Hermeneutics – Page 5 – Michelle Lesley

Going Beyond Scripture: Why It’s Time to Say Good-Bye to Priscilla Shirer and Going Beyond Ministries

September 18, 2015February 27, 2025 Michelle Lesley

If you are considering commenting or sending me an e-mail objecting to the fact that I warn against false teachers, please click here and read this article first. Your objection is most likely answered here. I won’t be publishing comments or answering emails that are answered by this article.

This article is kept continuously updated as needed.

Priscilla Shirer is a wife and mom of three boys hailing from the Dallas area. Though you may have become acquainted with her over the last several years from her roles in the movies Overcomer and War Room, she has been writing women’s Bible studies and has been a popular speaker at women’s conferences and other events for many years. Together with her husband, Jerry, she heads up Going Beyond Ministries.

When I participated in Priscilla’s DVD study He Speaks to Me several years ago, I found her to be an engaging writer, a witty storyteller, and charismatic speaker. Priscilla’s friendliness and genuine care for Christian women seem to shine through every word she speaks and writes. And to top that all off, she’s beautiful and sharp as a tack. It’s very easy to think of Priscilla and think, “What’s not to love?”

Which is why it grieves me to have to answer that question with: “Her theology.” Unfortunately, there are serious red flags about some of the things Priscilla does and teaches that Christian women who follow her, or are considering following her, need to be made aware of. And because of those issues, I deeply regret that I am not able to recommend her as I would like to. Should she repent in these areas in which she has broken Scripture and align herself with biblical principles, she would have no bigger fan than I, and I would rejoice to be able to point Christian women to her as a doctrinally sound resource.

Until that time, however, it saddens me to have to recommend that Christian women not follow Priscilla Shirer or any materials or activities from Going Beyond Ministries for the following reasons:

Preaching to Men

Priscilla unrepentantly preaches to and instructs men in the Scriptures in violation of 1 Timothy 2:12-14 (as well as other passages of Scripture that do not allow this). If you have followed me for any length of time, you have seen me raise this issue repeatedly regarding female Bible teachers and speakers. Yes, it’s a big deal and, yes, I will continue to teach and write about it. There are two crucial reasons for this.

First, this is a sin. I am finding that more and more Christians have to be told this. When the Bible says not to do something and you do it anyway, that’s a sin. And the Bible says that women are not to preach to or instruct men, or to hold authority over men in the gathered body of Believers, the church. Though the consequences of the sin of instructing men may not appear to be severe, it is just as much of a sin as any other sin you can think of: adultery, lying, stealing, drunkenness, and so on. If you wouldn’t follow a male pastor or Bible teacher who was open and unrepentant about committing adultery or shoplifting or getting plowed every weekend, why would you follow any female Bible teacher who preaches to and instructs men?

Second, almost without exception, every female Bible teacher I know of who unrepentantly instructs men also teaches other doctrinal error (usually Word of Faith, New Apostolic Reformation or seeker driven false doctrine). So instructing men is a red flag to watch for if you’re looking for a doctrinally sound teacher.

If a woman is supposedly knowledgeable enough about the Bible to be in the position of teaching and authoring, yet doesn’t understand or obey such a basic biblical truth, what does that say about the rest of her knowledge of the Bible? How can you trust that anything else she teaches you about the Bible is accurate and true?

Partnering with False Teachers

Priscilla partners and associates with false teachers such as Joyce Meyer, Christine Caine, Joel and Victoria Osteen, Beth Moore, and T.D. and Serita Jakes (see below). All of these people are proponents of the false and anti-biblical Word of Faith (prosperity gospel) doctrine, and the Jakeses are also modalists. Paul is quite clear that people who preach “another gospel” are “accursed”, or damned, and that we are not to partner with them. John says virtually the same thing, and adds that to partner with false teachers is to take part in their wicked works. Again, when the Bible says not to do something, and a person does it anyway, this is sin.

