Numbers Chapter 25: Israel Commits Harlotry; Phinehas Stays the Plague; and God Tells Moses to Strike the Midianites.
Numbers 25:1-18
Day 78. No change. No comment on the fact that there’s no change. Yesterday I was able to tell the Ontario Premier’s people that I was very disappointed in his extreme caution at the expense of the economy, suicide, and even domestic physical and other abuses. They appreciated my comments. Yeah, and Santa Claus loves the cookies you leave him on Christmas Eve. We press on. Chapter 25 of the book of Numbers is a shorter one, but also quite packed with surprises. Read on and thank you for the comments some of you are leaving.
The Passage
25 While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. 2 For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
3 So Israel joined themselves to [a]Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry against Israel. 4 The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them [b]in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” 5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you slay his men who have joined themselves to [c]Baal of Peor.”
6 Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his [d]relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, 8 and he went after the man of Israel into the [e]tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the [f]body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. 9 Those who died by the plague were 24,000.
10 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 11 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy.12 Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give him My covenant of peace; 13 and it shall be for him and his [g]descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel.’”
14 Now the name of the [h]slain man of Israel who was [i]slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father’s household among the Simeonites. 15 The name of the Midianite woman who was [j]slain was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, [k]who was head of the people of a father’s household in Midian.
16 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “Be hostile to the Midianites and strike them; 18 for they have been hostile to you with their tricks, with which they have deceived you in the affair of Peor and in the affair of Cozbi, the daughter of the leader of Midian, their sister who was slain on the day of the plague because of Peor.”
Footnotes
- Numbers 25:3 Or Baal-peor
- Numbers 25:4 Lit in front of the sun
- Numbers 25:5 Or Baal-peor
- Numbers 25:6 Lit brothers
- Numbers 25:8 Or inner rooms
- Numbers 25:8 Or belly
- Numbers 25:13 Lit seed
- Numbers 25:14 Lit smitten
- Numbers 25:14 Lit smitten
- Numbers 25:15 Lit smitten
- Numbers 25:15 Lit he
Thoughts on the Passage
In the previous chapter (24), we left the Israelites at Kittim or Shittim on the coast. And that’s where the Israelites got into trouble. They started playing the harlot or prostituting themselves with women of Moab. The Moabite women were inviting them to their sacrificial ceremonies for their idol gods, and there, the people ate and bowed down to their gods. Now the text does refer to Israelite ‘people’ (male & female) invited by the ‘daughters’ (female) of the Moabites, and it was the people (male & female) that bowed down to the heathen gods, in particular (verse 3) to Baal of Peor (the name of the mountain there). Most commentators, however, stick to the traditional thinking of harlotry – involving, in this case, the Israelite men and the Midianite women. It was the women who seduced the men to commit both sexual sin and idolatry, likely connected through perverse forms of idol worship, as was common in the ancient world.
Some Bible versions may also use the word ‘Moabites’ to describe the ‘Midianites’ and David Guzik says this may well be “because the Midianites were a nomadic group, and at this time, were in high numbers among the Moabites”.
And of course, God gets very angry with them. I mean really angry. In verse 4 he tells Moses to execute all the “leaders of the people” (that led this idolatry) before Him in broad daylight. And why? In order that God’s anger may subside. And Moses asks the ‘judges’ of Israel (the 70 elders), the leaders and wise men of each tribe, to slay those from their tribe that did indeed bow down to Baal. Guzik writes: “God thought it important that the offenders be judged openly; this was not sin to keep hidden. Open sin had to be dealt with openly.” What kind of sin are we committing? How are we being judged by God? Let’s be thankful that often His judgment is not public.
Now you can imagine someone who is “anti-God” to begin with reading this chapter and saying, “Who on earth wants to trust in a God like that?” And I wouldn’t blame them. But they’d need to know the whole story – both for the Israelites and what God did, was doing, and would do, for them – as well as what God did for us all through Jesus Christ. So, if you come across a person like that, ask them to consider the whole story of the Bible and then form their conclusions.
The story now takes a further most interesting turn. One Israelite man brings a Midianite woman to his relatives in the sight of Moses. Everybody apparently was weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting deploring the dreadful wickedness, supplicating the mercy of God to stop the plague that was killing the Israelites that God had allowed because of this harlotry.
So a young Levite, the grandson of Aaron, the first high priest, and son of Eleazar, the second high priest, arose before the congregation, and killed both the Israelite who brought the Midianite woman into the camp and the woman herself, with a spear. That stopped the plague that had killed 24,000. We can only assume God stopped the plague. But it took someone like Phinehas, and perhaps others, who took a strong stand in this case, and Phinehas who turned his disgust into action.
Then God told Moses that what Phinehas did worked, and His wrath was indeed subsided, and the people were not destroyed in totality. And at that time, God renews His covenant with regard to the perpetual priesthood of Aaron’s family. Now what gave rise to God saying that again? It was the fact that Phinehas “was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel”. What can we take from that? God wants us to jealous as He is jealous for what is right and in His honor. He wants us to stand up for what is right when God is being dishonored. He wants us to “make atonement” for our sins and the sins of our people who should know better. That does not mean we are to go out kill people today as there are laws in our land, but somehow, we need to figure out what that ‘atonement’ is to look like. Guzik says the atonement was in the form of Phinehas’ zeal for God. God honored his zeal. Matthew Henry says it took just one man’s action to stop God from destroying all of Israel. One man with conviction and courage.
In the next section of the passage, we are given the name of the man who brought the Midianite woman into the camp – he was Zimri, the son of Salu, a leader among the Simeonites. This was a prince yet Phinehas did not hold back. And we also get the name of the Midianite woman – Cozbi, a daughter of ‘the’ leader of Midian.
Then I must admit the next paragraph was totally unexpected by me. God actually told Moses to be hostile towards and to strike the Midianites. And that command from God came because the Midianites had been hostile to the Israelites, had played tricks on them, had deceived them with respect to their gods (the affair of Peor) and in the affair of Cozbi (the slain woman). Their “sister” is translated by many as “countrywoman”.
We also note here that since the Midianites among the Moabites were not able to get their way through Balaam who could not curse Israel, they were determined to do it through seduction of Israel’s men. Guzik observes, “Satan’s violence and sorcery can have no lasting influence on the believer; but if he can lead us to sin, we can [end up being]destroyed.”
But what’s the deal with God telling His people to “strike” and “be hostile” towards others? Guzik gives us an answer which can be used as our guide even today. The people of God, he says, “were to show no tolerance towards that which brought the sin in their midst and turned their hearts away from God. They were to battle against the Midianites every opportunity they had.” Wow. What are we doing with those who lead our people, and in particular, our children, to sin and to turn our/their hearts away from God? Can we learn something here?
Bottom line for me today is simply this, “have I lost my zeal for the things of God?” I pray not. As I watched the George Floyd Memorial service today, my heart hurt for the aches and sufferings of our Black brothers and sisters in the world – from New York to South Africa and here in Toronto. I don’t know how man can fix the situation we’ve created. I know God never intended it to be like this. And I know that only He can fix it. Only He can fix me. Only He can fix us. And as we all get made right before Him, the world will heal. Hang in there.
It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment.