God's Solution for Pandemics

Nearly 3,500 years ago, the nation of Israel faced a pandemic so deadly that it killed 23,000 men in a single day.  That was 4% of the total population of Israel.  All of those who contracted this disease did so by committing a capital crime, and the initial defeat of the disease was accomplished by sentencing all of the survivors to death.  But that's not the end of the story. 

The disease had been introduced into Israel intentionally.  The Midianites had sent infected women into the camp of the Israelites to seduce Israeli men into sleeping with them and to transmit the disease to the men of Israel.  This intentional use of a harmful biological agent was an act of war, and God instructed Israel to retaliate by declaring war against Midian.  Of course, many of the Midianites were infected with the same disease that they had transmitted to the Israelites, so God gave the Israeli soldiers a specific set of instructions to prevent the disease from being reintroduced into the general population of the nation. 

I gave a lesson on this episode in Israel's history as part of my Forgotten Battles of the Bible series.  I've copied the outline here for those who would like to compare God's instructions to the way that our governments have responded to the coronavirus.  God's solution to a deadly pandemic was to completely quarantine those who had been exposed to the disease, but many of our state and local governments in America have chosen to partially quarantine everyone.  I don't know about you, but I'm inclined to think that God's solution is better.

1. Vengeance against Midian – Num 31
   1. The Participants – vs. 1-3
      1. The Good Guys: Israel
      2. The Bad Guys: Midian
         1. Descendants of Abraham through his second wife, Keturah – Gen 25:1-2
         2. Lived just north of Egypt and was the place where Moses fled after killing the Egyptian – Ex 2:15
         3. Moses’ wife was a Midianite – Ex 2:16, 21
         4. The Midianites knew the true God
            1. They had a priest of God, Jethro – Ex 3:1, 18:9-12
            2. And a prophet of God, Balaam – Num 22:5
         5. Joined with Balak the Moabite to hire Balaam to curse Israel
         6. When Balaam could not curse Israel, he told the Midianites to send the women of Midian into the camp to seduce the men of Israel and draw them into worshipping idols – Num 31:16, Rev. 2:14
   2. The Location
      1. In the plains of Moab just across the river from Jericho – Num 22:1
      2. In the city of Shittim – Num 25:1
      3. Balaam had looked on the children of Israel from three mountains
         1. Kirjath-huzoth – Num 22:39
         2. Pisgah – Num 23:13-14
         3. Peor – Num 23:27-28
   3. The Reason
      1. Vengeance against Midian – Num 25:17-18
         1. The Midianites had intentionally sent their women into the camp of the Israelites to seduce them into fornication and idolatry – Num 31:16
         2. 24,000 Israelite men had died as a result of the plague brought by the Midianites – Num 25:9
            1. These were all the men who had slept with the Midianite women – Deut 4:3-4
            2. 23,000 of these men died in a single day – I Cor 10:8
            3. Apparently, the Midianites were infected with some kind of STD that eventually produced a sudden death in the Israelites who contracted it
            4. The Bible describes these men as eating “the sacrifices of the dead” – Psalm 106:28-29
      2. Elimination of a dangerous disease
         1. A plague was introduced in Israel through the Midianite women – Num 25:9
         2. After the Israelites defeated Midian, God commanded that all the non-virgin women and all the male children be killed. This is the only time that God ever gave such a command – Num 31:15-17
         3. God commanded that all the spoils captured from the Midianites be cleaned with either fire or water before being brought back into the camp of the Israelites – Num 31:22-23
         4. God commanded that every soldier who killed a Midianite and every captive spend seven days in isolation with at least two baths before coming back to the camp – Num 31:19-20
         5. These unusual commands only make sense if the Midianites were carriers of a disease, and the means by which the disease was introduced into Israel indicates that it was a sexually transmitted disease that was also passed to all the males through the mothers.
   4. The Battle
      1. Only required 12,000 of the 601,730 men of Israel – Num 31:4-5
         1. Indicates that the Midianite population was being depleted by the plague as well
         2. Probably also sent in such a small force because of the quarantine procedure
      2. Killed all the males including all five of the kings of Midian – Num 31:7-8
      3. Killed Balaam as well – Josh 13:22
   5. The Aftermath
      1. The Book of Deuteronomy was written – Deut 1:3-5, 4:3-4
         1. Could have been written after the plague but before the battle
      2. Created one of the greatest moral challenges to the Bible