Bert's Musings

There are numerous OT Biblical accounts of God empowering the Israelite military and leading them to victory. As I have read these accounts I have often wondered how many Israelite soldiers died in these battles. Part of today's reading was Numbers chapter 31. God told Moses to send 12,000 soldiers to wipe out the Midianites. Only 32,000 girls, girls who had never had sex were spared. The plunder included 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle and 61,000 donkeys.  In Numbers 31:48-49 the leaders of the battle report to Moses that not one of the 12,000 soldiers is missing. They report this because they want to give a special offering to God  Interesting.

 This morning as I was reading in Mark 15 I wondered how the omnipotent, omniscient & omnipresent Creator of all we perceive could stand silently while we , His creation, heaped scorn and abuse on him it occurred to me, thank you Holy Spirit; if my head and heart could truly grasp that these abusers were going to spend eternity in Hell, it might help me better understand Jesus' response. Luke 23:34, and Stephen in Acts 7:60

  Numbers 5:5   Then the LORD said to Moses,  6  “Give these instructions to the people of Israel: If any of the people—men or women—betray the LORD by doing wrong to another person, they are guilty.  7  They must confess their sin and make full restitution for what they have done, adding a penalty of 20 percent and returning it to the person who was wronged.  8  But if the person who was wronged is dead, and there are no near relatives to whom restitution can be made, it belongs to the LORD and must be given to the priest, along with a ram for atonement.  9  All the sacred gifts that the Israelites bring to a priest will belong to him.  10  Each priest may keep the sacred donations that he receives.” Given man's inherent sinful nature it seems that this system was set up to entice corruption by "finding" sinful behavior. "Godly" priests may have resisted the temptation but during the 1,500 years between Moses & Jesus there...