the New Testament, in light of Jesus and

the new covenant? And what does this mean for us

and how do we apply this? So God, would you help us to

wrestle with this text this morning?

Help us not to be offended by it.

Help us not to dismiss it, but help us to to remember that all

the scriptures inspired and all of it is profitable, all of it

is for teaching and reproofing, correction and training in

righteousness, including texts that deal with holy war.

And so God, would you give us insight now into your word?

I pray in Jesus name, Amen. In Greek mythology, after a

decade of failed siege against Troy, the wily hero Odysseus

conceived a bold stratagem, the construction of a colossal

hollow wooden horse, a faux offering to the goddess Athena,

secretly filled with elite Greek warriors.

The Trojans, encouraged by the captive Greek Synod and hoping

that the war had ended, wheeled the horse inside their

impregnable, impregnable walls. Despite urgent cautions by the

Prophetess Cassandra and Priest Laocoon, whose cries of beware

of Greeks bearing gifts were tragically disregarded, by

nightfall the hidden soldiers emerged from the horse open

Troy's gates to the returning Greek fleet, and the once proud

city fell in a single devastating strike.

That's from ChatGPT by the way. Brothers and sisters, do you

have any Trojan horses in your life?

Sin that looks like a gift but is in fact a means of death.

We must always maintain a posture of war in the Christian

life. We are always at war because

there's always an enemy lurking, sometimes lurking, right in our

midst. We must always be waging holy

war on our sin. And that's what the sermon is

about this morning. So we're going to start with the

next vision of the text, and then I'll give us application at

the end. So let's start looking at verses

one and two. We'll read it section by

section. Numbers 31, verses 1 and 2.

Numbers 31:1

The Lord spoke to Moses saying, avenge the people of Israel on

the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered

to your people. So the chapter begins with God

giving Moses a command. Avenge the people of Israel on

the Midianites. Now of course this raises 2

questions. Number one, who are the

Midianites? Well, they are a people group to

the South of Israel. Midian was originally a person.

He was a son of Abraham, but he was not born through Sarah, but

rather Abraham's concubine Katura.

So the Midianites are not Israelites.

Israelites are only those that descend from Abraham and Sarah,

which would be Isaac. So they're not Israelite.

The second question is why does God say to avenge the people of

Israel on them? Well, if you remember from

Numbers 25 that we looked at a few weeks ago, the Israelite men

had begun to whore with the daughters of Moab and Midian.

One of them brought a Midianite woman to his family right in

front of the congregation, right in front of Moses and everybody.

And as a result God sent a plague upon the people of Israel

and 24,000 Israelites died. At the end of that chapter God

gave Moses very specific instructions.

He said harass the Midianites and strike them down, for they

have harassed you with their Wiles, with which they beguiled

you in the matter of pure. And so now the time has come for

that command to be with the field.

The time has come for Moses and the Israelites to carry out the

Lord's vengeance on Midian. Now after Moses finishes this

war, God says you're going to be gathered to your people, which

means you have one more war to fight Moses and then you're

going to die. Then you're coming home.

Look at verse 3 to 6. So Moses spoke to the people

saying, are men from among you for the war that they may go

against Midian. To execute the Lord's vengeance

on Midian, you shall send 1000 from each of the tribes of

Israel to the war. So they were provided out of the

thousands of Israel, 1000 from each tribe, 12,000 armed for

war, and Moses sent them to the war, 1000 from each tribe,

together with Phineas the son of Eliezer the priest, with the

vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his

hand. Now, this war that they're going

to fight against Midian is not part of the conquest of the

Promised Land, all right? So make sure we understand that

it's not part of the conquest of the promised Land.

Why? Because Midian is not part of

the promised land. This is rather a separate kind

of war, the war of vengeance. But notice not Israel's

vengeance. The text says execute the Lord's

vengeance. God said in Deuteronomy 3235

vengeance is mine and so now God instructs them to enact his

vengeance on Midian. He says send 1000 men armed in

battle, 1000 from each tribe. There are 12 tribes so 12,000

men are going to go into battle. Meaning all of Israel is to

partake in this war right? Not just one tribe, all to

equally partake in this battle. Interesting that the only

individual that God points out in this text of this battle is

Phineas. Phineas.

