The children of Israel went to war against the Midianites and achieved near total destruction. The battle was so one sided that not one Israelite soldier was killed (Num. 31:49). Though they were commanded to slaughter everyone, the Israelites kept the women and children alive, and were punished with a plague (Num. 31:16).
What would certainly be a controversial order was then given by God. He wanted all the adult women and male children to be executed as well. The reason for this is given in Lev. 18:21-30. The Midianites, like their Moabite friends, were worshipers of Molech (Nimrod). They were people who threw babies into a fire as a tribute their wicked false god. No mercy was to be taken on such an evil people.
The tribes of Reuben and Gad decided that they did not want to go into the Promised Land with the rest of their brethren. They asked for land on the other side of the Jordan river. With some prodding from Moses, they agreed to fight with the rest of the Israelites and conquer the inhabitants of the Promised Land, so long as they could return to the land east of the Jordan. The LORD agreed to this arrangement.
Winston Churchill and T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) took this land of Gilead, also known as Transjordan, and gave it to the Muslims under the very controversial “Sykes-Picot Agreement” who occupy the region today.
Most of us are familiar with the famous “West Bank” territory that is currently occupied by Israel, but the United Nations believes the land should belong to the illegitimate Palestinians. God does not care what the U.N. wants, this territory was meant for the Israelites.
The Sykes Picot Agreement of 1916 that officially gave the region to the wrong people is a controversial arrangement that many people are unaware of. This agreement broke up the Ottoman Empire and created false borders of the Middle-Eastern countries we know today, under the ruse that the British and French would later agree to the instillation of a new caliphate called Greater Syria. We know that this did not happen.
What has happened, however, is that about 100 years later, a group called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) began to wage war in the area that should have become Greater Syria. One of their stated goals is to eradicate Sykes-Picot and form the Islamic caliphate that they were promised.
The reason why some say ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and some say ISIL, is because the “Levant” includes Israel. Those who oppose a caliphate usurping Israel say “ISIS.” Using “ISIL” legitimates the claims made by a terrorist group.
ISIS, the United Nations, the entire Middle-East, and the United States (at least over the past 25 years or so) are all attempting to shrink the Promised Land. There is a strong legal defense that Israel should be allowed to expand settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. There is also a decree from the LORD of all that the borders of Israel as it stands right now are too narrow.
Therefore, all negotiations to strip land away from Israel leads to disasters here in America (see my Notes on Numbers 23-25 for a list of natural disasters). The U.S. and U.N. constantly undermine the will of God Almighty. The West Bank, and additional territory currently known as the “Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan,” should belong to Israel.