Just as a note, Laura and I are celebrating a little anniversary. On March 20, 2003 we began corresponding. If you'd like to see what we wrote, how it all began, it is posted on a webpage I've opened up as an experiment to make some of my sermons available to churches that are considering us.
https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/
Numbers 30-31
Num. 30
The logical connection between this section and the last section is that, while taking part in the holy days, people would often be moved to make vows to the Lord. This happens even today. People will be listening to a sermon in church and say, "I've got to call 'so-and-so' when I get home and apologize," or if the preacher is portly, "Lord, I need to exercise more." 
Where you see this in action is 1 Samuel 1:9-18, when Hanna prays for a son and makes a vow. According to what the Lord is saying here, Elkanah had the right to either confirm or dissolve this vow shortly after hearing about it.
Num. 31
Ok, there is a topic every follower of Christ has to deal with in talking with the unchurched, or just trying to wrap our minds around it. This chapter introduces Israel going to war. Even if you understand that the people they fought against were wicked and the cultures were utterly corrupt, you still have to think through the killing of children and women (why don't we really care about the guys 
So, here are some leading thoughts and you can do with them what you will.
There are "realities" that exist regardless of my feelings or opinions. Gravity works whether I'm having a good day or a bad day. Regardless of my feelings, I always have to keep an eye on gravity, at least while I'm in this life. On earth as a human, there is a spiritual reality that exists that I can't see. It's there whether I'm having a good day or a bad one. It's as real as the keyboard I'm typing on. It's a reality and someday I'll see that reality. I could see that "other side" of life right now, but to do that, the way things are set up right now, I'd have to die. The way God has designed things at this moment in history, in reality, in this body, as I am now, I can't see the spiritual reality of life; but if I leave this body by "dying," in a second I will be conscious and alive in a body in that reality, possibly seeing both physical and spiritual reality together. The Bible teaches all of this as reality.
But what is death? I say "I'd have to die" to see the spiritual side of life, but I'd actually be "alive" there. So if I'm alive here, and a second later I'd be alive there, what is death? Death is separation. Spiritually, it is the separation of man from God. Physically, it is the separation of the soul from the body. But back to reality. We are never dead. As humans, during this time, we are either on earth, visually separated from God, or separated from this earth, visually present with God. But we are never dead. This is reality regardless of how I feel. "Death" in a physical sense, is whatever happens to our body that causes the moment of separation, the moment of transition of our spirit from reality to that reality. But the reality is, we are always "alive" and there is only one reality, with two parts (for us) and there is only one God.
Separation was never meant to be, either from God or the body. "Death" is an unnatural thing in God's reality and will be done away with. Humans were never created to be separated from God. Whatever that union looks like, even saved, we have not yet experienced it. When Adam broke it, a "death," a separation occurred immediately, like plucking a flower, and though it happened slowly, the body had to decline and decay to the point of the spirit separating from the body. The one separation necessitated the other. No one was ever born to "not" have a relationship with God. No one was ever to have a failing body from which the human spirit could be separated. For now, we rightfully fight against "death" because it isn't normal or what was designed by God.
Our fear of "death" stems from our sin and separation from God. We inwardly fear God. Our sin rebels against God. We can't see beyond this small room (called earth and life) that we live in. Actually, life is so much bigger than this little thing we see. Yet fear tells us this is all there is, and sin tells us we can't face God. So we are trapped in fear, in a small little slice of reality, thinking it is everything.
When the body "dies," the soul is separated from this body and we move from the small room into the big room. The Bible teaches that when we step into "life" (as Jesus calls it in John 3) we are fully alert. Some people will become fully alert for the first time in their lives. And we will have a body. We don't even go "bodiless" for more than a second.
Now, God is against murder and holds life to be valuable and sacred for us on earth. But God is about to "call" Moses into His presence. Moses will "die" but not really be dead. As disciples, we know that God has the right to "call" us at any time, and we'll be going to a great place. Paul couldn't wait to get there. If God called you away to work in Argentina for the rest of your life, you'd miss your friends and family, and they would miss you, but you wouldn't be dead, just living somewhere else. Heaven, God's presence is "somewhere else," and it's a great place, unless you're not ready to "meet your maker."
