This past Sunday June 7, we sat under God's word from Numbers 31, Israel's war against Midian. I mentioned how difficult this text is for multiple reasons, but perhaps most difficult of all is the practical application of how this might (need to) strike our hearts in compassion and move our hands to action. Just a few reasons that this story is difficult:
1) The cultural and temporal distance from its mileu to ours (we are children of the new covenant of grace, fully expressed in Christ; the Israelites were children of the covenant, too, but there Mediator was Moses the Law-giver, and grace was given, but in more shadows, types, and figures)
2) The sheer complexity of interpreting, much less understanding the passage that calls Israel to not only destroy Midianite soldiers, but also the young males, and also the Midianite women who seduced Israel into sin in Numbers 25. I mentioned that one of the hardest parts of the text for me was the call to take captive the virgin women of Midian for marriage, an order given by Moses, but not contradicted by God, and actually, when God specifies how to divide the war booty, the Midianite virgins are listed with all the other spoils. It is true that entry of these young women of Midian into the Israelite community and the privilege of learning the ways of the God of Israel would be an improvement over being put to the edge of the sword or maybe even continuing in dark idolatry, but it is a difficult episode for modern Western ears to hear.
3) The difference in interpretation among Christians. Some commentators want to distance themselves from even saying (like the text does in v3 and v7) that this was Yahweh's vengeance and Yahweh's voice ordering the destruction, but rather Moses or a later editor attributing to Yahweh what vengeance and damage the Israelites did on their own initiative. I would say that is reversing the order of how we should sit under the authoritative Word of God: not reading, reacting, and rewriting it according to our theory of textual origin, but rather, reading and wrestling with the challenges as the text presents them. Not us changing the text (or its implications) but letting the text change us.
4) I opened with an illustration of Dr. George Tiller, the naionally-known late-term abortion provider, whose funeral was Saturday, and his death just a week ago in his home church by a shooter. I referred to the tragedy of such murders of abortionists being committed over the past 15 years or so in the name of religion. We are a people called to lay down our lives for our enemies, not take the lives of those with whom we disagree, even diametrically disagree. But there's the other tragedy, of the 60,000 unborn children, many as fully developed as my wife who is due for delivery in August, fetuses that Dr. Tiller personally boasts of terminating. His motto was, "The woman is the patient, the fetus is the problem."
My question of application is this: how do we respond to a text like Numbers 31 in relation to how we respond to an event like the murder of George Tiller? Are we appalled at the death of young Midianite males at the swords of Israelite warriors? That's understandable given our Western context and Christ-transformed ethics. But do we respond with equal, if not greater, horror at the death of 60,000 unborn children? Do we notice when the news articles or pundits don't mention them in the story of Tiller's death and funeral? If we do not register the same shock and disgust, why not? What's wrong with our hearts? What's wrong with our view of the world and God and Scripture and reality?
Do we react with compassion, brokenness, and a resolve to act, to reach out, to build relationships with children and families from our neighborhoods where homicide is a daily reality? Dare we judge God for his harsh response to sin without seeing the sin of our own complacency and contentment when 60,000s are voiceless victims, harldly noticed, when children all around us are looking for safety, guidance, and love in a world of danger, foolishness, and revenge? May we see the mercy of God in Christ, who took the vengeance of God's wrath on sin in His own body, who triumphed in cosmic battle on the Cross, and who offers that mercy to sinners like us, like Midianites, like Israelites, and may we rise up in merciful response to our friends, neighbors, and even enemies.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Priests and killers
May 31, we looked at Numbers 27 (the daughters of who? Zelophehad) and 35 (the cities of refuge). Just a few follow up questions for us as a church regarding how we as a community can reflect the city of refuge, how we can be a city of refuge:
Since 1 Peter 2:5 says that Christians are "to be a holy priesthood" and 2:9 goes on to say "you are a royal priesthood," we should give special attention to a text like Numbers 35.
1) Are the priestly Levites in these six cities of refuge inherently different from the murderers who were finding asylum in these towns? Remember the story of Levi and Simeon who murdered a whole town of men to avenge his sister's rape (Genesis 34)? 1 Peter 2:9-10 reminds the Christian who is a priest of God that we are now in the marvelous light, but we were called out of darkness. "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." A Levite could be ritually unclean by touching a corpse. A murderer would be unclean by making a corpse. All of us are unclean and in need of mercy and a place of refuge, whether we seem more priestly or more beastly.
2) Numbers 35:25 describes how the congregation shall rescue the manslayer from the avenger of blood and that there will be a fair trial so that justice, not revenge, prevails. How can we as a congregation both provide wise counsel and embody justice to those who may have done truly terrible things or those who are at least accused of embarrassing or even illegal activity? How can we be a place of rescue for the running refugee?
3) The priesthood of believers was an important doctrine that Martin Luther proclaimed from Scripture (such as 1 Peter 2). Are we each taking initiative to evaluate and improve and employ our gifts to embody the city of refuge? We are not to expect one or two professional priests to shoulder all the work of compassion, rescue, and wise administration, but we are all as the congregation, to participate in the rescue mission of mercy. Who comes into our midst now to whom you can be a minister of mercy? Who could or should be coming that we could compel, by mercy and our openness, to come in?
Since 1 Peter 2:5 says that Christians are "to be a holy priesthood" and 2:9 goes on to say "you are a royal priesthood," we should give special attention to a text like Numbers 35.
1) Are the priestly Levites in these six cities of refuge inherently different from the murderers who were finding asylum in these towns? Remember the story of Levi and Simeon who murdered a whole town of men to avenge his sister's rape (Genesis 34)? 1 Peter 2:9-10 reminds the Christian who is a priest of God that we are now in the marvelous light, but we were called out of darkness. "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." A Levite could be ritually unclean by touching a corpse. A murderer would be unclean by making a corpse. All of us are unclean and in need of mercy and a place of refuge, whether we seem more priestly or more beastly.
2) Numbers 35:25 describes how the congregation shall rescue the manslayer from the avenger of blood and that there will be a fair trial so that justice, not revenge, prevails. How can we as a congregation both provide wise counsel and embody justice to those who may have done truly terrible things or those who are at least accused of embarrassing or even illegal activity? How can we be a place of rescue for the running refugee?
3) The priesthood of believers was an important doctrine that Martin Luther proclaimed from Scripture (such as 1 Peter 2). Are we each taking initiative to evaluate and improve and employ our gifts to embody the city of refuge? We are not to expect one or two professional priests to shoulder all the work of compassion, rescue, and wise administration, but we are all as the congregation, to participate in the rescue mission of mercy. Who comes into our midst now to whom you can be a minister of mercy? Who could or should be coming that we could compel, by mercy and our openness, to come in?
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