Day 22: Numbers 21-26 - Destruction and Deliverance

These chapters are I suspect amongst the oddest in Christian scripture. There's a talking donkey, extreme warfare, the angel of the Lord (visible only to a donkey, initially), various prophecies, false gods, sexual immorality, and a summarised census of Israel. I guess given the name of the book we might have expected the last item on that list, though perhaps nothing else.

There's lots to think about, but I'll just comment briefly on 'conquering' in the text. How are Christians to read such violent passages? Take as an example, from chapter 24, part of what seems to be in some sense, or in part, a messianic prophecy - "He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth".

In both the old and new testaments, deliverance is achieved through bloodshed, through warfare or something similar. The old testament describes the temporal physical judgement of rebellious nations, while the new describes the eternal judgment of rebellious individuals. It would be a bleak picture indeed were it not for what I take the centrepoint of the Bible, which describes the end to the requirement for bloodshed, the cross. Following this event, no temporal bloodshed is necessary for purification or the achievement of religious purposes, as God-made-man has shed His own blood on behalf of rebellious individuals.

There's plenty more to say of course, but in general the most helpful way to read violent texts in the old testament that I've found as a Christian, is to see them in light of Christ's ultimate sacrifice. The actions of Israel in entering the promised land are not a direct model for us (and it's a bad idea to simply spiritualise the stories and use them as bizarre moral or life lessons abstracted away from their context)), but the messy history of the people of Israel, who were bought out of slavery and through trials by God, reflects light on the struggles and nature of the true Israel, Jesus, who purchased freedom for His rebellious enemies. Violence is not the final answer, but it was a now-finished part of God's plan to overcome evil.