God tells Moses to wipe out the Midianites... every one except the "women who had never slept with a man." These women are to be collected as plunder along with all the livestock and treasures. Then they are all to be divided equally among the tribes with a small portion going to the priests.
The definition of plunder is to "take goods by force." The Israelites take by force that which they did not earn, almost like bullies. But they are more than bullies because they murder and steal, like the vikings on the Capital One commercials. (not be confused with the not-so-scary vikings that live in Minnesota)
The most troubling part of the story is that they don't just take goods, they take women and girls. 32,000 women were gathered and divided as plunder; 32 were given to the priests. Women are treated as possessions and divided like livestock all in the name of God.
In the name of the God we still worship today. In our preaching we say that God is on the side of the oppressed, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it, sometimes it doesn't sound like it. So how do we make sense of it?
Do we just give a cop-out answer and say that it was a different world back then? Do we let God off the hook?
No. We state the truth. We point out injustice, even if it is in the name of God.
And as God's people we do whatever we can to make sure it never happens again.
Not that it turns this story into a tales of gumdrops and rainbows, but are we interested at all in the Midianites being the oppressors and the Israelites being the oppressed, and that the women were singled out because of their role in the apostasy of Beor? Can you/are you interested in reading the forced marriage to Israelites as a better fate than than death with the rest of the Midianite people?
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