31 "Awaiting the Avenger" Numbers 31.1-18 | Thursday, May 28, 2026

We're going to take our Bibles now and

turn to Numbers uh chapter 31. Numbers

31.

Really intended to uh preach this entire

chapter, though it's a lengthy one.

There's a lot involved here, but I know

what we're going to deal with in the

first part of this chapter has some

significant

um apologetical

implications for us, especially where we

live here in Boulder regarding the

justice of God in the conquest of

Israel. And so instead of just rushing

through these things, I really wanted to

take some time tonight to just kind of

pastor us through our way of thinking

about this because our plan is to go to

Deuteronomy and then Joshua. And we're

going to get to the conquest. And

there's going to be some things that

make you squirm a little bit and make

you wonder what's going on here. And why

is God calling for this? And I want you

to know that there are Bible answers and

they're always rooted in the theology

and character of our God. We want to

base our belief and our understanding

not on how we feel, not on what culture

thinks, but on what God reveals of

himself. And so, we're going to do our

best to do that tonight. We're just

going to cover uh verses 1 through 18

for our text tonight. If you found your

place, if you'll stand as we give honor

to reading God's word together from

Numbers chapter 31 and verse number one.

Numbers 31 · chapter mention

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 Midionites, and avenge the Lord of

Midian. Of every tribe, a thousand

throughout all the tribes of Israel

shall ye send to the war. So they were

delivered out of the thousands of

Israel, a thousand of every tribe,

12,000 armed for war. And Moses sent

them to the war, a thousand of every

tribe, them and Phineas the son of

Eleazar the priest to war with the holy

instruments and the trumpets to blow in

his hand. And they wared against the

Midionites 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 Elvi and

Reim, and Zur and her and Reeba, five

kings of Midian. Balam also the son of

Baor 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 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

under the camp at the plains of Moab

which are by Jordan near Jericho. And

Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the

congregation of the princes of the

congregation went forth to meet them

without the camp. And Moses was wroth

with the officers of the host, with the

captains over thousands, and captains

over hundreds, which came from the

battle. And Moses said unto them, "Have

ye saved all the women alive? Behold,

these caused the children of Israel

through the council of Balum to commit

trespass against the Lord in the matter

of Peor. and there was a plague among

the congregation of the Lord. Now

therefore, kill every male among the

little ones, and kill every woman that

hath known man by lying with him. But

all the women children that have not

known man by lying with him, keep alive

for yourselves.

So I think you can see here from these

final verses why many people would

struggle with this text.

And we're going to touch on why this

command is given. I want to um just

start by

saying that

God is perfect in all his ways,

righteous and holy.

And anytime and and let me let me just I

guess let me start by saying it this

way. Modern civilization

is far more heavily shaped by

Christianity and biblical ethics than

anyone cares to admit

because what we see in this text was at

one time normal, especially prior to

Christianity spreading around the world.

And so I want you to have that in mind

as we go through this. But we're going

to deal, I think, with some reasons in

this text that clue us in into how God

works through the conquest and why he

orders these commands. And so, I'm going

to ask God one more time to just help us

understand tonight. Lord, we certainly

need your grace and I need your help and

communicating well and clearly. And the

reason why I

tremble

at this message is not because at all of

how people might take it, but it's

because we are speaking of your

character

and of your nature, your holiness,

and your justice.

And I certainly want to say nothing that

would minimize nor go beyond who you

are. And so I just pray for an abundance

of wisdom to communicate the truth of

your word. And I pray that by your grace

we might understand it clearly and have

a better perspective on texts like

these. It's in Jesus name I ask. Amen.

You can be seated. The title of the

message tonight is Awaiting the Avenger.

Awaiting the Avenger. [snorts]

In your experience,

who is the most likely to face the

consequences?

The one who provokes

or the one who is provoked?

Usually, it's the one who is provoked.

Because I learned very early on in a

house with three boys that if I

retaliate to one of my brothers, I will

be the one to get in trouble.

Whether it's throwing a pingpong paddle

at them after they have been jerks or if

it's throwing the second punch after

they landed the first one, the second

person gets in trouble. You see this as

well as a sports fan. There are

countless times that you'll see [snorts]

uh the first person to throw the punch

gets off scot-free, but the second

person to throw the punch ends up

getting the flag or the penalty. That's

what happens. You know, sometimes,

can't that seem true in your spiritual

life as well?

I want you to think about the fact that

we live in a wicked, godless world that

seeks to allure you and provoke you to

sin.