Now why is Phineas mentioned? Well do you remember Phineas is

the one who kicked off this war? He started it if he he killed

the first Midianite when he drove a spear through a the

Midianite woman, Cosby. But here in this text, Phineas

is not going to battle as a warrior.

Phineas is going to be going now as a priest.

Remember, he's the son of Eliezer.

So he is a priest. He's going into battle with two

items. Number one, he's going with the

vessels of the sanctuary. Now it's not clear what these

vessels are. Possibly the ark, possibly the

priestly garments, possibly the Urim and Thummim, maybe some

combination thereof. But he's going with the priestly

holy vessels. Two, he's going to go with the

trumpets for alarm in his hand. Now, what are the trumpets for?

The trumpets have two purposes. They're both stated in numbers

10. Number one, to know what camps

are to set out first and in what order.

So you know when you have 12,000 people and you're trying to

March in the battle, like who's supposed to go 1st?

And these trumpets would let them know who is supposed to go

1st and in what order they are to go.

The second reason for the trumpets God states in Numbers

10-9 where He says that you may be remembered before the Lord

your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.

In other words, when Phineas blows these trumpets in battle,

God will remember them and He will save them.

Look at verse 7. They ward against Midian as the

Lord commanded Moses and killed every male.

So the battle begins and in the battle the Israelites kill every

Midianite male. Now, three items to point out A

this doesn't mean they killed every Midianite male everywhere.

Doesn't mean every Midianite male everywhere.

We know this because we see the Midianites in the Book of

Judges. They're there so they don't kill

every Midianite male. So how do we make sense?

How do we reconcile this? Here's how to reconcile it.

The Midianites were actually a large confederation of tribes,

and they would be associated with smaller groups.

So here it is those Midianites that are associated with the

Moabites that are picked out for vengeance.

So think of it as like Midianites are just a large

confederation of tribes they would associate with, like the

Amalekites, the Moabites, and so forth.

And it's the Midianites that associate themselves with the

Moabites. Those are all the males that are

killed. But there's still other

Midianites that are going to be living, and we see them in

Judges B. This is not the only time when

the Israelites were commanded to put everyone to death or to put

most to death. When they begin the conquest of

Canaan, God is going to tell them to devote the cities to

complete destruction. When they start conquering the

promised land, when they they go into Jericho and they go into

the Hibites and the Jebusites, they're going to, God says

devote them all to complete destruction.

We even see this in first Samuel 15 when God told Saul when they

fought against the Amalekites, he says devote to destruction.

All of them do not spare them, but kill both man and woman,

child and infant. Which then raises the last Point

C How is this just? How is this just?

Yes, the sexual immorality, but does that warrant killing all

the males? How is that just?

I'll address that in the application.

Look at verse 8. They killed the kings of Midian

with the rest of their slain Evie, Reckham, Zur, her and

Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam, the

son of Bior with the sword. Now it's not uncommon in battle.

This is still true today where soldiers died, but if one side

wins the entire battle, they will spare the generals or spare

the kings. But this is not the case here.

The Israelites kill all 5 king Midianite kings.

Now we don't know these other ones are, but we remember Zur,

right? Zur.

It was his daughter Cosby that Phineas killed.

She was a daughter of one of the leaders of Midian.

And in this war, there's one of the person they killed.

They killed all the males. They killed the five kings.

There's one of the person they killed, Balaam, the son of

Biore. Now who is that?

If you've been with us the past several weeks, you remember

Balaam. He was the Pagan diviner that

Moab had hired to curse Israel. But instead God used it as an

opportunity to bless Israel. And if you remember from that

text, Balaam, after unsuccessfully trying to curse

Israel 4 * 4 times, he tries to curse them to get paid by Balaam

4 times. God keeps them from being able

to do it. And at the end of those four

times, those 4 failures, the text says then Balaam rose and

went back to his place is to be a Pagan diviner for hire.

It appears that home Balaam went and joined the Midianites.

He doesn't go home. Now that brings 2 questions up

#1 what is Balaam Midian and #2 why did Israel kill him?

And he just got through blessing them four times by God's doing.

But why did they kill him? We'll get there shortly.

Look at verse 9. The people of Israel took

captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took

us plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all their

goods. Now in verse 8 is they killed

all the males. So what they do with the women?

