Harlotry -- A combination of sexual and spiritual sin come together in idol worship.

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

1. Numbers 25:3 Or Baal-peor
2. Numbers 25:4 Lit in front of the sun
3. Numbers 25:5 Or Baal-peor
4. Numbers 25:6 Lit brothers
5. Numbers 25:8 Or inner rooms
6. Numbers 25:8 Or belly
7. Numbers 25:13 Lit seed
8. Numbers 25:14 Lit smitten
9. Numbers 25:14 Lit smitten
10. Numbers 25:15 Lit smitten
11. 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?

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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.

Christian, Misrepresent God at Your Own Peril and Lose Your Dream.

Numbers Chapter 20: A Big Chapter in which Miriam & Aaron Die; Israel & Moses Sin; God Commands; and Edom Refuses Passage to the Israelites

Numbers 20:1-29

Day 73. Minneapolis is “burning”, and a police officer was charged with 3^rd degree murder and manslaughter. Murder is either first degree or second degree, except in three states (Florida, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota). There were violent riots last night in Atlanta, New York, Washington, and Minneapolis. The world is no longer a safe place. Racism is still rampant. Love is still missing big time. I can’t speak for others, but I feel the church is silent. It was, for all intent and purposes, silent as Hitler was implementing his “final solution”.  The Church of Jesus Christ has the only true “final solution” that works for mankind and it needs to take bigger risks to share it these days. I recently was asked on social media if I was prepared to actually admit that I “talk with God daily, etc.” I said “yes, I do” and the person proceeded to ridicule me. That’s okay. But the message got out there. Franklin Graham of the Billy Graham Association is using this Covid-19 experience as an opportunity to share the Gospel – clearly and simply.  I congratulate him. We need to put our money where our mouths are. Let’s be a blessing to someone today.

On a positive note, today NASA/SPACEX (the latter being owned by Elon Musk who owns brought us Tesla cars) has successfully launched American astronauts into space again, after nearly one whole decade. We wish them godspeed.

Thank you for joining us in our study of Numbers. Chapter 20 is a chapter with lots of events. Read on.

The Passage

20 Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the wilderness of Zin in the first month; and the people stayed at Kadesh. Now Miriam died there and was buried there.

² There was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. ³ The people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! ⁴ Why then have you brought the Lord’s assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die ^[a]here?⁵ Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of ^[b]grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.”⁶ Then Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to them;

⁷ and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸ “Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.”

⁹ So Moses took the rod from before the Lord, just as He had commanded him; ¹⁰ and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹ Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. ¹² But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”¹³ Those were the waters of ^[c]Meribah, ^[d]because the sons of Israel contended with the Lord, and He proved Himself holy among them.

¹⁴ From Kadesh Moses then sent messengers to the king of Edom: “Thus your brother Israel has said, ‘You know all the hardship that has befallen us; ¹⁵ that our fathers went down to Egypt, and we stayed in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly. ¹⁶ But when we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out from Egypt; now behold, we are at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory. ¹⁷ Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard; we will not even drink water from a well. We will go along the king’s highway, not turning to the right or left, until we pass through your territory.’” ¹⁸ Edom, however, said to him, “You shall not pass through ^[e]us, or I will come out with the sword against you.” ¹⁹ Again, the sons of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if I and my livestock do drink any of your water, then I will ^[f]pay its price. Let me only pass through on my feet, ^[g]nothing else.” ²⁰ But he said, “You shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against him with a heavy ^[h]force and with a strong hand.²¹ Thus Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through his territory; so Israel turned away from him.

²² Now when they set out from Kadesh, the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. ²³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying, ²⁴ “Aaron will be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against My ^[i]command at the waters of Meribah. ²⁵ Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up to Mount Hor; ²⁶ and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar. So Aaron will be gathered to his people, and will die there.” ²⁷ So Moses did just as the Lord had commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. ²⁸ After Moses had stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar, Aaron died there on the mountain top. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.²⁹ When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.

Footnotes

1. Numbers 20:4 Lit there
2. Numbers 20:5 Lit seed
3. Numbers 20:13 I.e. contention
4. Numbers 20:13 Or where
5. Numbers 20:18 Lit me
6. Numbers 20:19 Lit give
7. Numbers 20:19 Or no great thing
8. Numbers 20:20 Lit people
9. Numbers 20:24 Lit mouth

Thoughts on the Passage

A packed chapter indeed. Verse 1 tells us where they are and when they got there and simply that Moses’ sister, Miriam, died there. Miriam was the first of the three siblings to die (Aaron and Moses were to follow). This was in keeping with God’s promise that none of the original generation of those who left Egypt, save Joshua and Caleb, would enter the promised land.