And that provocation in and of itself is

sin. Trying to drag people into it,

whether it's through entertainment and

media or if it's through addictive

substances or the worldwide web of

entangling lust. Evil is out to seduce

you.

And [snorts] when you succumb to

temptation and you choose to sin, you're

often left to face the consequences of

your own sinful actions. Make no

mistake, even when seduced, your sin is

your choice.

Your sin is your choice. And so we face

the consequences. But in the back of

your mind, have you ever wondered, "I

know I sinned. I know I deserve the just

punishment for my sin. But Lord, what

about those who provoked me?

What about this evil world that seeks to

allure me and seduce me? Why do they

seemingly get off scot-free while I'm

left with the fallout alone?"

Sometimes that's how we can feel.

Let me be clear that while there is

enough sin in each of us to categorize

us not as victims but as perpetrators,

we can still wonder if God will avenge

us of this evil world that fires its wy

darts at us.

>> [snorts]

>> Well, we see this answer played out

before us in Numbers 31.

As numbers shifts back to the narrative

plot, we're reminded from chapter 25

that when Balam could not curse Israel,

he counseledled the Moabites and the

Midianites to seduce Israel into

violating their covenant relationship

with God, particularly through sexual

immorality and idolatry.

And the fallout of that seduction and

that sin [snorts] was that thousands in

Israel

died when they succumbed to it. 24,000

particularly

died by a plague that broke out. And

that plague was only stayed by the

priest Phineas who offered atonement by

killing Zimry and Cosby who were the

leaders of the rebellion in that time.

[snorts]

And so there are so many here that died

and faced swift judgment. But the text

leaves you at that time for four

chapters wondering what about the

Midianites?

What about their kings and their men who

led in this seduction?

What about Balum who counseledled them

to do so? Who tried to curse Israel? How

is it that 24,000 of God's people who

were seduced into this sin? How come

they died while the rest seem to get off

scot-free?

Well,

it actually reminds me of the greater

cosmic conflict

between the seed of the serpent and the

seed of the woman in Genesis 3

when God cursed the ground and told men

that he would that Adam and Eve that

they would die and said that her seed

would be bruised on the heel by the

serpent. seed, but ultimately he would

crush and triumph over the serpent's

head with symbolic imagery to speak of

the fact that the one who would redeem

and save mankind from this sin and

seduction at the hand of the serpent

would be a wounded victor. And of

course, that pictured the Lord Jesus

Christ.

Yet, what we know is that Satan is still

free.

that Satan is still wandering about as a

roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

Christ died. Yes, he was risen again.

He's ascended into heaven, and we thank

God for that. But this evil world is

still infiltrated and moved and deceived

by the devil and his hosts of demons.

And they are working with everything

they can still today to seduce the

people of God into ruinous destruction

in their lives. That's what he seeks to

do. [snorts]

Trying to deceive you into being

unfaithful to God.

And when we sin today, we face those

consequences. But we ask, when will

those who have seduced us be held

accountable for their end of this deal?

In Numbers 31, here's what we find. God

avenges Israel of the Midionites at

last. The day of judgment has come. And

it reminds us that when the enemies of

God seduce his people into sin, their

judgment may be delayed,

but it will come. And when it comes, it

will be final.

It's what we see in this text, and it's

the hope that we have in Christ. The

question is, how? How does God avenge

his people of the seduction of their

enemy? That's what we want to look at

tonight. I want to show you first of all

that it is the Lord who is the one that

avenges his people. If we look at verse

number one, it says, ' And the Lord

spake unto Moses, saying, Avenge the

children of Israel, of the Midionites,

and afterward thou shalt be gathered

into thy people. This is the final

mission of Moses before his final

message in Deuteronomy,

and it's to avenge him, avenge Israel of

the Midianites. And so what we have here

is that it's the Lord giving Moses this

final mission to carry out the vengeance

of God. If we were to go back to chapter

25 at the very end, God told him, "Vex

the Medidionites, but then all of a

sudden it goes into a new census and it

goes into instruction." And so they're

counting the whole nation. I imagine

that took quite a bit of time. And then

they're dividing up how the the the

princes are and where the land is going

to go to. And then you have the dispute

with the daughters of Zilofahad. And

then you have instruction about vows and

you have instruction about holidays and

worship. And imagine some of these

things took time. We don't know exactly

how much time transpired. But but the

way that Moses as he narrates the book

of numbers is he indicates there was a

pause that God said vex them but not

yet.