On October 16, 2016, Priscilla and her husband, children, and mother were in attendance at T.D. Jakes’ “church,” The Potter’s House, where, during a God’s Leading Ladies graduation ceremony, Priscilla accepted the “Lady of Destiny” award. As you can see, she has warm words of praise and admiration for Serita Jakes (T.D.’s wife).

Here’s Priscilla speaking at a women’s conference at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood “Church”. (It’s hard to see in the quick audience pans, but there are also a few men visible here and there.) :

Priscilla Shirer: Your Spiritual Assignment (Full Teaching) | Praise on TBN (August 6, 2021)

Unbiblical Teaching

Priscilla teaches Christians to “listen for God’s voice” in an unbiblical form of “prayer” called contemplative prayer. Combining elements of Eastern mysticism and New Age spirituality, this practice of emptying the mind and listening for God’s voice is found nowhere in Scripture. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He taught them:

Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Matthew 6:9-13.

No mention of sitting in silence or listening here nor in any of the other passages in which the Bible teaches about prayer. Jesus taught us the way He wanted us to pray. Priscilla teaches something different.

Priscilla often uses poor hermeneutics when handling God’s word. Looking back over my copy of He Speaks to Me, and sifting through numerous videos of her teaching, it’s clear that her method of teaching is mainly eisegesis. She begins most lessons with a story or personal experience, uses these stories to formulate her own spiritual principles, and then adds in a smattering of Bible verses (often out of context) to support her ideas. Priscilla has also admitted in her book Discerning the Voice of God, p.39, that she reads herself into Scripture, an unbiblical practice sometimes called “narcissistic eisegesis” or “narcigesis”.

The proper method of teaching Scripture is exegesis. Exegesis is taking a passage of Scripture in context, and “leading out” of it- teaching what the passage means.

One example that best showcases Priscilla’s penchant for eisegesis and poor hermeneutics can be found in this promotional video for her study, One in a Million:

0:46- This same God was supposed to be speaking to me, teaching to me, making Himself relevant to me…in the regular rhythms of my everyday living…

Where does the Bible teach this? It doesn’t. God speaks to us and teaches us through the careful study and preaching of His word, not through subjective voices, feelings, and experiences in the “rhythms of everyday living” (what, precisely, does that phrase even mean?) Where does Priscilla get the idea that God is “supposed” to be speaking in these ways? Not from Scripture.

1:37- When these believers…who had experienced different things about God became part of my life, my eyes were opened to see God in a brand new way.

These “believers from different denominations” Priscilla references who rattled her “theological box” may have been part of Priscilla’s initial exposure to false Word of Faith teaching and false teachers such as the aforementioned Meyer, Caine, and Osteens.

Notice the emphasis around the 1:37 mark on people’s personal experiences (praying for miracles, etc.) rather than on the Bible. We do not build doctrine or what we believe about God on people’s subjective experiences. What we believe about God must come from Scripture alone. Personal experiences can be evidence of the truth of rightly handled and understood Scripture, but not vice versa.

2:57- Do you know that of the original two million Jewish people only two actually ever made it? (This is where the video above ends. The original promo video I used for this article has been deleted, {so I replaced it with the one above}, but in the original video, Priscilla goes on to say…) That’s one in a million. Well, man, if there’s only going to be a handful of people experiencing what we’ve learned on the pew…then I want one of those to be me.”

The story of Joshua and Caleb being the only ones to enter the Promised Land has absolutely no connection whatsoever with how many Christians today will be able to achieve intimacy with God. None. The Bible doesn’t say anywhere that because only two people out of two million entered the Promised Land that only “a handful of people” will be able to “experience” (there’s that word again) “what we’ve learned on the pew.”

Furthermore (since Priscilla looks to tangible experiences and anecdotal evidence as support for her ideas), both anecdotal church history and the experiences of Christians who are alive today prove this idea to be false. Untold millions of Christians over the last two thousand years have studied God’s word, grown close to Him, matured in their faith, and walked faithfully with Him throughout their lives. God doesn’t limit to a select few the number of Christians who are able to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus the way He limited entrance to the Promised Land. In fact, the Bible says the opposite. It is God’s plan for every Christian to grow to spiritual maturity and intimacy with Him.

