Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones,
and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.
Numbers 31:17
That’s a pretty tough verse, isn’t it?
Married women. Widows. Little boys.
When I read that verse, I think of somebody like me. Or, somebody like my ten year old. It’s hard for me to put myself in a Midianite woman’s sandals and imagine the Israelites coming for my son. My son, who’s basically a good kid, and certainly hasn’t done anything worthy of an army coming after him to execute him.
Do you ever follow criminal trials in the news? With 24-hour news channels and courtroom TV channels, we’ve probably all watched for the verdicts of a few. Have you ever been surprised by a jury’s verdict or a judge’s sentence? Maybe you were certain the defendant was guilty, but the jury acquitted him. Or, you figured a life sentence was a sure thing but only a few years were handed down.
It’s easy to lambaste a judge or jury for making what we consider to be the wrong decision. But, think about it: that judge and jury sat through hours of testimony, legal arguments, instruction on the law, and presentation of evidence. They know much more about the case and all the players in it than we do. They know things we don’t know. And those things we’re ignorant about are likely the very things that led them to make a different decision than we, with our limited knowledge of the case, would have made.
What if your spouse, parent, or best friend had been a juror in one of those cases in which you were appalled at the verdict, and he had voted opposite the way you thought he should have? What if he told you, “Look, I’ve been told not to discuss the case, but, trust me, this was the right decision.”? Would you trust him?
It’s the same way with God.
We come to passages like this one, and our first reaction is righteous indignation. How could God make a decision like this? It seems so unjust. An arbitrary, capricious, and callous verdict. It’s easy to throw stones thousands of years later.
But, if God is God, He is, by definition, absolutely perfect in justice, perfect in love, perfect in mercy, perfect in patience, perfect in wisdom, and perfect in His knowledge of every detail of every situation on earth, ever, including people’s thoughts and intentions. He never makes a wrong decision. If He were lacking one iota in any of these areas, He would cease to be God, and there would be no reason to trust Him.
But He isn’t. So we can.
We generally trust human judges and juries to carry out justice in the cases they’re assigned, despite the fact that we know of cases of judges who have been bribed, juries that have been tampered with, defendants who have been framed, and jurors who vote guilty based on race, sex, status, or some other irrelevant condition.
But God doesn’t fall into any of those categories. He is the perfect Judge, able to mete out perfect justice, because He’s also the perfect eyewitness. He knew everything about the case of the Midianites because He saw each of them, and everything that was going on in the world around them, inside and out.
I can’t say that about my knowledge of this case. Can you?
God’s not discussing the case of the Midianites with us, but, “Trust Me,” He says, “This was the right decision.”
He’s got a pretty good track record of being right. I’m going to trust Him on this one since I don’t know all the details. How about you?
Have you ever found it hard to trust God because of a difficult passage of Scripture?
Originally published July 10, 2013, at MichelleLesleyBooks.com.
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Beautiful, Michelle. God’s been really dealing with me about this lately. When things don’t look like they should, will I still trust that He is wise and knows best? When things don’t happen as quickly as I think they should, will I still trust that my times are in His hands? It’s a learning process. I know I haven’t arrived, but I’m grateful He is patient with us. Enjoyed reading your post. 🙂
Aw, thanks for the kind words, Jamie. God is still dealing with me about this, too. This trusting stuff is hard! :0)
Such a good post…. but not as easy to do. Why do we trust our own understanding more easily than we trust the God of the Universe? Silly, really…. but we fall into that trap again and again of thinking we know better than He does. Thank you for posting this. 🙂
Thanks, Joy. You’re right, it IS a hard thing to do. I’m so glad God is patient with me! :0)
I found your blog while visiting http://myfreshlybrewedlife.com
I am so grateful for the Christian presence on the internet.
I hope you don’t mind that I’ll be following your blog.
Welcome aboard, Michelle! :0)
Yes, this is a favorite passage people bring up, but they generally haven’t spent time in the whole book getting a perspective. That’s what we don’t have — all the information, and all the perspective. so often, when we do get all the facts about a situation that we didn’t have before, we are amazed at how wrong our conclusions were.
As you say, the thing we have to go on is the nature of the Judge, and thank God, He’s not like the garden variety human judge.
Ain’t that the truth! :0)
I agree that passages like this one are difficult to understand.
Trusting God is also hard sometimes, but I always have to remember that He has my best interest in mind!
Yes, He does, and I’m so glad! :0)
Great post! I love your analogy of trusting your husband’s decision in a case, but doubting God’s! Thanks for linking up to Motivational Monday!
Thanks! Glad you liked it :0)