Friday, February 22, 2013

Went forth to meet them


(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Numbers 31:13–24, “And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all 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 counsel of Balaam, 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 a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. And do ye abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever hath touched any slain, purify both yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day. And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, and all work of goats’ hair, and all things made of wood. And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD commanded Moses; Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead, Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water. And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp.”
The Lord gave Israel a specific command through Moses and they didn’t do what the Lord had told them. The Midianites had already led Israel astray so that some of their people died in a plague. The Lord didn’t want any of the Midianites to pollute Israel but they decided that it didn’t matter and saved some of them alive. The issue here concerns cross cultural marriages. People believe that they way they do things in right because that is all they have known. However, people from different cultures do different things in different ways; this leads to problems. It is also true with religion. Some people believe that their gods are real while others don’t, this leads to clashes and them compromise. The Lord didn’t want Israel to compromise, He wanted them to be a shining example of His goodness to the whole world.

No comments:

Post a Comment