But growth to spiritual maturity through the study of God’s word and faithful obedience to Him isn’t what Priscilla is offering through this study. Instead, she is dangling in front of Christian women an emotionally appealing and unbiblical carrot of miraculous and unique personal experiences with God instead of teaching them to properly study their Bibles and rely on Scripture alone for their doctrine and practices.

Though there are others, these are the major doctrinal errors in this video, which is less than four minutes of teaching from Priscilla.

1 Corinthians 4:6 says:

I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.

It is a sad irony that Priscilla Shirer opted to name her ministry “Going Beyond,” because this is exactly what she is choosing to do right now. She goes beyond what is written in teaching men, in partnering with false teachers, in teaching unbiblical prayer practices, and in using improper hermeneutics. Therefore, it is my recommendation that women not follow, support, or receive teaching from Priscilla Shirer or Going Beyond Ministries at this time.

Additional Resources:

Disclaimer: The specific links below are provided and endorsed as evidence pertaining to this article only. I do not endorse any of these sites in so far as any of them might deviate from Scripture or conflict with my beliefs as outlined in the “Welcome” or “Statement of Faith” tabs at the top of this page.

Preaching to Men:

These are just a few of the dozens of examples available on YouTube and elsewhere of Priscilla Shirer preaching to men. If you need more examples, simply go to YouTube and type “Priscilla Shirer sermon” into the search bar.

Going Beyond Ministries with Priscilla Shirer – The Mercy of Our Great God (March 24, 2017) Priscilla preaches the Sunday sermon at Celebration Church (co-“pastored” by a woman)

Priscilla Shirer: YOUR Spiritual Battle & the Armor of God (Full Teaching) | Praise on TBN (May 21, 2021) Priscilla preaching to a co-ed audience at Passion 2018

Special Guest Priscilla Shirer (October 11, 2015) Priscilla preaches the Sunday sermon at The Refuge Church (co-“pastored” by a woman)

What Are You Looking At | Priscilla Shirer | Hillsong East Coast (October 4, 2020) Priscilla preaches the Sunday sermon for Hillsong East Coast

Women Teachers? Kay Arthur, Beth Moore, and Priscilla Shirer Believe In Teaching Men Too at Surph’s Side

Partnering with False Teachers:

If you’re not familiar with the false teachers cited below, click the Popular False Teachers and Unbiblical Trends tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page.

What Are You Looking At | Priscilla Shirer | Hillsong East Coast (October 4, 2020) Priscilla preaches the Sunday sermon for Hillsong East Coast

Priscilla Shirer: Living Your Life For Christ (Full Teaching) | Praise on TBN (February 18, 2021) Priscilla speaks at Christine Caine’s Propel Women’s Conference

Pink Impact Conference Priscilla joined with faith healing “apostle” of the New Apostolic Reformation, Todd White, as well as false teachers Christine Caine, Lisa Harper, and “Pastor” Debbie Morris.

Love Your Life 2018 (March 20, 2019) with Victoria Osteen and Terri Savelle Foy

Know Your God | Joyce Meyer and Priscilla Shirer (In this clip, Priscilla also gushes over Henry Blackaby who mishandles Scripture and teaches a form of mysticism.)

The Treasure You Already Are | Priscilla Shirer | [at Joyce Meyer’s] Love Life Women’s Conference 2013

Priscilla Shirer Talks Women and the Church, Moving From the Pew to the Pavement and Why Christine Caine Is at the Top of Her List at the Christian Post

Priscilla Shirer recommends Joyce Meyer, Ann Voskamp, Beth Moore, Jen Hatmaker, Jennie Allen, etc., “Bible” studies on her blog at Going Beyond

Priscilla Shirer speaks at Joyce Meyer’s women’s conference alongside false teachers Joyce Meyer, Lisa Harper, and Sarah Jakes Roberts (T.D. Jakes’ daughter)

Priscilla Shirer’s promo page at Hillsong

Meet Christine Caine at Going Beyond

Priscilla Shirer, featured speaker at Hillsong’s 2016 Colour Conference with Brian Houston, Bobbie Houston, and Christine Caine

Stay the Path (book) Promo Priscilla endorses Bobbie Houston’s book.

