Holy War or Human Error? Reassessing the Commands of Moses in Numbers 31

Reading Numbers 31 through a symbolic and metaphysical perspective—particularly in light of Neville Goddard’s teachings—shifts the focus away from literal violence. Instead, it reveals a profound internal drama: the battle between the disciplined imagination and the beliefs, assumptions, and emotions that oppose it.

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Context

In Numbers 31, Moses commands the Israelites to take vengeance on the Midianites for seducing them into idolatry. After the battle, the soldiers return with captives. Moses becomes furious that they have spared the women, and orders the execution of all males and non-virgin females—only the virgin girls are to be kept alive.

Taken literally, this passage is deeply troubling. But when approached symbolically—acknowledging the structural language in which the Bible presents itself—it portrays the inner warfare required to uphold a chosen assumption and maintain dominion over the creative power of imagination

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Symbolic Interpretation through the Law of Assumption

1. The Midianites: Foreign Assumptions and Divided Attention

The Midianites represent confusion, distraction, and foreign desire—states of consciousness that tempt the imagination to drift away from a clearly held assumption. In Numbers 25, the seduction into Baal worship symbolises the imagination being pulled into outer evidence rather than staying loyal to the inner conviction of the wish fulfilled.

In Goddard’s terms, this is the fatal moment when you “look to the facts” instead of remaining faithful to your inner assumption.

2. The War: The Inner Battle to Uphold Assumption

This is no ordinary war. Symbolically, it portrays the inner purging of beliefs and emotional attachments that contradict the assumption of your desired state.

• Killing the males: Male figures often stand for active, conscious thoughts. The Midianite males are unwanted inner dialogues—doubts, reasoning, and reactive thoughts that oppose your assumption. These must be decisively silenced.

• Killing non-virgin women: Women symbolise emotional and subconscious receptivity. The non-virgins represent subconscious patterns already joined to false narratives—assumptions based on past conditioning or external authority.

In the language of imagination, they are feelings and reactions that have already been impregnated by the wrong assumption and must be released.

• Sparing the virgins: The virgins symbolise unconditioned, pure potential within the subconscious—receptive states that are still open and untouched by false assumptions. These spaces are crucial for impressing the truth of the desired reality.

3. Moses’ Anger: The Demand for Fidelity to the Inner State

Moses here is the inner discipline—the law of consciousness—which demands radical faithfulness to the assumption. His anger is not cruelty, but the uncompromising requirement that nothing in the psyche opposes the imaginal act. To “assume the wish fulfilled” is to refuse compromise with conflicting states.

4. Spoils of War: Redeemed Creative Energy

The gold and silver symbolise psychic energy once squandered on fear, doubt, and reactivity. Once these patterns are purged, the energy returns to divine use—fuel for the new, assumed state. What was once in service of fragmentation now enriches the unified self.

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In Summary

Far from a tale of literal vengeance, Numbers 31 becomes a striking portrait of spiritual focus and imaginative discipline:

• It speaks to the necessity of rooting out every thought and emotion that contradicts your assumed state.

• It reminds us that only those parts of the subconscious not already married to external appearances can receive and support your chosen reality.

• It shows that the Law of Assumption must be guarded—not passively, but with the full force of inner clarity and commitment.

This is the sacred inner war: the battle to protect the imagination, remain loyal to the unseen, and reject all that would seduce us back into doubt.