AM Bible Study Group; September 8, 2010
Numbers 25:1-18
Theme: This chapter describes the way that the people of Moab enticed the people of Israel away from God through lust.
Chapters 22-24 told us of how the attempt of the Moabite king to curse Israel through Balaam failed. But what Balaam failed to do through cursing, he accomplished through scheming. Here, we read of what the Bible tells us, in Revelation 2:14, was “the doctrine of Balaam” by which “he put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality”.
I. THE SIN INTO WHICH ISRAEL FELL (vv. 1-3).
A. It may be that the people of Israel had come to feel a false sense of secure in their standing before God, after having seeing the hand of God on them for the past forty years, and perhaps even knowing of how God had turned Balaam’s curse into a blessing. But times of blessedness can often—if we’re not careful—give way to times of disobedience. The worship around the golden calf in Exodus 32 followed after the the lawgiving at Sinai in Exodus 20-31. The disobedience of the two sons of Aaron in Leviticus 10 came after the anointing of the priesthood in Leviticus 8. David’s sin with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 12 came after the promise of the Messiah in 2 Samuel 7. The blessings of God one day do not exempt someone from the hazard of falling into sin the next day. (But note too that this dreadful event may have been used by God to impact the people of Israel with a sense of the dreadful seriousness of sin before they entered a land in which such sins were rampant.)
B. The people of Israel were encamped at Acacia Grove (i.e., Shittim)—perhaps very near to where the curses of Balaam were turned into a blessing. But it was there that the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. This was a tactic apparently devised by Balaam (see Numbers 31:16).
C. The sin of harlotry led to the sin of idolatry. The sexual relations with the women led the people to be more inclined to join in with their cultural paganism until—before long—it could be said that they were joined to Baal. R.K. Harrison writes that “Canaanite religion was doubtless the most depraved and morally corrupt of any cultic system the world has ever known” Numbers: An Exegetical Commentary [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1992], p. 335); and that its deities were “venerated by means of the most sensuous, orgiastic practices known to humanity” (p. 336). God’s chosen people thus joined themselves to the unspeakably depraved practices of the worship of the false gods of the Moabites; and provoked the holy anger of God.
II. THE PUNISHMENT THEY SUFFERED (vv. 4-5).
A. The Lord commanded Moses that the offenders among the leaders of the people—who should have prevented the people from doing this—be put to death for this by being hanged (see Deuteronomy 21:22-23; Joshua 10:26-27). This was so that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away. We note in verse 5 that only those who had joined to Baal was put to death. This would indicate that the leaders of the people that God commanded to be hanged were among those who had also joined themselves to Baal.
B. Note too that, along with this, God had permitted a plague to come upon the people. 24,000 people had died. (1 Corinthians 10:8 mentions this; and says that, in one day 23,000 died. It may be that the figure of 24,000 is the sum total of all who died.) No doubt, this was a part of why the people were weeping before the door of the tabernacle in verse 6.
III. THE ZEAL OF PHINEHAS (vv. 6-9).
A. In an act of dreadful arrogance, one of the leaders among the people named Zimri (v. 14) brought a Midianite woman named Cozbi (v. 15) before the people and openly brought her into a tent in order to have relations with her. This was actually done while the people were weeping over the judgment of God. Note that the woman was a Midianite rather than a Moabite. This was because there was an alliance of some kind that had already been formed between the people of Moab and the people of Midian (see 22:4, 7).
B. It was then that the grandson of Aaron—Phinehas by name—rose up, took a javelin in hand, and thrust them both through. The language used suggests that this occurred while the man and woman were in sexual relations with one another so that they were both pierced through at once. This act stopped the plague; and was commemorated in the words of Psalm 106:28-31: “They joined themselves also to Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices made to the dead. Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds, and the plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stopped. And that was accounted to him for righteousness to all generations forevermore.”
IV. THE COMMENDATION FROM THE LORD (vv. 10-13).
A. The Lord commended Phinehas’ act as an act of atonement. The word used for “atonement” (k?par) means “to atone by offering a substitute” (Harrison, p. 339). Phinehas’ action as a priest involved the fact that he was a representative to the people of a holy God; and as someone used by God to provide the removal of that which offended God’s holiness (see Numbers 16:46; also Leviticus 1:4; 4:20; 5:16).
B. The reward for his act of zeal for the holiness of the Lord was the covenant of an everlasting priesthood to him and his descendants.
V. THE CONDEMNATION OF THE SCHEMERS (vv. 14-18).
A. We’re given something of the pedigree of the Israelite man and the Mideanite woman. This may indicate that, because both are described as having some sort of leadership standing among their peoples, their act was intended to be a public testimony of the joining of the two people groups in union. We’re told in verse 18 that she was, in fact, the daughter of a leader of Midian.
B. God condemned the Moabites for their act on the people of Israel; and commanded that they be harassed for having harassed and seduced the Israelites (see Numbers 31:1-24; see also Judges 6-8 and Isaiah 9:4).
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We must beware of ‘the doctrine of Balaam’—the doctrine that leads us to think that, because we stand in God’s favor by grace, we can safely draw close to the sinful practices of this world provoke God’s wrath without harm to the condition of our own souls. Paul reminded the Corinthians of the trespass at Peor; and said, “Therefore let him to thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).