Unbiblical Teaching:

Priscilla Shirer on Hearing the Voice of God on Issues, Etc. – Pastor Chris Rosebrough explains why Priscilla’s twisting of John 10 to mean that we can hear God speak to us is unbiblical.

The False Teaching of Priscilla Shirer on the Here I Stand Theology Podcast

Is Priscilla Shirer a Sound Exegete? on Fighting for the Faith

True Woman Conference Speaker Priscilla Shirer Hears God’s Still, Small Voice at Apprising Ministries

Priscilla Shirer and Contemplative/Centering Prayer at Apprising Ministries

He Speaks to Me (April 24, 2008) promo video by Priscilla Shirer

War Room’s Priscilla Shirer’s Contemplative History, and Why It Matters at Berean Research

Review of Priscilla Shirer’s Sermon: “The Multitude” by Chris Rosebrough

Priscilla Shirer- Mystic by David Sheldon

Priscilla Shirer: Out Of The Closet At The Alpha Leadership Conference 2017 at Emergent Watch

Priscilla Shirer at Fighting for the Faith

Fervent Warning on Priscilla Shirer at Christian Answers for the New Age

War Room Reviews and Critiques

Why I do not recommend Kendrick Brothers’ new movie, “War Room”, part 2 at The End Time

War Room: A Review by Justin Peters at Worldview Weekend

War Room- A Review at Hip and Thigh

Stand Firm: A Review of War Room at Satisfaction Through Christ

Christian women, Guest Posts, Parenting

Avoiding the Creepers: Six Ways to Raise a Biblically Strong Woman

May 15, 2015March 20, 2021 Michelle Lesley

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
2 Timothy 3:1-7

If someone were to ask you, “What kind of person do you want to raise your daughter to be?” how would you answer? Caring? Independent? Loyal? Kind?

I’m betting none of us would answer “weak,” “burdened with sins,” “easily led astray by her passions,” or “unable to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” Yet in these last days in which we find ourselves, that’s exactly what many good-hearted Christian mothers with nothing but the best of intentions are raising their daughters to be. It’s not that they want their daughters to grow up to be spiritually weak or led astray by sin or unbiblical teaching, it’s just that they lack the skills and tools necessary for properly training their daughters in the Scriptures and godliness.

Maybe you’re one of those moms. You want to train your daughter to be a wise, godly, discerning woman, but you’re not quite sure how. Hey, we all have those areas of our lives that we need a little help with. As an older mom myself, maybe I can lend a hand.

My daughter is almost twenty, and while she’s nowhere near perfect, by the grace of God, she is a godly young lady. Looking back, there are many things my husband and I did wrong as parents. But God, in His mercy, covered our failures and saw all of us through as He taught us through His word how to raise a biblically strong woman.

6 Ways to Raise a Biblically Strong Woman

1. Set an example.

Our daughters learn by watching us. Faithfully study your Bible, pray, attend church, obey God’s word, submit to your husband, repent and ask forgiveness when you sin, and serve others and your church together.

2. Learn, and teach your daughter, good hermeneutics.

Hermeneutics is just a fancy word for rightly handling God’s word. Use a reliable Bible translation. Understand Scripture in its immediate and overall context. What was the author’s intended meaning, his audience, genre, and culture? Point your daughter to Christ as you study God’s word together.

3. Find a doctrinally sound church, join it, and attend faithfully as a family.

Study God’s word and compare everything that’s preached and taught to Scripture (in context). Does your church’s teaching line up? Then be committed to attending every single week, not just when you feel like it or when there’s nothing better to do. Instill in your daughter a love for, and a commitment to, the church.

4. Fight the fluff.

Unfortunately, many of the most popular preachers, teachers, and Christian authors (including women’s Bible study authors) teach and write things that may sound good and make us feel good, but are in direct conflict with Scripture. These are the very people Paul was speaking of in 2 Timothy 3. Teach your daughter to follow only trustworthy teachers whose theology is in line with Scripture.