In the wars Israel would wage, there was an "object lesson" for all mankind, that societies and cultures can so pollute themselves that only total cleansing from the earth can stop their sinful influence, like cutting out cancer. Sin in this body cannot be cured in this life [Rom. 7-8] and its power can't be broken by education or reform. Its power can only be "broken" by willing repentance and acceptance of the one true God, revealed then as Yahweh, the God of the Jews, and now as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, through acceptance of Christ as Savior and Lord, which gives us forgiveness, allowing the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We become connected to God, but the power of sin is there until death and resurrection. Read Romans 8.
In these wars, there is the lesson that sin can permeate a culture and society in such a way that God will bring judgment. All the nations around Israel will see this. All the nations knew that Canaan was corrupt, and now they'll see Yahweh bring judgment. In demanding the deaths of these peoples, in reality, God was saying, "Their time on earth is complete, send them into my presence and I will judge them." It's not a bad thing to be in God's presence, unless we're not ready to be there. We get caught up with visual images of slaying and slicing and blood and guts, but the result was to send these people to God. God took the matter from there.
Physical "death" is not something God likes and it's not something we'll get used to. Christ removed the "sting" by dying for us and facing our judgment "unjudged." In Christ, we who know Him will also be "unjudged." We think of death and think of how unfair it is that someone can't live on earth, but reality is far bigger than this earth, and earth isn't really a good place anyway. Heaven is not "on" earth; in fact, when this sad episode is finished here, God will get rid of this earth and make a new, uncontaminated one.
Obviously God wants us to be compassionate and show mercy to victims of war, tsunamis, disasters, sicknesses and hunger. We are commanded to show love and to assist those suffering on earth. But we disciples cannot live with a microscopic view of life, as if this is all life is. Reality is much larger and this sad tale on earth is a very important, but temporary, dot on the surface of eternity. The destiny of every person ever born is to bow before Jesus and confess that He is Lord. God Himself determines when that event happens. We have a choice in whether our confession is compelled from us in heaven, or surrendered freely here on earth, in repentance and acceptance of Christ. As disciples, in the age of grace, we work in the harvest while there is still time. Judgment and wrath are coming to the earth, and for many, before the throne of God.
God is a loving God, but the killing will always seem harsh. It helps to keep the bigger picture in mind. In God commanding the "deaths" of these people, there was the fearful "lesson" to the other nations to fear sin and respect Yahweh, and there was the mission of sending these people from their bodies, from this small room to that great room, into the presence of God.
Back to Numbers 31
I just have some observations.
V. 8 They kill Balaam. What was he doing in Midian? He must have come back and been given money and a house for giving such good advice on how to make Israel bring God's curse upon themselves.
V. 16 Somehow Moses had the full story on what had happened up on the mountains and what was said between Balaam and Balak. Either God told Moses, or Moses interviewed someone who was there, like Balaam. In 2 Samuel 1 you have the story of the guy who came to David in Ziglag reporting the details of Saul's death, who was immediately thereafter "dispatched" to join Balaam. They probably both got together in the hot part of Hades and said, "Yeh, me too. I thought when I told them the whole story, they'd let me go."
There is an interesting thought here. In order for so many men from Israel to have sinned sexually so quickly, the Midianites must have had a lot of women on the job. Apparently once they had the plan from Balaam, they sent all of the women into the Israelite camp to set up "worship stations" in the name of Baal, and thousands of the women participated. Makes you wonder what kind of moral climate that must have been, being willing to do all that for God and country, to bring a curse on your enemies.
All the males were killed, old and young, because males carried on the national identity of this culture. Remember they were still alive, sent into God's presence. If the children were under the age of accountability, they were not judged (Romans 7:9). The rest of these people had somehow heard about Yahweh. Balak knew to send for Balaam, because Balaam had a link to the same God of the Israelites who Balak knew about. Abe-Isaac-Jacob became a large group of people who lived in Canaan over 200 years. Melchizedek, a priest of the most high God, was the King in Salem (Jerusalem) and God was giving testimony to His own name through many men, like Balaam, who we have never heard of. Not to mention, that just down the road, for the past 40 years you had this community of 2 million people whose God had, to their liking of all in that ancient world, demolished Egypt. We have some evidence, and have to trust God, that they had opportunities to come to him. BTW, Moses' father-in-law was a Midianite priest who became a believer, and this would have been some of the same territory where Moses would have tended sheep for 40 years.