Vengeance will come but not yet.

And Israel could not step out and avenge

the Midioni themselves of the Midionites

until God says go. And it's here that

God says it's time to go.

Now the idea of this word avenge is much

more than mere retaliation. It's not God

got in a furious anger and is giving

them payback. This is a particular word

that refers to just judgment for crimes

committed. That's what it's talking

about. just judgment for crimes

committed. The way that a just judge

would avenge a family of their killer,

their f of their family members killer.

That's what we're talking about here.

Just judgment for crimes committed. But

I want you to notice that while the Lord

tells Moses to avenge the Midianites,

the children of Israel of the

Midianites, I want you to look at verse

number three, what it says. And Moses

spake unto the people, saying, "Arm some

of yourselves unto the war, and let them

go against the Midionites, and avenge

the Lord of Midian." Do you see that

shift?

God says, "Avenge the children of Israel

of the Midionites." But now Moses is

saying, "Avenge the Lord of the

Midionites." What is going on here? a

Holy Spirit inspired tension to show

that when this evil world seduces God's

people,

there is a vengeance that needs to take

place.

But at the same time, when God's people

are seduced to sin, their sin is against

God.

That ultimately God is the one who is

offended.

The ultimate sin, the ultimate offense,

the ultimate problem is not between man

and man. It is about God. Why? Because

God has entered into a covenant

relationship with the children of

Israel. He calls them his bride. He

calls them his people. He calls them his

firstborn son. These are all familial

relationships. And what has happened

here is the Midianites have seduced his

people into adultery against him.

Spiritual adultery.

idolatry, sexual immorality, the the

idea of everything they were doing there

in the immorality and the eating of a

meal and the idolatry, they made a

covenant with the Midianites and their

god, Baal. That would be like somebody

seducing your wife away from you at the

gym. It'd be like somebody seducing your

husband away from you at work. Do you

think there's going to be some vengeance

going on within you? You know who the

offense? Yes, they are offending with

each other. But who's the ultimate

offense against? You who's kept in the

outside. You whose covenant has been

broken in marriage. That's the picture

that we're given here. In fact, when you

when we look later at verse 16 and it

says that they they brought them to

commit trespass. That's literally what

the word means is to break faithfulness.

That's what the problem is here. And so

Moses is careful to convey that although

Israel was seduced, the ultimate offense

is against God and he is the one who

really deserves to be avenged.

I think it's really important for us to

remember that even when we are seduced

into sin, we need to recognize that

there is enough sin in our own hearts to

lead us astray from God. The Bible says,

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am

tempted of God." For God cannot be

tempted with evil, neither tempteth he

any man. But it says, "Every man is

tempted when he is drawn away of his own

lust and enticed." You know what that

means? In each and every one of us,

there's some kind of lust, some kind of

inordinate desire, inordinate affection

for something that God doesn't want for

us, for something that God has forbidden

us from. And that what happens is when

that lust within us meets temptation at

the perfect moment, the Bible says it

conceives sin and sin when it is

finished bringeth forth death. That's

what Israel has experienced.

Those 24,000

had enough lust going on within them as

we've seen throughout the wilderness

journey. It didn't take much. But when

the Midianites came and said, "Hey,

let's make intermarriages and we'll eat

this covenant meal and then we can uh

worship the same God and and that was

all they needed." Why? Because there was

enough lust in their hearts. And so we

need to realize that while seduction may

come, what we do is we have lust in our

hearts and sinful desires in our hearts

that brings us astray from God at the

perfect moment of temptation. And

therefore, rather than blaming the

seduction, we need to look inside at the

lust in our own hearts and recognize

that the real person who's been offended

is not me. It is God.

I am not a victim to seduction.

I am a perpetrator of sin,

just like Israel was here. That's what

Moses is recognizing here.

And so, he calls for a thousand from

each tribe. He sends them to war along

with Phineas who's the son of Eleazar.

Eleazar is the high priest. But Phineas,

remember when he made atonement when he

was filled with zeal and that man was

carrying that woman, that one woman to

the tent of all of his brothers and his

family. I mean, you can put it together

here what's going on there. When he saw

them walk blatantly through the

tabernacle and the congregation to

commit lewd, wickedness, he couldn't

take it anymore. He rose up. He took the

javelin and he killed them both in the

act. And God says that that stayed the

plague because it made atonement. How

so? The wages of sin is death.