5. Bring prayer and Scripture into every situation.

She can’t find her favorite doll? Kids picking on her at school? She wants to wear clothes that barely cover her? Discuss what the Bible say about these things. Pray together about them. Lead your daughter into prayer and Scripture as part of daily life, and it will teach her that God is to have authority over every aspect of our lives and that we are to obey Him in all things.

6. Teach her how to share the gospel.

If you’re not sure how to properly present the gospel to someone, learn. You can’t lead your daughter to Christ if you can’t share the gospel with her. If your daughter is already saved, make sure she knows how to share the gospel correctly. The Great Commission was the last instruction Christ gave us before leaving earth, and we are all to be about the business of carrying it out until He returns.

The 2 Timothy passage at the beginning of this article is our commission to guard our households against ungodly ways and people – even those who may falsely call themselves Christians – who might creep in and steal our daughters’ hearts and minds away from Christ. He has charged us to train them in godliness, and we must faithfully answer His call to raise wise, discerning, and biblically strong women of God.

What advice would you offer moms who want to raise
biblically strong women?

This article was originally published at Kaylene Yoder’s Blog.

And for all you boy moms, be sure to check out…

Six Ways to Raise a Godly Man

Wednesday's Word

Wednesday’s Word ~ Numbers 25

April 15, 2015April 14, 2015 Michelle Lesley

Numbers 25

While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. 2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. 4 And the Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” 5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”

6 And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand 8 and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. 9 Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

10 And the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. 12 Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, 13 and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”

14 The name of the slain man of Israel, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, chief of a father’s house belonging to the Simeonites. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, who was the tribal head of a father’s house in Midian.

16 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “Harass the Midianites and strike them down, 18 for they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the chief of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague on account of Peor.”

Questions to Consider:

1. What verse 1 mean when it says, “the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab”?

2. Why was God angry with Israel (v.3)?

3. How does 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 relate to Numbers 25:1-5?

4. Why does God not want His people to fraternize with unbelievers?

5. Is this chapter a descriptive or a prescriptive passage? How can we know that this passsage is not telling us it is all right for Christians to kill idol worshipers today?

Bible Study, Book Reviews

Blog Swap ~ “Women of the Word”- A Book Review

April 7, 2015April 18, 2019 Michelle Lesley

It’s time for another awesome blog swap! Blog swaps give me the opportunity to share other talented bloggers with you, plus offer you fresh content that’s a great supplement to our regular fare here. If you’d like to do a swap, click on the link above for more information.

Today, I’m excited to be swapping with a new blogger, Michele, of Living Our Days. Michele is a wife, mom, and grandmother. When she’s not home schooling or working in her garden, she is reading tons – and I mean tons – of books, which she writes helpful reviews of. Living Our Days also includes a great variety of Michele’s poetry, Christian Living articles, and helpful material for her ladies’ Sunday School class, which is currently studying the book of Nehemiah.

I was so glad to read Michele’s insightful review of Jen Wilkins’ excellent book, Women of the Word. I have recommended it many times to women who long to rightly divide God’s word but aren’t quite sure how to do so.

“I can’t recall the last time I devoured a book in one evening, but that’s what happened with Women of the Word. I’m sure the reason is Jen Wilkin’s laser focus on the topics that (after my family) are most important to me — knowing the Bible and teaching the Bible. I found the book to be immediately relevant and useful, not only in my teaching ministry, but also in my personal study.”

Want to learn how to be a better student of God’s word? Hop on over to Living Our Days and check out Michele’s article, Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin: A Book Review, and then head over to Amazon and get yourself a copy!

Have you read Women of the Word?
What did you think of it?

Blog Swap Disclaimer: Christian bloggers who participate in Blog Swaps have submitted an acceptable statement of faith to me. Although I do my best to thoroughly vet the theology of the bloggers I swap with, it is always possible for things to slip through the cracks. Please make sure any blogger you follow, including me, rightly and faithfully handles God’s word and holds to sound biblical doctrine.

