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Today, we're reading numbers 30 through 32, but we're going to be focusing on chapter 31 versus 13 through 18. So let's just call it what it is. Today's reading is a tough passage. We've got the vengeance of the Lord, the killing of every male in Midian, the women and children referred to as their little ones,

are taken captive. All the little boys are killed. Any women that had been sexually active was

killed, and all the young girls and virgins are kept for the Israelite men. And as I read this,

my heart was grieved, for the families that were broken up, for the women who lost their husbands,

for the mothers whose sons were killed, for the little boys who were killed and the young girls that

were taken from their families and raised by strangers. It plays out in my head like a really bad

movie. Horrific, actually. And the people doing this, are they supposed to be the good guys? What's going on? If God is good, why do bad things happen? Is God of the Old Testament a moral monster? Is this genocide? In order to best understand this chapter and the character of a good God that doesn't need to be wrongly called into question,

we've got to rewind.

You go all the way back to Genesis.

God creates people, he puts them in the garden, he gives them freedom and a choice.

Out of love, he doesn't force his people to be in relationship with him.

But they choose wrong in their freedom, and sin enters the picture.

Yet even then, we learn that God's going to send a child to conquer the evil one. That's Genesis 315. Eventually, God makes a promise

to Abraham, a routine liar, might I add, and God said that through his family, all the nations of

the earth would be blessed. And despite all odds, this family finds themselves in Egypt and grows

tremendously. Unfortunately, their large size was viewed as a threat and they were enslaved. However,

God remembered his promises to Abraham, and he raised up Moses, a murderer, to lead the Israelites out

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