Tag Archives: Numbers 22

Midian – Enemy and Instrument

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Midian – Enemy and Instrument

Midian was a son of Abraham by his third wife Keturah (Genesis 25).  His descendants played an important role in the Exodus story and into the Judges’ time period.   Some experts think that Midian was several groups of people and or a geographic area and not just a single nation.  They start their part in the story of Israel when Joseph’s brother sold him into Egypt (Genesis 37).  This is also where Moses fled when he ran away from Pharaoh; his wife, father-in-law, and children were Midianites.

In Numbers 22 the story of Moab and Midian working together to stop Israel by bringing in Balaam is told.  It seems that Balak, king of Moab, takes the lead and even in Numbers 25 it first mentions Moabite women as being the lure to get Israel to sin.  A Midianite woman is killed in verse 8 and it stops a plague; in verse 16 the Lord says to treat Midian as enemies and kill them because of the deception with the Baal of Peor.  In Numbers 31 Moses is to lead a campaign against them and then he will die.  It must have been quite an attack because many important people including kings and Balaam were killed.

A thought that should disturb the people of God is that sex was used as a weapon in the name of religion to defeat God’s people.  The devil crossed and confused the lines then and is still doing it today.

The other big reference to Midianites is with Gideon in Judges 6, 7, and 8.  This story also ends with the Midianites being beaten severely.    There are references in Psalm 83, Isaiah 9, and 10 that talk about how badly Midian was beaten.  They don’t say if it was Moses or Gideon but the context makes it sounds like the beatings were bad and that a similar beating was wished on the current enemy.

Living in the “now” of troubles and testing compared to analyzing them later will produce two very different views.  This is a “later” point of view; God used the Midianites to push Israel to a deeper walk and expose things that still they needed to deal with.  One example is the army killing the men and keeping the women who were the instrument that got them into trouble.  Even later the Israelites were still dealing with the troubles of Peor, possibly, the girl slaves and the children born from them.  Midianite DNA and mindset were spread into every tribe of Israel, including Levi.  Be careful what you choose to live with no matter how you got it.

The Parable of the Sower and Jude

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The Parable of the Sower is a favored parable  because of Jesus

The Sower

The Sower

explaining it.  You don’t have to worry about various meanings because Jesus tells the disciples exactly what He wanted them/us to know and see in it.  He clearly states that the Word will land on four types of people.  As I said in Job’s Friends that the majority of the seed lands in the field and those people will produce a good crop.  The Word also lands on other people and it does grow in two of the three of them it just does not produce a good crop.

In the Book of Jude, the half-brother of Jesus takes time to warn the people to beware of men/leaders who are there for their own benefit and are hurting people.  Jude names Cain, Balaam, and Korah as the types and shadows of these men.

Cain, the first-born child, is the type of the natural man who is jealous and angry and is willing to kill the spiritual.  He is the “pathway” where the Seed could not grow.  Think about what he had thought; he could talk with and hear God.  It may have been that he saw God, yet it did no good because as it says in 1 John 3: 11 – 12, “ His actions were evil and he belonged to the evil one.”  This happened because he refused to master sin (Genesis 4:7).  So the “way of Cain” is to kill the spiritual so you do not have to face your actions.

Balaam, a mystic in Numbers 22, is an example of the “rocky ground.”  He called God Lord (see Lord My God) and seemed to want to do His will but he had no root even though people recognized the Abrahamic covenant working in him.  His error was that he used his knowledge of the spiritual to make a financial profit.  He counseled Moab to have Israel sin sexually so that they would not be holy and out from the covering of the Lord’s blessing.

Korah, a Levite in Numbers 16, is the soil with the “weeds.”  This area is on the edges of the field and it is possible for it to produce fruit but it has problems that mess up its full potential.  (see Seeds)  His rebellion was against God’s earthly authority and thinking he could do someone else’s job and that God would bless him.  Part of his family did go on to serve as musicians so good did come from the family.

Luke 8:1–15, Mark 4:1-20, Matthew 13:2-23

The picture is from http://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/parable-weeds/