Phineas makes atonement. What did God

do? He made a covenant with Phineas that

he would be a priesthood before the Lord

and his descendants for all of his

generations. And look who is leading the

way in this war there in verse number

six. It's Phineas, the son of Eleazar.

He's got the holy instruments in his

hand. He's got the trumpets. We studied

that earlier in this book as well. That

the trumpet blast would signal to Israel

that God is going before them as they

hear the sound of that trumpet echo

through the mountains and the valleys

and out into the battlefield. They would

see God is leading our way. Do you see

what the picture is presenting?

The Lord is leading the vengeance, not

Israel.

God has called them to do this.

And so they make war against them. And

[snorts] it says that as they wared as

the Lord commanded, they slew all the

males. Every adult male was killed in

this war. And then it mentions these

five kings. One of them, you'll notice,

is named Zur. That is the father of

Cosby. These kings are more like tribal

princes. It's he's called a prince back

in chapter 25. And so it's not like

these are necessarily city kings. Uh

because the when you study the

Midionites, they're more like a nomadic

tribe spread out all throughout the uh

the the Egyptian, the Sinai Peninsula,

Arabia, up into the land of Moab, the

land of Canaan. They're spread out

everywhere. And so these would be like

the princes of the tribes of Israel. So

there's five particular uh Midianite

tribes that are involved in this. And

one of them was caused by his father and

he is killed. And at the end of verse

number eight, it says, "And Balam also

the son of Bor, they slew with the

sword." Why? Because he was the one

leading this charge. He counseledled

them, consulted with them. After seeing

that all three times he tried to curse

Israel, it was impossible for him to

curse them because they were so blessed.

You know what he did? He said, "Here you

go, Bailac, king of Moab. Here you go,

Midionite elders. This is how you can

get Israel to trip up. Have them break

their covenant with God, and God will

turn his back on them, and you'll be

able to destroy them." That's really the

intent in Balam's heart. And therefore,

he [snorts] too is justly killed in this

war. It says in verse 9, "The children

of Israel took all the women of Midian

captives and the little ones and the

spoil of their cattle, their flocks,

their goods, and burnt all their cities

wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly

castles with fire. They took the spoil

and all the prey both of men and of

beasts. And they brought the captives

and the prey and the spoil to Moses and

Eleazar the priest, but to the whole

congregation back at the camp in the

plains [snorts] of Moab near Jericho."

And so they are bringing a swift

and a devastating judgment on these

Midianite tribes. Why? Because they had

risen up against God's people and

seduced them.

The Lord is ordering that his people be

avenged of the seduction of the

Midionites.

Just judgment for crimes committed.

>> [snorts]

>> And so we find in this chapter that

while God delayed his judgment, it

eventually came and Israel avenged the

Lord and the Lord avenged Israel of

Midian. And I want to say to you that

just as God led the way in avenging

Israel, we can trust God to avenge us as

well of this wicked world that seeks to

lure you, that seeks to seduce you, that

seeks to suck you in and destroy your

life and destroy your marriage and

destroy your family. That sin that's

constantly pulling in the direction.

Listen, I don't want to absolve you from

guilt. Keep this in your mind. And

there's enough sin and lustful desires

within us that all it takes is the

perfect moment of temptation and will go

exactly the way that the longing of our

heart wants to go. But there is

something to be said for this world that

seeks to draw you in.

And what we can trust is that God will

bring vengeance.

He will [snorts] listen. We are not

called to wage holy wars against an evil

world.

We are called to resist the devil. We

are called to stand strong in our faith.

We are called to endure hardships and

persecution. And we are called to flee

this world's seductive system as God

called Israel in the book of Isaiah to

come out of Babylon. They weren't even

in Babylon yet. Why was he telling them

to come out? because Jerusalem was

acting like Babylon. And he was saying,

"Come out of this evil world's system."

And so, we're called to flee it. We are

not commanded to riot in the streets,

nor mob at the White House, nor attack

abortion clinics, nor to judge ethnic

groups.

We are called to preach Christ.

We are called to expand his heavenly

kingdom. Not by waging war with the

sword, but by waging war with the word.

What do we see in Acts? The triumph of

God's word. Going into cities and

reshaping an the identity of the city of

Ephesus and reshaping the identity of

Corinth and reshaping eventually the

identity of Athens. You see, the word of

God triumphs everywhere it goes. All

throughout the book of Acts, that is

what the church is called to do. And

throughout Christian history, people

have gotten that a little mixed up. And

they've turned to Old Testament passages

and used it to to warrant the

displacement and the abuse of indigenous

tribes and to wage war and crusades

against other countries and to claim

sacred territory. But I want you to know

this that in the New Testament, God's

people are not called to operate that

way.

