Numbers 31.
ONE more war is here told of, the last fighting before the people cross the Jordan and enter the promised land. In chapter 25 we had the cause, and now before Moses is taken away, the reproach must be taken away.
Headed by Phineas the priest, with the “holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow, in his hand,” twelve thousand, a thousand from every tribe, march against the Midianites, and among them the false Balaam loses his life. He had wished for a happier end, — “let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his,” was his desire, but he had chosen to serve Satan, and God makes no agreements with sinners to let them live in sin and self-will, and save theme on their death beds.
“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,” and to wait for another day makes you, my reader, a neglecter of salvation. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”
O, do not forget the sad fate of Balaam, who like Lot’s wife (Genesis 19:2626But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19:26)), and Cain (Genesis 4: 16), and many another, knew of God, and chose to please themselves, —to live for the present, and give no thought to eternity!
ML 06/29/1924