Proclaimer Blog
What do you do with those total destruction passages?
Numbers has a bit of everything – law, story, poetry, prophecy – which makes it an exciting book to read and preach. But it also means that the tricky issues raised by OT preaching ALL come up in Numbers, not least of which is the herem holy destruction like that against the Midianites (Numbers 31). If you're preaching these sorts of passages, you've surely got to talk about the issue and understand it for yourself. One book I've found very helpful is Show them no mercy which includes an excellent chapter by Tremper Longman III on this very subject. It is in the 4/5 views series produced by Zondervan . I found it useful for understanding the issue myself and also understanding what other people think, even if some of them are far from being mainstream evangelical views. Worth the £8 it costs.