February 19, 2026 - Numbers 31-33

Remember the Midianites?  They had seduced Israel into worshipping the Baals.  That was a bad thing.  That was a very bad thing!  And now, “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites’” (31:1-2).  It’s not a good thing to incite God’s people against God.  Several centuries later, the psalmist wrote:  “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed . . . He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.  Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury” (Psalm 2:2-5).  Much better to follow the psalmist’s counsel:  “Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.  Blessed are all who take refuge in him” Psalm 2:11-12).  A pretty clear choice, huh?  Oppose God and perish or take refuge in him and live.  Just sayin’.

To mock your reign, O dearest Lord,

they made a crown of thorns;

set you with taunts along that road

from which no one returns.

They did not know, as we do now,

that glorious is your crown;

that thorns would flower upon your brow,

your sorrows heal our own.   -- Fred Pratt Green (1972)