Killing Orders
From God Almighty?
Q. Why would God command the Israelites to kill Midianite children and women such as found in Numbers 31:17? This seems barbaric, primitive and cruel to me.
Answer:
Baby Bomb Belts
To the Western mind this seems like a harsh command. Perhaps the closest we can come to understanding it is to look at those babies born to terrorists who are trained from infancy to wear bomb belts and to hate and murder the Jews. These children do not grow up in innocence. They are taught to be murderers from the time they can talk and walk. It is difficult to retrain groups of people who are brainwashed to do evil so early in life.
Nephilim
However, I think there is more to the story than ridding the land of murderers and idolaters. In Genesis 6 we are told that the marriage union between sons of God and daughters of men produced a race called the “Nephilim.” The Nephilim were purportedly giants – or freaks of nature. Most of the Nephilim were destroyed in the flood. But, not all of them were completely destroyed.
Consider that Genesis 6:4 says, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward…”
After what? After the flood. Their tribes followed idolatrous practices and possibly worshiped the “sons of God” and other evil beings (Dr. Heiser). Note that we reject the “line of Seth” or Sethite view which developed around 200 A.D. Our earliest manuscripts and Jewish commentaries from about 270 B.C. support a serious or more literalist interpretive approach to the Genesis 6 account. (See 1 Enoch 12:4; 15:8; 19:1; Jubilees 5:1; Genesis Apocryphon, Dead Sea Scrolls).
Book of Enoch
From extra biblical sources such as “The Book of Enoch” and from Numbers 13 we know that the race of giants and their progeny were hostile, violent half-breeds who engaged in cannibalism and horrid sexual perversions.
Og’s Bed Size
In 1 Chronicles 20:4 we learn that some descendants of the giants had six fingers and six toes. In Deuteronomy 3:11 Og’s bed was noted to be 13′ long and 6′ wide.
Giants & Freaky Fruit
Moses sent twelve spies into the land of Canaan who returned terrified because of the size of the giants. The spies claimed they were like “grasshoppers” next to the giants. Even the fruit was bizarre. Two men had to carry one cluster of grapes between them on a pole (Numbers 13:23). They weren’t just imagining it.
Gene-Pool Problem
There is probably more going on than meets the eye. As Dr. Missler says, “there was a serious gene-pool problem.” To leave alive any of the half-breed men, women, children, or in some cases even the livestock, would have caused serious harm to the surrounding territories filled with “real” or genuine human beings.
Think of it. Such large beings would have required a minimum of 22,000 calories daily (each) to sustain basal metabolic functions(Hamp 2011). So it is possible that there was genetic tampering resulting in alterations of animal livestock and available food sources in order to sustain them.
Messiah Fully God and Fully Man
All of this requires that we take seriously the Genesis 6 account. From this we believe that the progeny and tribes who were descendants of the Nephilim were dangerous, half-breed men, women, and children who truly threatened the genetic purity of the human race. They had to be destroyed.
Why did they “have” to be destroyed? Because the Messiah was to be born generations later from the ancient, prophesied “pure” bloodlines. For example, from Genesis 49:10 written approximately 1400 B.C. the Messiah was prophesied to come from the tribe of Judah. From Jeremiah 23:5 (c. 626 B.C.) and Isaiah 9:7 written about 700 B.C. we know that He was to be King David’s descendent.
Therefore, biblical scholars clearly understand that our Messiah is “fully” God and “fully” man, “Very God of Very God.” Our Messiah is not part Nephilim, part man, and part God! He shed His blood for us – for mankind. He saved us – human beings – from sin and death.
“We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man…”
(excerpted from The Nicene Creed)
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References:
Charles, R.H. 2003. The book of Enoch the prophet. Boston, MA: Weiser Books.
Missler, Chuck. 1997. Mischievous angels or Sethites? Personal Update News Journal. Coeur d’Alene, ID: Koinonia House.
Hamp, Douglas. 2011. Corrupting the image. Defenders.
Heiser, Michael S. (Academic Editor, Logos Bible Software). 2001. Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God. Bibliotheca Sacra. Vol. 158: 629. Also refer to: www.michaelsheiser.com.
Valorie Mays Emilio holds an MA in history from UCLA focusing upon Christian origins, and a Certificate in Persecuted Church Ministries from Oklahoma Wesleyan University.