They took them captive along with their little ones, meaning

the young children, right? These would be young, very young

children. What is the purpose of them

taking these women captive? One of two purposes, either for

wives or for slaves, for wives or for slaves.

They take plunder as well. They take all their cattle, they

take all their flocks, they take all their goods.

This plunder will be recounted in next week's sermon.

Now it seems like letting the women and the children live is

the honourable thing to do, is it not?

You go to battle if you kill all the males, right?

You let the women and the children live.

That's the honourable thing to do.

But let's see how this plays out.

Look at verse 10 to 12. All their cities and the places

where they lived and all their encampments, they burned with

fire, and they took all the spoil and all the plunder, both

of man and beast. Then they brought the captives

in the plunder and the spoil to Moses and Eliezer the priest,

and to the congregation of the people of Israel at the camp on

the plains of Moab, by the Jordan, at Jericho.

So they take all of the Midianites, spoil, all of their

plunder, which would mean gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, lead.

They take all their sheep, their cattle, their donkeys.

They take it all. After taking all this, they set

everything on fire, all the cities and all the encampments.

And then when they come home, they take all their captives,

the women and the children. They take all the plunder and

all the spoil, and they presented as a gift to Moses and

to Eliezer and to the whole congregation.

The narrator tells us that they're still on the camp, on

the plains of Moab, by the Jordan, at the Jericho.

So they're still by Moab now as they come back and they have

this gift, Moses is going to be thrilled, right?

This is going to be so thrilled to see all this plunder and all

these women and children, right? He's going to be thrilled,

right? Look at verse 13 to 15.

Moses and Eliezer, the priests and all the chiefs of the

congregation went to meet them outside the camp.

And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the

commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds who had

come from service in the war. Moses said to them, Have you let

all the women live? So Moses, Eliezer, and the

chiefs, they go to meet the returning victors outside the

camp. I think this is probably because

they would have been considered unclean.

So they go meet them outside the camp and when it Moses sees them

returning from battle victorious with prizes, Moses is angry.

Didn't see that one coming. This is like when you win the

game and the coach is angry. You're like, we won, why are you

angry? Why is Moses angry?

He's angry with the officers of the army.

Notice he's not angry with the people, he's angry with the

leaders. Moses asked him a simple

question, but it is pregnant with conviction.

Have you let all the women live Now why does Moses ask this?

Look at verse 16. Behold these on Balaam's advice,

caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the

Lord, and the incident of pure And so the plague came upon the

congregation of of the Lord. Moses says, Behold meaning guys,

listen, look, behold these, these meaning these women on

Balaam's advice, Balaam. What was Balaam doing to Midian?

You see, Balaam couldn't curse Israel to weaken them.

He tried four times. He couldn't do it.

He realizes I cannot weaken Israel by means of God.

God will not curse them. So I'll find a back door.

I'll find a back door called Moabite and Midianite women.

He says if I can't get God stem, here's what I'll do.

I'll get God to be angry with them.

I can get God to be angry with them for their sin.

And he gives them advice to do this.

Why was Balaam killed in battle? Why did they kill this prophet

in battle? Because Balaam had become a

stumbling block to the people of Israel, Jesus said 214 Balaam

taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel

so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice

sexual immorality. Balaam went to the Moabites in

the Midianites, and he told their kings and probably their

women, saying hey, go and entice these men.

In doing so, they will. Commit sexual immorality.

They will bow down to your gods, and their God will be angry with

them, and it will weaken them. And it worked.

It worked. But there are consequences to

that. Remember what Jesus said about

stumbling blocks? Whoever causes one of these

little ones to believe in me to sin, it would be better for him

to have a great millstone fastened around neck and to be

drowned in the depth of the sea. So they killed Balaam.

Now the reason that Moses is so angry is because the commanders

of Israel let these very women live, the very same women who

led the Israelites into an idolatry.

Remember this immorality, idolatry.

It cost 24,000 Israelites their life. 24,000 died because of

this immorality and idolatry. And Moses is like, do you not

remember burying your brothers and sisters?

Do you not remarry? Remember burying these men who

died because of these women? So what is Moses going to do?

