Numbers 31 Summary: A Concise Overview in 5 Minutes

Get a quick overview of Numbers 31, including its themes and key events. This article provides a short summary of Numbers chapter thirty-one, and will help you understand the book of Numbers as a whole.

[isaialeuila]

Im up to this chapter and and as a mature Christian, even I sit reading this and wonder. Why Lord? Why this way? I trust and believe in You Abba. With no doubt, but man, this is a hard thing to read and try to understand. Yet even though, you know why you added this is in your word. You never sugar coated your word so even these things you mention. Im just trying to understand this chapter Lord

[KeithWSt]

I read this chapter this morning and found it disturbing and so have been looking for insights into it. Thank you for yours. I guess the difficulty I have with the argument that God has the right to take life he gave (even the most helpless and innocent) is that it was not God who did the killing, but the Israelites. Unfortunately the world has examples of other religions believing God also tells them to do ostensibly very violent things, but we see that as evil - perhaps that judgement is a double standard on our part. I don’t claim to know the answer, I think for the moment I just need to park this chapter and move on with my reading. Fortunately in the New Testament a very different order is established, and the “good news” is that everything in Numbers and the other books of the Old Testament is ultimately building to that.

[billross]

Thank you! That was a really good explanation to put my mind at ease with regards to babies being killed by God or the orders of God. I wrestle with this a lot in the Bible and in my Bible study session. But to think about it as God is the one who gives life, and therefore he can take it away, and that we are not on the same level of God assures me peace and happiness with God. Thank you.

[wingnutmcspazatron]

It sounds harsh, but I think what we need to understand is that everyone is going to die- but we ourselves don't end at death- and what God DOES with those souls who've passed from the physical to the spiritual is beyond any of our earthly judgements. I encourage people here to listen to the many testimonials across youtube of people's "near death experiences", about what they had seen and experienced, and the new mentality they carried back to physical life with them about God and the universe in their resuscitation. Use a discerning ear, and listen to the common patterns and lessons that they all experience and learn from.

[jlrush]

I like this and the shorts. Keep us posted on when next book drops

[thrashmars]

Wow thank you so much for this video. I was having such trouble with this one and was becoming deeply saddened but you answered my questions thank you again.

[TheFixer-AngieMwangi]

Thank you for this watching from Kenya

[MTJCC]

You handled this chapter with wisdom and understanding. God is God and we are not.

[SplashJordan]

Deuteronomy 21:10-14, Moses specifically stated what was to be done with female captives: "When you go out to war...and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife, then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife."

Now imagine yourself standing before a Judge being accused of raping your neighbor. You explain to the judge that you broke into your neighbor's house and killed the couple living there. Then you found an attractive young woman hiding in her bedroom so you dragged her back to your house. You shaved her head and trimmed her nails and after a month, according to your beliefs, this makes her your wife. Only then did you have intercourse with her against her will. You further explain that you should be set free because the woman was obviously your wife and you are entitled to have sex with her anytime you want... after all, she's your property.

[PinusHalepensis]

I was really disturbed wen I read this chatper. Why would God do all those things and especialy to children?? I went to youtube to find some expanation, and I did found it. Thank you for this video.

[Cecibug]

I'm trying to understand why the virgins were spared while children were not. I don't understand the importance of the virgins, and how was it proven that someone was a virgin.

[nicolaomalley]

In my version (NRSVCE) it says that Moses told the Israelite soldiers to kill all the male children and women who had taken part in seducing Israel into idolatry, but to keep all the young girls and virgins alive. I do wonder if this was solely Moses' idea and not God's. Perhaps Moses didn't want the male children growing up and leading a rebellion against Israel later on? If so, Moses would have a lot of blood on his hands, so perhaps not. I don't know. Definitely a difficult chapter to read and process given the current Christian attitudes towards life, mercy and forgiveness.