Regarding the captured women: In Deuteronomy 21 the Lord will give them laws on how to incorporate all captured women into the nation. The reason the women with sexual experience were killed, was because they had participated in the event at Peor.
Vs. 25-54 The Lord himself institutes some rules/laws regarding how to divide the captured goods. Everything was to be tithed.
Luke 4:1-30
Luke 4:1-15
Matthew and Luke have a different order to the temptations. Both have the bread first, but they differ in the next two. Since Matthew wrote with an agenda to show that Jesus was the Messiah of the Jews, and since he takes some other events out of their chronological order, I'm going to suggest that Luke has the right order. It really doesn't matter. My thinking is that Satan was fed up with hearing "It is written," so he quoted Scripture to Jesus to lure Him into putting God to the test. Ironically, Satan was the one who was putting God to the test.
Between the temptation and Jesus' visit to Nazareth come John chapters1-4. A lot of relationship formed between Jesus and the disciples during this time.
Luke 4:16-30
Vs. 18-19 This is also what his disciples, today, are supposed to do.
To me, it is amazing that some people today present Jesus as a vague teacher with a hidden, indistinct message. Boy, the people in Nazareth sure got the point. Obviously, Jesus touched on their spiritual blindness and their Jewish nationalism, but the change in "temperature" was immediate. I remember hearing Bill Hybels say that if you preach self esteem at church, it's 85 and sunny. If you preach discipleship, it's 32 and falling. Even among Bible-thumping Christians, if the message is too oriented toward the Great Commission and discipleship, you quickly see who is self righteous and anchored in their definition of following Jesus in their "rightness," and who is humbly willing to forsake all and follow their savior into the harvest. One person becomes your critic and the other becomes a disciple of Jesus.
Psalm 63
This is another of these Psalms, where, except for the last 3 verses, this is the crying out of my heart for the day.
Proverbs 11:20-21
We value things like being street smart and able to figure stuff out. What about Christians who are just naïve, who really don't get it all, who are just blameless and innocent before God? We usually see them as prey, as somebody's lunch, and we roll our eyes and laugh at their dumbness.
I think of Forrest Gump. But God loves the Christian Forrest Gumps who are dumb and blameless before Him. Or, doesn't it irritate you when you're driving a long stretch of city traffic with "thousands" of traffic lights. You drive like crazy, weaving in and out of lanes trying to make a light, trying to be wise and crafty. But somewhere, miles ago, you passed this old guy or old woman, driving under the speed limit, just moving along. "Ha, Ha! Left him in the dust. The dummy doesn't know he needs to drive faster, smarter, like me." By the time you get to your destination, you're sweaty, you've given yourself another ulcer and you've made several enemies. As you pull into the parking lot you notice that the old dude just passed you. Not only did you not save 30 seconds with all your traffic gymnastics, but guess who God delighted in.
If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.”
I'm writing these comments to and for those who are following a One Year Bible and interested in growing deeper as a disciple, following Jesus in the harvest. My hope is to see the growth of a discipleship culture in the church. Groups of 3-4 disciples, meeting weekly, encouraging each other to follow Christ and work to reach out and make disciples who make disciples. The Bible itself is the most universal manual we have and key to our growth and service in Christ. Nothing keeps us more focused on why we are here or what we are to be doing. My comments are only meant to provide some explanation of the events or to show the flow of God's plan of redemption. My comments are in no way exhaustive, but are designed to keep us focused on Christ and our role in His harvest. My hope is that the people in these groups will grow in Christ and be willing, after a year, to find 3 others to meet with and encourage in their growth as disciples, disciples making disciples in the harvest.
If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.
I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible; in fact, I read something you don't, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.
Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and is encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.
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