Look at verse 17 to 18. Now therefore killed every male

among the little ones, and killed every woman who has known

man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have

not known man by lying with him, Keep alive for yourselves.

Moses gives the Israelites 2 instructions here.

Number one, kill every male among the little ones.

Now I understand this sounds barbaric.

I, I'm, I'm there's no way to you know that or whitewash.

That sounds barbaric, doesn't it?

This is completely in keeping with God's instructions in other

places in Scripture. In the flood, God wiped out

everybody. Infants, children.

He wiped out everybody except for one family.

In the 10th plague, God put to death every first born of the

Egyptians, regardless of their age.

If your first born was six weeks old and you were Egyptian, your

first born male died. And with the Amalekites, God

commanded the putting the death of every child.

This is completely in keeping with God's instructions.

Another place. Now we may be wondering though.

OK OK, so that just means that God is he's, He's consistent.

He could be a consistent barbarian.

That just means he's consistent. Why do the children need to be

put to death? Surely they had nothing to do

with leading the Israelites into sin.

This is most likely to prevent future rebellion.

A Midian that these sons will one day grow up and avenge their

father's death #2 Second instruction.

God says no man by lying with him.

Keep alive all the young girls who have not known man by lying

with him. Now you may be wondering, like

as I did, why is this the line of demarcation right?

In other words, if you are a virgin, you can live.

If you're a virgin, you have to die.

Why is that the line of demarcation?

Well, let me back up for just a minute.

One way to look at it is that all the women should have died.

They all should have died, but God allowed the young girls to

be kept alive. Another way to look at it is

that women who had laid with men more than likely had already

begun worshipping false gods. If they were old enough and they

were married, or if they had committed this immorality, they

they more than likely had already engaged in worshipping

false gods. They were already says to put

these women to death so that they don't leave the Israelite

men into further idolatry. Now 2 questions remain.

A What does it mean that for the virgins you can keep for

yourselves? What does that mean?

Well, these young Midianite women who were virgins, they

could be kept and they were kept for what?

For either being wives or for being slaves.

You're like, well, why is that? Part of the principles of holy

war, part of how God set this up is that virgin women were

allowed to be captured by the Israelites and to become either

wives or slaves. This is outlined in Deuteronomy

20 and 21, which we won't have time to get into, but you can

read that on your own time. This is God outlines this

principle and Deuteronomy 20 and 21.

Now if you are wondering, what if a what if she didn't want to

be a wife? What if she didn't want to be a

slave? You could die.

We our starting point is not that we deserve to live.

Our starting point is that we deserve to die.

Everybody deserves to die. We all stand before holy God and

we all deserve to die. The fact that God lets any of us

live is unspeakable mercy and grace.

Second question is, is God OK with Israelite men marry

Midianite women? I thought they were always

supposed to marry Jews. That's actually not technically

true. The answer is yes.

He is OK with the Israelite men marry Midianite women. 2

examples to make this case. Number one, Moses married

Sephora. Zippora was a Midianite.

Moses also married a Kushite woman.

Apparently his brother and his sister had a problem with this

and God said, well here's leprosy if you have a problem

with this. So they here's another example,

Boaz married Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite.

So what was prohibited? It is clear that the Israelite

men were prohibited from intermarrying with the Canaanite

nations. They could not intermarry with

the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Jebusites,

parasites. They could not intermarry with

the Canaanites. Why?

Because the temptations to religious apostasy, in other

words, if they marry these Canaanites, they would clearly

apostasize. Or the temptation to apostasize

would be so strong. We even see that with Solomon,

who intermarried with foreign women, and it led him astray.

But if a non Canaanite woman, meaning a Moabite, A Midianite,

if a non Canaanite woman was a convert to Judaism, she would

have to convert to Judaism, just like Ruth did.

Remember, Ruth converted to Judaism.

She she chose to adhere to Naomi's religion.

Then the Israelite men could marry them, just as Boaz marries

Ruth. And that's true here too.

All right, we'll stop there with exposition, application of the

text. You're like, where are we going

with this? How are we going to get

application from killing males and women and children and so

forth #1 Our first word allocation comes from the

passage in Nahum chapter one, verse 2.