[proverbalizer]

Dude just compared genocide of an entire ethnic group and religion to "taking your baby to the doctor" 😅😅😅

[christopherhamilton]

Moses was pissed the they let the women and children live. But the virgins and gold are okay being them with us 🥳

[lorrindawyatt]

I would like to know what God had done with his portion ppl ?

[joannferraro]

I wouldn't accuse God of moral evil from this passage, but man himself. A priest causes a woman to have a miscarriage (an abortion) is on the MAN (who is the priest), not God. So once again, people cherry pick the bible and use it to their advantage. Obviously abortion was around back then and permitted. THAT is the point.

[boberthughes]

So true God made us we did not make ourselves so God has to say so in all things and my mom when God says the time to kill still sleep laugh he meant for God not us

[IGLESIANIMANALO]

STOP TWISTING THE MEANING OF SLAVERY IN BIBLE

[dennisbohner]

So the people who hear 'voices' telling them to commit heinous and evil acts are OK? WTF is wrong with you?

[CriticallyGnart]

Christianity is rough, because you have to be content with the idea that God is gonna just do with your life and family's lives as he wishes. Toy with them, then discard them when he breaks them. You can be a devout follower, and he may give you cancer just to see if you get salty about it. Your reward for faith, is death and pain. You get to watch your child suffer from plague and know that you are helpless in the face of the almighty. You have the gall to be upset about the things God takes? Fool that you are, nothing you have is even yours to begin with, God gives you everything, even though you're the one in field breaking your body day after day because nature itself wants you dead. You sit there and worship God every day of your life, see where it gets you. You lose your family before their time (you don't get to decide when that is), you lose your livelihood (you only deserve what God allots you, you've earned NOTHING), you lose your health (you better praise God in that storm!). Faith in what? The only thing you can have faith in is that God will use you for entertainment, and that if you cry out in retribution, you will be damned FOREVER, should've known with your limited Human understanding that you would be tortured forever for reacting as all cornered animals do. Should've just knelt down as he drives a stake through your heart. Thank him for destroying you, for giving you the honor of being used as his pastime.

God is cruel. He wants to see you cry out because the contrast between human suffering and the grandeur of being the most magnificent existence there is brings him joy. He gets to watch us wallow in the circumstances he forces us into, all from the heavens, laughing as we cry out for mercy. He's called the Father, but he's the drunk type that slams a beer bottle on your head for standing in front of the TV. Except that drunk father is more merciful than God. Both will give no reason for their actions, and indeed have no real justification for doing it, but at least the drunk's punishment ends. You can die to the drunk. With God, one mistake and you just burn and burn forever.

God made us limited beings, with zero understanding, then decided to torture us eternally when we acted on the nature he gave us. Omnipotent, and omniscient, he knew exactly from the moment of creation what would occur by the composition and placement of each atom. Not one action we make is a surprise to him. Unless we're willing to say God isn't omnipotent or omniscient, but then why are we worshiping something that isn't perfect? He created the circumstances we all exist in, and our nature- then tortures us for behaving ACCORDING TO PLAN. The book then says that he actually *loves* us. The audacity.

Christians like to simplify the argument of "If God exists, why do bad things happen, " by saying that there can be no free will without such things. That would mean that God is not all-powerful. Not to mention, free will just means that one follows their nature. If he wanted to make our nature to glorify him and to be sinless, he could have done so. He didn't do that, though. He made us curious. He made us lust for knowledge. Then he placed a mysterious tree and explained that it would grant us knowledge. A creature that he MUST have created then said that in eating the apple, that we would become like our Father. God never prepared them for deception. They had no wisdom, how were they to know? Just another prank from the God of cruelty.