Apologetics, Idolatry, Justice, Old Testament, Sunday School, Tough Passages

Tackling Tough Issues: Genocide in the Old Testament ~ Sunday School Lesson ~ 3-9-14

March 9, 2014April 5, 2019 Michelle Lesley

These are my notes from my ladies’ Sunday School class this morning. I’ll be posting the notes from my class here each week. Click here for last week’s lesson.

Through the Bible in 2014 ~ Week 10 ~ Mar. 2-8
Numbers 16-32
Tackling Tough Issues: Genocide in the Old Testament

Genocide: It’s defined (by dictionary.com) as, “the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.” This week in our reading, we dealt with a passage in which God commanded the Israelites to kill nearly all of the Midianites, even those we might consider “innocent.” Was God being cruel or capricious? How could a loving God command such a thing?

Numbers 31:1-18
This is the first time (but won’t be the only time) we’ve seen God command Israel to wipe out a certain nation or people group. How do we make sense of this?

1. Hermeneutics principle: Clear passages interpret unclear passages. (2 Timothy 2:15)
Simply put, biblical hermeneutics is the proper application of 2 Timothy 2:15- a systematic and careful way of diligently studying God’s word so as to rightly understand and handle it. One of the principles of hermeneutics is that when you have a passage that’s confusing or could possibly be interpreted in more than one way, you dig into other biblical passages that address the same issue, but more clearly. In Numbers 31 we see a situation that is confusing because it seems like God is being cruel or unfair. We need to take a look at some clearer passages to help us understand this one.

2. What do we know about the nature and character of God?
On the surface of this passage, God seems to be acting in a way that goes against what we know about Him from the rest of the Bible. That thought itself tells us that the rest of the Bible describes God in certain ways, and that “cruel” and “unfair” are not among those certain ways. We also know that, because God is perfect, He never goes against His own character. How does the Bible describe God?

God is good. (Psalm 100:5)
Some people go so far as to declare that (because God has commanded genocide) God is evil. But God’s word clearly states in many places that He is good.

God is love. (1 John 4:8)
As parents, it’s easy to understand that there are many different ways our love for our children plays out. We smile and hug our children to express our joy in them. We cuddle and comfort them when they’re hurt. We play and celebrate with them. We sacrificially provide for them. But we also love them in “tough” ways sometimes. We discipline them when they’ve disobeyed. We yank them out of harm’s way to protect them. We take them for vaccinations to prevent them from getting sick. We lock the doors to keep bad guys from getting to them. God’s love for us is similar. He loves His children in many ways, some of them, “tough love” ways.

God is patient. (Romans 2:4, 1 Peter 3:20, Psalm 103:14)
God made people, so He understands that we are “dust,” weak, and completely vulnerable to sin. He extends patience and kindness to people over and over again to lead them to repentance and faith in Him. He exhibits patience for a very long time before He executes judgment.

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. (Ezekiel 18:23,32, 2 Peter 3:9)
Going back to the parent/child analogy, no good parent gets joy out of punishing her children. We would much rather the child obey so that we can be at peace with each other, love them in the “non-tough” ways, and because obedience is what’s best for the child. God’s love for people is infinitely deeper than our love for our children. He never wants to punish people for their sin, but rather wants them to repent and turn to Him. He has even mercifully provided us a way to be rescued from the punishment for our sin: He punished His own Son on the cross in our place! God is patient with disobedience and rebellion, but eventually, as any good parent would, He has to punish it.

God is just. (Genesis 18:25, 1 Peter 2:23)
God is the only completely just judge because of His omnipresence (He’s present everywhere, always) and His omniscience (all knowingness). He sees every action, even those where there is no other witness, and He knows every secret motive and intent of the heart. Because of this, all of His “verdicts” are always right.

3. How do these character traits fit in with and explain God’s command to destroy most of the Midianites?

Genocide is evil. Doesn’t that make God evil? (Deuteronomy 32:39)
No. Genocide is evil when unjust, sinful men take it upon themselves to kill people for evil and selfish reasons. God is, by definition, good, so if He initiates the judgment of genocide, it cannot be evil. As mentioned above, He is abundantly patient before He exercises judgment, and, due to His omniscience and omnipotence, His verdicts are always just. Therefore, when God uses genocide, it is not evil, nor is He.