And here's how that book begins. The Lord is a jealous and

avenging God. The Lord is avenging and

wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his

adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

Nahum was written to console the people of Israel who had been

oppressed by Nineveh. You know why for so many of us,

why war is so like hard for us to swallow?

Because we've never known it. You've never watched a foreign

country come into your land and kill your children.

Do you know what I would feel towards someone else?

If Canada or China or Mexico or India or Pakistan came into

America and put my son to death and I had to watch my sons be

put to death right before my eyes?

I feel like this. I'd want vengeance.

I'd want a God who was jealous and avenging and wrathful, who

would take vengeance on his adversaries.

Lately, these days, it it seems like if you turn on the news,

you ever noticed that? Like if you turn on the news now

a large amount of what is reported.

The other side is it's like we don't even report the news

anymore. All we do is report how that

side is awful, and then the other side reports how that side

is awful. That's not kind of all it's

become. You click on one network, this

side's ruining the country. You click on the other network,

this side's ruining the country. That's kind of all it's become.

What is at the heart of all of this?

Why is that? What?

How did we get here? What?

What's at the heart of all this? I think there's a lot of things,

but I'll sum it up. Fear.

I think that there is a great fear that people have that

people are going to get away with sin or what we think is

sin. So if we think your policies are

sin, if we think your walls or commands are said, we are so

afraid they're going to get away with it.

And the other side thinks the same thing.

This fear can all too easily creep into the church and it can

creep into families as well. You see, we see the sin of this

world, right? I mean, just go out into the

world and we see the sin of this world, how it is impacting us

and especially how it's impacting our future

generations. If you have kids and you look

around, I mean, man, this is like not that it was like, you

know, like the 50s were sin was still there, but we see how sin

is impacting and there's there's a fear.

We always want to be vigilant about the surrounding culture,

but in the midst of all this, we must not lose sight of this

reality. The Lord is a jealous and

avenging God. The Lord is avenging and

wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his

adversaries and he keeps wrath for his enemies.

You see, Moab and Midian had LED God's people into sin. 24,000 of

them paid with for it with their lives.

There may have been wives who had to bury their husbands

because he engaged in sexual immorality.

There may have been daughters who had to bury their dads

because he engaged in sexual immorality.

But God was not going to let Midian get away with this.

God was not going to sit by and let Midian and Moab deceive his

people, lead them into a morale in idolatry and let them just

go. No, God commanded Moses avenge

the people of Israel against the Midianites.

Now, what does that mean for us? We're not waging holy war

anymore. We're not waging war on ethnic

groups. We're not waging war on

nationalistic groups. We're not waging war on

political groups. We're not waging war on

organizations or corporations for this.

We must remember this. Sinners will not get away with

their sin. God will avenge the sins

committed against creation, against the church, against

against women, against children. I want to encourage you that if

you are prone, not everybody, but if you are prone to getting

stressed out or anxious or maybe even angry at the sins world,

keep in mind our God is not a passive God.

He is an avenging God. He will avenge every sin

committed against US, against humanity.

He will take care of it. Two, God has called us to wage

holy war on our sin. God has called us to wage holy

war on our sin. When you read this text, there

are some graphic terms in it, aren't there?

Words like avenge, war, execute, vengeance, killed.

You see, God was not sending the Israelites to go and engage in

diplomatic relations with the Midianites.

He didn't say, hey, go see if you can seek out the terms of

peace with them. Go try to negotiate with them.

They weren't trying to find a compromise.

God sent them into Midian for one purpose and and the same

mission still stands today. Except instead of Midian insert

our sin, God has called us to wage holy war on our sin.

These graphic terms, they're not just an Old Testament facet.

But you read this and you think, oh man, this is Old Testament.

No, we see it in the New Testament as well.

Colossians 35 put to death what is earthly in you.

Galatians 524 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the

flesh along with his passions and its desires.

We are at war with our sin. We must always be at war.

My boys have been arguing about the same topic for the past

year. It was on every single day in

our house and it centres around this question.

Who is the GOAT in basketball? Is it LeBron or Jordan?

They argue about that everyday, 365 days a year now.

Of course I think it's LeBron simply because of his skill set.

But there are many, many people who still hold on to Jordan.

Why? It usually centres around this

idea. Jordan was a killer.

He wasn't there to make friends. He didn't play to make friends.