We are called to preach the gospel of

Jesus Christ.

[snorts]

The word of God repeatedly tells us,

"Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith

the Lord." And so what we see in this

text is that the vengeance against the

Midionites came directly from the

command of the Lord. But the Lord gives

no direct command to his church to

retaliate or to pay back against this

evil world. We are called to live

faithfully and to endure hardness and

persecution and suffering and to leave

vengeance in God's hands. That's what

we're called to do.

And so we can trust that although right

now God's vengeance may be delayed, it

will come. And I promise you when it

comes it will be final. And that's what

we see in the rest of this text.

Moses and Eleazar in verse 13, the

princes of the congregation, they go out

of the camp to go and meet with the army

that is coming their way. And notice it

says in verse 14, Moses was wroth with

the officer the of the host the with the

captains over hund thousands and

captains over hundreds which came from

the battle. Why was he wroth? It says

and Moses said unto them, have ye saved

all the women alive?

Have you saved all the women alive?

Moses is angry that they have not killed

all the women.

That sounds strange to us that he would

be so furious,

that he would be so angry

about this. We live in a modern world,

as I mentioned at the beginning, that

has been heavily reshaped by Christian

ethics, whether an unbelieving world

recognizes it or not.

What we saw and heard that happened to

Israel by the hands of Hamas on October

7th a few years ago was shocking to us,

jarring

to us.

Images that won't be released

because they're not things that we are

accustomed to seeing.

But what took place on that day was a

normal outcome for ancient wars.

Just read about the ancient Babylonians,

Assyrians,

and Persians.

I'll not go into the brutal details

because the Bible doesn't because I

don't think it's needful for us to focus

on the gore.

But there's a reason Jonah hated

Nineveh. And it was because of the way

they treated Israel when they destroyed

them.

It was brutal.

There's a reason why nearly every

ancient war uh movie is rated R for its

violence and gore. And I would tell you

this, no modern movie measures up to

what it really was.

[snorts]

In this particular time, the idea of

saving the women and the children would

have been seen as merciful.

And yet Moses is furious.

And in verse 17 and 18, he tells them to

go back and kill every male among the

little ones.

That means the men who are children, the

little boys.

It says they were to kill every woman

who was not a virgin and to only spare

the virgin girls.

At this point, our modern eyes and ears

cringe.

How can a holy and loving God

effectively call for the genocide of an

entire people group? I'm going to make

it clear that this particular instance

is not a total genocide

because of the fact that this is five

tribes of the Midionites, not all of

them. [snorts] We're going to make that

case. But the reality is is when we go

into the conquest of Joshua,

God is going to command them to utterly

kill everyone and save alive nothing

that breathes.

[snorts]

Does God hate ethnic peoples?

Does God call for the obliteration and

genocide of entire families in a way

that is unjust and immoral?

There's a world today that struggles to

believe in God because that's what they

think.

[snorts]

And we as believers

need to know how to respond to them.

And I want to make you aware of the

fact, as if you're already not, that

though you respond as biblically as

possible, if people are looking for a

reason to hate God, they sure will find

it.

But I want you to rest assured in your

faith that God is holy and God is just

and God makes all things right.

I want to build a case in this message

that I believe is consistent in

scripture and it contains two key

truths. Number one, God does not

discriminately

nor arbitrarily judge ethnic peoples.

God does not select a certain group of

people and say, "I hate you and

therefore I'm wiping you out." That's

not who God is. Truth number two,

God indiscriminately

and justly judges wicked

people.

God does do that.

It doesn't matter what people group

you're from, what language you speak,

what skin color you have.

God judges sin.

It is just, it is right, and it is

across the board.

Let me point to some things, five facts

that I believe reveal these two truths.

Number one, fact one, God already judge

24,000 Israelites

by plague.

Did God hate Israel?

No. That was his people.

Then why did he judge them?

Because they sinned wickedly.

Because they committed adultery

and child prostitution.

because they ate a covenantal meal with

a God who is worshiped that way.

He judged them for their sin.

Fact number two, this is not a complete

annihilation of the Midionite people.

