0 Numbers : Intolerance

The stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. 3:10

Trivia: What was God's tribute from the Midianite massacre?

Numbers : Intolerance (28)

  1. Kill any stranger that comes near the tabernacle. 1:51
  2. Two of Aaron's sons are killed by God for "offering strange fire before the Lord." 3:4
  3. All firstborn men and beasts belong to God, since God killed all the firstborn of Egypt. 3:13
  4. God shows his hospitality with the admonition: "The stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death." 1:51, 3:10, 3:38
  5. God tells the people to expel from camp "every leper, every one that hath an issue, and whoever is defiled by the dead." So by God's instructions, the sick are abandoned and left to suffer and die alone. 5:1-4
  6. "And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it (He had his hearing aid on.) .... and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them."
    God burned the complainers alive. That'll teach them! 11:1-2
  7. The people begin to whine about not having any meat. So God says he'll give them meat, alright. He'll give them "flesh to eat," not for just a few days, but "for a whole month, until it come out of [their] nostrils, and it be loathsome to [them]." Yuck. 11:4, 19-20
  8. "And while the flesh [of the quails] was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. "The Bible isn't too clear about what these poor folks did to upset God so much; all it says is that they had "lusted." 11:33
  9. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, the first freethought/democracy martyrs, refused to follow Moses blindly, saying that everyone is holy and should be free to think for him or herself. God killed them and their families for daring to challenge Moses. 16:1-35
  10. Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment."
    God warns everyone to get away; he's going to kill some more people. 16:20-21
  11. "Hereby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me ... if the LORD make ... the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit..."
    Moses tells the people that if the ground opens up and swallows the rebels and their families, then you'll know that God's on his side. 16:28-30
  12. "The earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah ... They ... went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them." 16:31-33
  13. "And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense." 16:35
  14. After God killed Korah, his family, and 250 innocent bystanders, the people complained saying, "ye have killed the people of the Lord." So God, who doesn't take kindly to criticism, sends a plague on the people. And "they that died in the plague were 14,700." 16:41-50
  15. "Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment."
    God threatens (again) to kill everyone (but his special friends, Moses and Aaron). 16:44-45
  16. "For there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun ... they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred." 16:46-49
  17. "And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities." This verse demonstrates the power of prayer: If you ask God, he will destroy entire cities for you. 21:3
  18. God delivers the Amorites into Moses' hands. (You're in God hands with Moses.) So Moses does the usual thing, killing everyone "until their was none left alive." 21:34-35
  19. After the people "commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab," Moses has them all killed. Then God tells Moses to hang their dead bodies up in front of him; God says that this will satisfy him. 25:1-5
  20. When one of the Israelite men brings home a foreign woman, "Phinehas (Aaron's grandson) sees them and throws a spear "through the man .. and the woman through her belly." This act pleases God so much that "the plague was stayed from the children of Israel." But not before 24,000 had died. 25:6-9
  21. For impaling the interracial couple, God rewards Phinehas and his sons with the everlasting priesthood. 25:10-13
  22. God tells Moses how to care for his neighbors by saying: "Vex the Midianites, and smite them." 25:16-17
  23. The ground swallow Korah and his companions and a fire consumes 250 men. 26:10
  24. "And Nadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before the Lord." When you go camping avoid making any unusual fires. 26:61
  25. Under God's direction, Moses' army defeats the Midianites. They kill all the adult males, but take the women and children captive. When Moses learns that they left some live, he angrily says: "Have you saved all the women alive? Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." So they went back and did as Moses (and presumably God) instructed, killing everyone except for the virgins. In this way they got 32,000 virgins -- Wow! (Even God gets some of the booty -- including the virgins.) 31:1-54
  26. God killed all the Egyptian firstborn. 33:4
  27. God tells Moses to exterminate the residents of Canaan and destroy all of their religious symbols and possessions. 33:50-52
  28. But if the Israelites don't kill them all, then God will make them pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides. And he will do unto the Israelites as he planned to do to the inhabitants of Canaan. 33:55-56

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