If you were playing against him, you were the enemy.

Today's NBA is a little bit different, buddy.

And you know, like hanging out with each other afterward.

Jordan wasn't hanging out with nobody except maybe Charles, but

he he, he had a falling out with Charles.

He had a killer mentality. God has called us to have this

same mentality with our sin. We're not trying to make friends

with it. We're not to negotiate, to

compromise with it. We're not to make excuses for

it. We're not provision for it.

We're not to justify it. We're not to defend it.

We're not to explain it. We're not to compare it.

There's only one thing that God has told us, commanded us to do

with our sin, and it is the same thing that He did with His Son,

and that is crucified. One of the reasons that the

cross was so graphic, you watch the Passion of Christ right now

that I'm not advocating that, you know, if you're like, I

don't watch that because it's visual.

And but if you watch that movie and you realize how graphic this

is, and I think even that movie probably did not do justice to

what a crucifixion was. If you read historical accounts,

it was barbaric beyond belief. One of the reasons that the

cross was so graphic was not only to atone for our sin and to

propitiate the wrath of God, but it was to give us a vivid

picture of what our mentality quality should be towards this

dragon that lives inside of us. This dragon rears his ugly head

and we are to pull out our sword and cut it off.

Cut it off. And brothers and sisters, let me

encourage you. Keep your sword near the bedside

of your soul. Because his head regenerates

every day #3 The question is never why did God kill so many

people, but rather, why didn't God kill everybody?

The question is never why did God kill so many people, but

rather, why didn't God kill everybody?

One of the perennial questions that is asked by atheist,

agnostics, humanist, secularist is this Why did God kill so many

people in the Old Testament? This is this is like one of the

central questions that you go to any university or any coffee

shop. In a in a liberal place that

this is one of the like, why did God kill so many people in the

Old Testament? I thought he was a God of love.

I thought he was a God of mercy. I thought he was a God of

compassion. We see right here that the

Israelites killed every single male, and even when they spared

the women and the children, they were later commanded to kill

some of the women and children. This killing will continue in

the book of Joshua where God commands them to wipe out the

Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the parasites, the

Hittites, and the Jebusites. It'll continue all the way with

King Saul where God commands them to wipe out all the

Amalekites. It'll continue all the Assyrians

where God in one night wipes out 185,000 Assyrians and the

listen, the question is why? It's a fair question.

Let's be It's a fair question, 100% a fair question.

It's just the wrong question. A fair question can be a wrong

question. The question is never why did

God kill so many people, but rather why God kill everybody?

Why did God let any of the Midianites live?

Why did God let any of the Moabites live?

Why is there a story of Ruth? You see the world, the the

atheist, the agnostics, the humanist, the secularist.

They look at something like the flood, the flood in the Bible

where God killed all of humanity except for one family.

They look at God and they ask. World and I ask God, why not

more floods? To me the question is not why

would God send a flood to destroy humankind?

The better question is, is why doesn't God send a natural

disaster every year to destroy humankind?

Why doesn't this happen every single year?

Because our wickedness deserves it, does it not?

I mean, just turn on the news and listen to the wickedness

that exists in this world. It is some unspeakable

wickedness. And my question is, why aren't

we wiped out every year and we just start over every single

year? You see, texts like this, they

only present a moral dilemma for us if we fail to properly

understand the glory of God and the holiness of God.

If our starting point is that we deserve life, we deserve X.

If that's our starting point. This will never make sense to

you. 4 Balaam teaches us the danger of being in the wrong

place at the wrong time. Balaam teaches us the danger of

being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Balaam should have never tried to come and curse Israel on it,

but he did anyway. He was prevented from further

sinning through a talking donkey, and God turned his

attempts to curse into an opportunity to bless.

Now you would think that Balaam would have learned his lesson.

I mean, when I read this story of Balaam, I'm like, surely you

learned your lesson, right? You know, you were humiliated by

a donkey. You failed at your job four

times, you didn't get Balak's money.

And once all your prophecies are over, all you had to do Balaam

was go home. Just go home.

See, God had given Balaam a gift.

God could have put Balaam to death, but he didn't.

He gave him a gift. And he he has a window to

repent. Balaam had an opportunity to

turn around to realize that God is, God is not, and he could

convert to Judaism, but he doesn't do it.

