Numbers 31:17-24: a reflection

17Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. 18But all the girls, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. 19“Encamp outside of the camp for seven days. Whoever has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives. 20You shall purify every garment, and all that is made of skin, and all work of goats’ hair, and all things made of wood.” 21Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who went to the battle, “This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded Moses. 22However the gold, and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, 23everything that may withstand the fire, you shall make to go through the fire, and it shall be clean; nevertheless it shall be purified with the water for impurity. All that doesn’t withstand the fire you shall make to go through the water. 24You shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean. Afterward you shall come into the camp.”

This is a hard passage from the war against Midian, with harsh commands that trouble us, and it would be wrong to pass over the difficulty. But set within it is something worth noticing: even the victorious soldiers, returning from a battle the text presents as commanded, could not simply walk back into the camp. They and their captives had to remain outside the camp for seven days and be purified, because they had killed and touched the dead. Contact with death had defiled them, and they needed cleansing before returning to the community and God's presence.

Notice what that purification implies. Even in a war the narrative treats as sanctioned, the shedding of blood and contact with death were not treated as clean. The soldiers were defiled by it and required cleansing before they could draw near again. There is a sober honesty in that: bloodshed, even when commanded, stains; death defiles; and the one who deals in it needs to be made clean before returning to a holy God. Nothing about it is treated as casual or unstained.

Without resolving all the hard questions such passages raise, there is a principle worth carrying: the seriousness of defilement, and the universal need for cleansing to draw near to a holy God. If even returning warriors needed purification before entering God's presence, how much more do all of us, stained by sin in various ways, need cleansing to draw near to him. And thankfully, God has provided that cleansing fully in Christ. Recognize your own need to be made clean before the holy God, and come to the One who provides the cleansing we cannot achieve ourselves.

Lord, even the returning soldiers, after a battle, could not enter the camp until they were purified, for contact with death had defiled them. This hard passage reminds me of the seriousness of defilement and the universal need for cleansing to draw near to you, the holy God. I too am stained by sin and cannot make myself clean. Thank you that you have provided full cleansing in Christ. Wash me, and make me clean, that I may draw near to you. I cannot cleanse myself; cleanse me by your grace.