Additionally, free will is a silly concept in Christianity as it is. Sure, you can do what you want, but you're going to be killed for doing what you want to do, worse, you'll burn *forever*. What do people actually think the worth of free will is? It doesn't exist in the first place since God is omnipotent and omniscient, not one of our actions can surprise God, it's all been predetermined, but assuming that that is not the case, why would it even be worth a damn? Cool, I can run around and disobey God for a while, but the result of doing that is that I burn for all of eternity. The first year of burning would destroy you in such a way that you would never ever be healed. What does the millionth year of burning do in God's plan, except for bring God entertainment? Why not just remove the sinner from existence? Kill them in a permanent way. Suffering without purpose is cruelty. If there is no salvation from Hell, once one is already in it, it's just cruel. Infinite punishment for finite crime is cruelty. He calls us his children, by the way. Imagine your son stealing a cookie from the jar, so you grind his face into the stove top till he dies. That's more merciful than what God does, because at least your son will surely die, and be released from the pain. But we're just humans so we can't understand the true definition of good and evil, right? Guess we don't even get the mercy of calling our eternal damnation an evil thing. We have to be content knowing that our suffering, that will never end, is the right thing. We get to lay in the lake of fire, our bodies being destroyed over and over again, and know that this is *good*.

The (human perspective of the) morality of God really does come down to the question of whether God can or can't do ALL things. If he can, he's evil (in a human sense of the word, since I've seen you saying that only God's perspective of morality is valid) because he tortures us without reason. If he can't do all things, then he's an egotistical freak for acting like he can do all things, and moreover he's a bastard for not explaining his limits and expecting us to follow his arbitrary rules. The laws of the universe that we believe to be true, should only be true because God set existence up to be that way. If he can do all things, he can make situations that we think are paradoxical, possible. If he can't do that, then he has a limitation right there. He should be so unfathomably immense and powerful that we can't even comprehend it. That's the only God worth worshipping.


Last note, you mention that without a God, we have no basis for morality, that it's just our opinion. That's a silly take. You're saying that what is actually moral is decided by God, but that's just his opinion. Why should we value his opinion, if his opinion is that we had ought to DIE? Doesn't make sense. We should all languish in our misery, knowing that there is an unstoppable entity of unimaginable power that wants us dead, biting our nails as we wait for him to kill us. We shouldn't think that he is good, *by virtue* of his power. Ultimately, what matters is us. Why should we glorify something that wants us dead? Because understand, he *does* want you dead. Your parents, your children, anyone you've met, regardless of if they follow his book or not. You're going to rot. You think Heaven is real? He wants to see you suffer- God makes up the rules about what is good and evil, so perhaps just in the statement that Heaven exists, it was okay to lie to the measly little humans. And according to you, he would be right in his deception. He's above all scrutiny, because he is God. He can do no wrong, so smile contently as he schemes against you.

If God were genuinely such a great God, he would make a world where all people want to worship him. I've lived a painful, miserable life. Didn't have to be that way. God could've chose mercy. I'm not saying God isn't real. I just don't think you people have him characterization down. He's malicious, and arbitrary. He lives according to his whims. We're just his playthings. Parting question: Do you actually love God? How can you love this thing when it kills you? You actually just have to go out on a limb and hope that he is merciful and that Heaven exists. You live your life stifled to the gift of free will that God himself allowed you to have, all to try to live by his rules in the hopes that you get to Heaven. Is your Faith in God not akin to a man who places his hand in the jaws of a beast and expects to receive a reward, rather than being bitten? You have no reason to trust God, none at all. Our world is brutal, and you know this to be true. Are the smallest good things that exist in the world enough to convince you that God actually loves you? That the good things aren't just there to give contrast to the highlight of our existence- our pain?

Last thing: I don't care if you think any of my points are valid- I don't really want you to stop being Christian after reading the essay I just typed. I think overall Christianity is a good thing for people. Nobody actually follows the rules of the Bible anyways, so it's not like it really causes problems anymore. People just live, restricting their own free will to what (loosely) coincides with what the Bible allows. Most people on Earth should probably be controlled by such a thing. Self control isn't innate, so you use the carrot and the stick to get the animals in line. Heaven and Hell, two reasons to not resist, and a reason to not spend every moment shaking in fear of death (if you're in line with the rules). Feel free to ignore this, I wrote this pretty much entirely just to compose my thoughts.