[snorts]

As I mentioned, the Midionites were

nomadic tribe dispersed throughout the

region of the Sinai Peninsula through

Arabia, through Moab, and uh even into

parts of Canaan as well. The Midionites

of Canaan are still present to oppress

Israel during the days of the judges.

How is that possible if every one of the

Midianite men was killed across their

people group? [snorts]

But then also

we find that uh this was a targeted

uh this this was targeted specifically

at those tribes associated with Moab. If

we go back to chapter 25, Bailac, the

king of Moab, called together the elders

of the Midionites,

that is most likely referring to these

five kings. One of them is mentioned as

his daughter Cosby was the one brought

before the congregation and before the

tabernacle to commit this great

wickedness and she was killed and the

atonement was made. It is her father who

is killed as a king or a prince in this

text. And so I submit to you that it was

targeted specifically at those tribes

who latched in with Moab and were

involved in this sin, this seduction.

Fact number three, God did not hate the

Midionites,

nor the Moabites.

Do you know where the Midianites came

from?

Midian was a son of Abraham through his

wife Coutura.

Do you know where the Moabites came

from?

The son of Abraham's nephew, Lot.

The Moabites and the Midianites are

technically family.

Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, was a

priest of Midian. You know what that

means? Moses's wife, Zapora, was a

Midianite from the Arabian region.

His kids had Midianite blood.

Jo Moses, remember, invited his

brother-in-law, Hobab, who was a

Midionite, part of the tribe of the

Kennites. You would have had here. Okay,

if you go to verse number eight, here's

how they would have been identified. The

Evites, the Rikomites, the Zurites, the

Herites, the Rebeites, if you were

referring to their tribe. Just like you

have the the tribe of Judah, the tribe

of Simeon, the Simeonites. That's how it

would be for Midian as well. The

Kennites was Jethro's tribe of

Midionites. You know what happens? The

Kennites are able to inherit some of the

land with the Jud with the the tribe of

Judah and the Simeonites.

Does that indicate to you that God just

had arbitrary hatred for the Midionites

because they were not Israelites? No,

absolutely not.

>> [snorts]

>> In fact,

God never told Israel to attack the

Midionites in their conquest.

And God directly told Israel not to

meddle with the Moabites, that he would

not give them the land of the Moabites

because he had promised it to the sons

of Lot, Moab and Ammon.

And so that indicates to us that God was

actually merciful to them in spite of

the fact that they worshiped demonic

gods as well. in spite of the fact that

they had a host of immorality. God was

not yet ready to judge them. They had

not yet reached a level where the cup of

his wrath was full. And so he was giving

them time. And he was giving them mercy

that maybe the the presence of Israel in

the land of Canaan would serve as a

witness to their brothers Midian and

Moab and turn them back to Yahweh their

God. God was actually being merciful to

them. Well, then what changed? The

Moabites and the Midionites inserted

themselves into the equation by hiring

Balum. And now through this matter of

peor,

they have tried to curse Israel and now

they've seduced Israel into sin and

idolatry. And that is what brought God's

wrath to the full

where he now calls them to judge the

Midionites. That's fact number three.

Fact number four,

God judged Midian, therefore

for their sin and not for their

ethnicity.

[snorts]

The men are killed because of their

roles in leading the people into sin.

God holds men responsible for their

families.

>> [snorts]

>> The non-virgin women are killed because

Moses says in verse 16, "Behold, these

caused the children of Israel through

the council of Balum to commit trespass

against the Lord in the matter of Peor,

and there was a plague among the

congregation of the Lord." these

non-virgin women in the way that they

dressed, in the way that they acted, in

the way that they seduced these men into

their sin, which led to 24,000 deaths?

They must be held responsible

is the reason why. If they live, what

keeps them from doing not doing it

again?

And then you have the males among the

little ones. the boy children. What is

with this?

Well, when you study the culture, the

reality is that in a war culture like

this, when those boys grow up, their

responsibility

is to avenge the blood of their fathers.

But here's the thing.

God's vengeance

does not need to be avenged

because God's vengeance is perfect.

God's vengeance is just. God's vengeance

is holy. The Midianites came in with all

of their sinful ways and seduced Israel

into spiritual adultery against God. And

the punishment of adultery is death. And

therefore the Israelites who committed

adultery died. And the Midianites who

committed adultery died as well. And you

have the the 12,000 of Israel that

represents the whole 12 tribes of

Israel. That this this nation for the

24,000 who died, the whole nation is

commissioned by God to avenge the blood

of their fathers and their brothers who

were seduced into this sin by the

Midionites.