What had the Midianites done to be worthy of God’s judgment? (Numbers 31:16, 22:6-7, Revelation 2:14, Isaiah 14:12-15)

Note the locations of Midian, Moab, and Shittim.

Note– 31:3 makes clear this is God’s judgment on Midian, not Israel deciding on its own to annihilate them. God used Israel to carry out his sentence of judgment.

King Balak of Moab and the leaders of Midian conspired to pay Balaam to curse Israel (22:6-7). When Balaam couldn’t curse them, he instructed Balak to entice Israel into idolatry instead (Rev. 2:14).

Moab and Midian worshiped Baal. According to mythology, Baal was son of the chief god, El, but rose to power above El, who was considered weak and impotent. (This is very similar to the story we read in Isaiah about how Satan fell.) Baal was a fertility god, so “worship” consisted of sexual perversion including prostitution, and, often, the sacrifice of the first born son. The religion of Baal took everything good and holy from God’s story (God’s name- El-elyon, El-shaddai, Satan’s attempt to overthrow God, Satan’s contempt for God, and God’s sacrifice of His firstborn Son) and turned it inside out for Satan’s glory. This is what the Midianites were strategically drawing Israel into so that they could either defeat them or turn them into allies.

God showed His goodness by deciding to put an end to evil. He showed His love for Israel by protecting them from both Midian’s schemes and from idolatry and its consequences. God showed His justice by punishing the rebellion of Midian.

Why didn’t God just warn Midian and Israel to stop their evil ways? (Numbers 25, Exodus 20:2-6, Leviticus 26:30, Deuteronomy 4:3)
He did. And, he started with Israel, not Midian. Israel knew better. God had repeatedly told them idolatry was a gross sin (1^st and 2^nd Commandment) and that it was punishable by death (Lev. 26:30). He had all the Israelite chiefs impaled who had led the people into idolatry. He sent a plague that destroyed the 24,000 people who had bowed the knee to Baal. And, He showed, graphically, through Phinehas that God would not tolerate Israel joining itself to Midian. Finally, he gave the Midianites a taste of what was to come when He had Israel attack (but not annihilate) them at the end of chapter 25.

God would have much preferred both Israel and Midian repent of their idolatry than to put any of them to death here or in chapter 31. He was patient with them and continued to let them live and experience common grace in order that they might repent and turn to Him.

Why did God command Israel to kill “innocent” women and children? (Psalm 51:1, Romans 3:10, 6:23, Samuel 12:22-23)
Note– Those women and children were not innocent. Every human is born in sin and rebellion against God.

The married women would have been adults, just as responsible for their sin of idolatry as the adult males who were killed. Had they been permitted to live, they would have continued to train their children in the ways of Baal worship, and the problem would have remained.

Though the male children may have suffered for a moment, we believe that they are in Heaven with Christ. Had they lived, they would have grown up (trained by their mothers) to be Baal worshipers, and as heads of their households, would have re-instituted Baal worship in Midian. Midian would have remained a threat (even more so because of the desire for revenge on Israel) militarily and in tempting Israel to idolatry.

The unmarried, young girls were allowed to live and marry Israelite men (even though they, too, were supposed to have been killed 31:15) because they would have had to conform to their husbands’ religion, the worship of Yahweh.

God showed His goodness in protecting the Israelites from Midian, in taking the male children to Heaven, and in sparing the young girls and allowing them to come to know Him through their marriage into Israel.

God’s exercising genocide on a people is a difficult issue to come to terms with. And, if it’s difficult for us, we can only imagine how difficult it must be for God. He created these people. He loves them and desires to save them so much that He sent His Son to rescue them from His wrath. Genocide is not a flippant decision by a God who kills people casually, but a heart rending last resort for putting an end to evil so rampant that the people will not turn back from it.

Additional Resources:
What is Biblical Hermeneutics? by GotQuestions.org

Who Was Baal? by GotQuestions.org