Why? Because he doesn't go home.

He stops in Midian on the way home and it cost him his life.

Balaam teaches us the danger of being in the wrong place at the

wrong time. One of my favorite warnings in

Scripture is what the father says warning his sons and the

book of Proverbs about the forbidden woman.

I love the counsel that he gives his sons.

Here it is. Keep your way far from her and

do not go near the door of her house.

Brothers and sisters, sometimes it is as simple as not being in

the wrong place at the wrong time.

If you're dating, don't be alone together in a house.

If you're married, don't be alone with somebody who's not

your spouse. Don't be the opposite gender.

Don't be alone with somebody who's not your spouse.

Maybe it means not going to the party where you know people are

going to be drunk. Maybe it means not walking

around the casino just out of curiosity.

Maybe it means not drinking all the tea that is being spilled at

the lunch table. Maybe it means not going on the

work trip where idolatry will be celebrated.

You see, God will give us the grace that we need to walk in

holiness. He will.

He will give us the grace we need to walk in holiness, but

make sure we position ourselves to be in a place to receive that

grace. Five, The church needs not just

leaders, but wise leaders. The church needs not just

leaders, but wise leaders. One of the difficulties is that

there are two different contacts of holy war.

A God commanded the Israelites to put to death all those living

in Canaan, every man, woman, and child.

But B, for wars, for people out, like Midian, God allowed them to

take the women captive. They could take the women

captive as either wives or slaves.

My guess is that that is at least in part why the Israelites

let the Midianite women live. I think they're like, well, this

is perfectly within keeping of the law, right?

They're not, they're not Canaanites.

We can let these women live. They can become wives for us or,

you know, they become servants on our our state and help us to,

you know, farming and whatnot. So why was Moses angry?

Moses was angry that that with the commanders of the people.

Why? Because Moses wanted them to

exercise wisdom. He wanted them to be wise.

Yes, yes, technically these are not Canaanites, but they are

behaving, being like Canaanites. They have let our people into

idolatry, be treated like Canaanites, and therefore they

should be put to death. You see, Israel had leaders,

they had chiefs of the people, they had commanders of the army.

But Moses wanted these leaders to exercise wisdom.

The church needs not just leaders.

The church needs wise leaders. Six last point.

Sin is attractive and has its benefits, and therefore the

temptation to keep it around, it'll always be there.

Sin is attractive it and it has its benefits and therefore the

temptation to keep it around. It'll always be there.

Why did the men keep the many night women alive?

Yes, I mentioned part of it. Maybe they thought that it was

perfectly in keeping with the law, but I would assume it's

deeper than that. I assume that the reason they

kept these many night women alive is the exact same reason

that the men engaged in sexual immorality with the night women

to begin with. Because they were attractive.

Because they were different. Oh, there were no Israelite

women to marry. There were.

There were plenty of Israelite women to marry. 10 is

attractive. It has its benefits and

therefore the temptation to keep it around will always be there.

Making money is attractive, is it not?

I was sharing a small group this week that if you start

investing, seeing that dollar sign go up, it's a high.

You check it and it it, it just goes up and up and up.

It's a high. You get a high from seeing that

number go up. Making money is attractive and

it has its benefits. This is true of just about

everything. Possessions, travel, children,

approval, success, alcohol, sex, sports, hobbies, all of it.

They're all attractive. They're all attractive.

They all have their benefits and therefore the temptation to keep

our sin around. It'll always be there.

David had the Kingdom, had the Kingdom, He had wives, he had

multiple wives, and yet that was too attractive.

Adam and Eve had the garden. They had every tree in the

garden, they could eat from all of them, and yet the forbidden

tree was too attractive. Solomon had the Kingdom.

God, anybody more than Bezos or Musk or anybody the the man was

filthy rich. He had a thousand women, and yet

these foreign women were just too attractive to him.

Saul had the Kingdom. He had the people's praises.

They they praised him, they loved the people, loved Saul,

and yet it was the women singing in the streets that was just too

attractive. I got to have it, brothers and

sisters, sin is attractive and it has its benefits and

therefore the temptation to keep it around will always be there.

Make sure you have no Trojan horses in your life.

Wage holy war on your sin. Let's pray.