And when God commands them to kill even

the little boys,

God is saying, "My judgment is final.

There is no coming back

when I judge

for the seduction

of my people."

And to this, the world would object.

Who is God

to kill these little children

before they've even done any of that?

And that brings us to fact number five.

Only God and God alone has perfect and

infinite knowledge

of the past, of the present, and of the

future.

God knew what those boys would do. And

let me just say it this way. God knew

what those boys had already done.

God knew how they were being brought up

in this system. And God knew the lust of

their own hearts. And God knew the

prostitution that they would practice.

And God knew the rape that they would

practice. And God knew the warfare that

they would wage as a wicked country. No,

God God knows what every man will do.

God knows what every man has uh does and

what every man has done. And that makes

him alone qualified to make this

command.

You know what that means?

Unless Israel has a direct command from

God, they cannot act in this way.

And certainly the world that is without

God has no permission from God to act

this way. And if God's people, the New

Testament church, has no command from

God, then we cannot act that way either.

Only God has perfect knowledge.

And so we know that this is not

arbitrary and indiscriminate genocide

because God judged his own people for

their sin first.

It was not a complete annihilation of

the Midionite people. God did not hate

the Midionites. And God is judging them

for their sin, not their ethnicity

according to his perfect knowledge.

And therefore, we gather that God does

not discriminately or arbitrarily judge

ethnic peoples.

Rather, he indiscriminately and justly

judges wicked people.

And this argument, you might call it,

carries its water throughout the

conquest narrative.

God does not judge the Canaanite tribes

because of their ethnicity,

but because of their wickedness.

Think of their history.

Noah cursed his grandson Canaan

because like his father Ham, he deci he

delighted in the disgraceful.

Is how we talked about it in Genesis 9

when none of you were here.

He saw the nakedness of his father drunk

in his tent after the ark.

And people try to speculate into what

all is going on there. it it's not clear

and there's certainly not an indication

that there was a homosexual act. What

the indication seems to be is that Ham

joked about his naked father passed out

in his tent and his brothers walked

backwards holding a covering and laid it

over him. Why? Because they did not

delight in the disgraceful like their

brother Ham did. And indications are

Noah saw the same tendencies in his son

Canaan and he said, "Cursed be Canaan."

And evidently

he c this pattern of delighting in the

disgraceful continued in Canaan's

descendants until sodomy and child

prostitution and beastiality and child

sacrifice became a part of the

idolatrous worship of Baal.

The things that they did are

unspeakable.

Paul said that we should be ashamed of

the things that the wicked do in

darkness.

And so I would imagine that the Bible

doesn't even scratch the surface of all

the wickedness of the Canaanite people.

And on top of that, God was patient and

long-suffering with those people, not

willing that they should perish, but

that they should come to repentance. He

brought Abraham

and Isaac and Jacob into the land of

Canaan to be a witness and a light of

faith unto those people. Melchisedc was

a priest king of the most high God

living in Jerusalem among the Jebusites

and they did not listen to him. God even

sent Israel into Egypt for 400 years

because of the iniquity of the Amorites

was not yet full.

God gave these nations ample space to

repent, but they refused. And now God is

bringing Israel in to be the instruments

of his justice upon these people, not

because of their ethnic identity, but

because of their wickedness.

And I want to say that the utter

destruction that they were condemned to

is the utter destruction that all of us

are condemned to because of our sin and

our wickedness.

[snorts] The only saving grace that we

have is the same saving grace that a

Canaanite like Rahab had and that is to

repent of our sin and to believe on the

salvation of God.

See, God sent Jesus to provide the

atonement for our sin so we could be

forgiven. So that instead of facing the

finality of God's judgment in death and

hell, we can have eternal life in God's

presence forever. That is what God has

done for us. And apart from the saving

grace of God in Christ, all of us stand

condemned. Not because of our skin

color, not because of our language or

our genetic code, but because we are

sinners. Just like the Midianites were

and just like Israel was. And the

[snorts] wages of sin from the very

first couple that sinned to the very

last couple who will sin always has been

and always will be death.

That's what all of us deserve.

There's nothing in us that makes us less

deserving of what the Midianites

received in this text. That's what has

to change.

This skeptical world has a victim

mentality as though we're not that bad

of people. But the Bible paints a very

different picture. That God is

infinitely holy in ways that our sinful

minds cannot grasp. His eyes are too

pure to even behold evil. And therefore,

sin cannot even dwell in his presence.

That's why they had to offer so many

blood sacrifices for the presence of God

to be there. Because without the

shedding of blood, there is no remission

of sins. And that's why the son of God

had to come and shed his innocent,

perfect, spotless blood to cover our

sins. He paid the penalty of death so

that we could have life eternal. It was

necessary for us. Why? because we are

sinners.

The only reason the plague stopped in

Israel was because Phineas made

atonement. And the only way that we can

be saved is because Christ made

atonement for us.

But like Israel,

we still have an evil world that seeks

to deceive us. [snorts]

And when we fail, we often face the

immediate consequences. And our souls

are left wondering how long until the

Lord avenges us of this evil world. And

this text tells us number one that God

will avenge his people. You can trust

it. And number two, when God avenges his

people, it will be final.

It will be done.

No more seduction.

No more deception.

No more l No more lure and pulling away

from God. Nothing else drawing your

attention away from God. Nothing else

claiming to satisfy you more than God.

Nothing else claiming to be better than

God. Nothing else claiming to be more

powerful than God and greater than God.

No, it will all be done. It will be

final. But listen, it will not be a

vengeance executed by our hands because

vengeance belongs to the Lord.

But what will happen is the scroll of

God's judgment

will be placed in the hands of the lion

of the tribe of Judah, the lamb as it

had been slain.

And he will pour out his wrath and his

judgment upon this evil world. And the

Bible says that death and hell will give

up their dead. And they will stand

before a great white throne where the

books are open. And they are justly

judged for every evil work and for every

seductive practice. And for every way

they gave themselves over to the serpent

and the great red dragon. And they will

be judged for their sin and for all of

those things and be cast into the lake

of fire. Death will be done.

every evil king,

every false prophet, every false

religion, every demon, and that old

serpent, the devil will be cast into the

lake of fire. I'm telling you believers,

God's vengeance will come. And when it

comes, it will be final.

Just as God avenged the Midionites, when

Christ returns, he will avenge his

people from their enemies by condemning

their enemies to final judgment.

[snorts]

This evil world often leaves us

frustrated by its evil and seductive

practices.

>> [snorts]

>> And far too often we read in the

headlines about another pastor who's

succumbed to seduction.

We find out about another church member

who's been lured back into alcohol or

into an adulterous relationship. Another

marriage has been destroyed by

pornography. We hear about it and you

know what? Sometimes it could be you or

it could be me who has been seduced into

sin and our hearts groan as we wallow in

the consequences. When will God avenge

us of this seduction?

First of all, whatever the seduction may

be, it does not absolve us of guilt.

And as long as we play the blame game,

we will never overcome it.

How do we overcome this evil world? How

do we overcome sin in our lives? It is

only by the blood of Jesus Christ.

We must repent. We must confess. We must

recognize that our offense is against

God and he's the only one worthy of

vengeance.

But then you know what? We can trust

that his vengeance will come

that he will execute it upon evil once

and for all. This text reminds us that

although God's judgment is delayed,

it will come. And when it comes, it will

be final. [snorts]

If not for the blood of Jesus, all of us

would fall under the final judgment. Can

I ask tonight, will you

will you fall in the final judgment?

The only difference between those who

stand and those who fall in the judgment

day is whether or not your faith is in

Christ.

Only he could make the perfect atonement

for all of your sin. And if you'll trust

in him tonight, all your sins can be

forgiven. You can have eternal life. You

can be freed from the judgment of sin,

death, and hell. And he will deliver you

if you'll believe. Let's pray.

Our heavenly father, our souls do groan.

As Paul said, all creation groanth

at this evil world.

And we know that we are sinners. And we

know that there's enough in us to wander

far astray from you.

But we all just get tired of the world

trying to suck us back in under its evil

spell.

And I'm thankful that we can have the

hope

that one day vengeance will come.

And so we lift our eyes [music] unto

you.

And we ask that Christ with all of his

power and all of his strength

to deliver us from this [music] ungodly

present world

that we might live holy and unblamably

in your [music] sight before a world

that needs Jesus.

And so our cries

long for deliverance [music]

and I'm thankful that we can trust that

it will come.

I pray for those who may not know Christ

as [music] their savior that they would

believe on him today and be forever free

in Christ.

Thank you [music]

for being our avenger.

And that as we await, we have [music]

this promise from you. And it's in Jesus

name that we give you the praise.