In verses 2-6, we find out that the people grumble again, this time for water. They approach Moses and ask the same questions, “why, why, why”. And of course, Moses and Aaron go towards the doorway of the tent of meeting, fall on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appears to them and God speaks to Moses. He instructs Moses on how to deal with the situation. Let’s look at the instructions carefully because this event is a lead-up to the most critical or key verse of the entire book of Numbers.

David Guzik says the need was real, but the reaction of Israel smacked of unbelief and a bad attitude. Sometimes, as we all know, we overact to what we think is a pressing need in our lives rather than to take the matter to God.

God says: i) take the rod; ii) you and Aaron assemble the congregation; and iii) speak to the rock before their eyes, so that it would yield water. Simple. Three requests. Nothing else was needed. The rod that Moses was to take, according to Robert Jamieson, was the one that had been deposited in the tabernacle as we are told in Numbers 17:10. It was the rod of Aaron. There was no request to ‘use’ the rod to strike the rock as God had instructed Moses to do back in Mount Sinai when there was a similar need. Just talking to the rock this time would produce the water needed and the congregation and their animals would have their thirst satisfied. But what happened?

Moses i) takes the rod (so far, so good); ii) Moses and Aaron gather the assembly before the rock (even better); and iii) – oh oh, Moses doesn’t speak to the rock! He speaks to the people (verse 10) and he calls them rebels. He asks them if he and Aaron were to give them water out of the rock. And then, only then, does Moses strike the rock twice without speaking to it. The water gushes forth and the people and their animals drink as much as they want.

What was Moses guilty of from a human perspective? First, he added his own approach to the process that God had given him to deal with the situation. Second, he chided the people and was angry at them. His emotions or attitude took over his heart. And finally, as Guzik says, he over-magnified his part or potential part in the solution – “shall we give you water?” Who’s “we” Moses?  You can’t do anything. Did you forget that?  That’s our lesson here. When God wants us to do something – stick to what He tells us to do and we must not exaggerate in our minds or with our words, our role in that. And then he strikes the rock not once, as if he were a magician, but twice, out of shear anger and frustration.

We need to note how gracious God was to the Israelites. Even though Moses didn’t follow the instructions, God didn’t deny His people what they needed. The thought that comes to mind is how we often see God taking care of His people in local church when their leaders are not following God’s exact instructions. God loves us and He will take care of us regardless of leadership. And then He will deal with the leadership.

And the God speaks to Moses and Aaron, and here comes the most critical or key verse in the whole book, verse 12, “Because you guys did not believe me and you did not treat Me as holy in the sight of the people, you both will not have the privilege of leading them to the promised land.”  The rock did not need to be struck; it only needed to be spoken to. Come on, God. We’re talking about Moses and Aaron here. These are you chosen servants.  They have gone through so much in obedience to you. One little mistake and that’s it, they’re out?  That’s it, they are out. And not only that, they, or at least Moses, still has a lot of work to do for God. No exceptions, not even for Moses.

We have to understand what God was upset about here. It was the fact that He was misrepresented to the people by Moses and Aaron. He says, “because you did not believe me.” Because God said that, we can know that Moses did in fact have a problem at that very moment with his belief in God being able to deliver the water by Moses simply speaking to the rock. And as a result, Moses lost out on his life’s dream – the promised land. The lesson? Don’t ever misrepresent God. Don’t ever doubt God. Don’t stop believing in what God tells you directly. Leaders, pastors, elders, deacons, church staff take note – don’t ever do that. And that goes for the rest of us, too.

Now, here’s the comparison to Christ the Rock. In order for Christ to accomplish His work for the Father, He only needed to be struck once – to be crucified. He did not need, in order to save us all from sin, to be struck twice. Guzik says Moses in striking the rock twice, “defaced a beautiful picture of Jesus' redemptive work through the rock which provided water in the wilderness”.

Verses 14-21 relate the account of Moses sending messengers to the king of Edom requesting permission to pass through his land on their journey. Notice these messengers referred to themselves, to Israel, as “Edom’s brother”. Guzik says, “The nation of Israel was brother to the nation of Edom, because the patriarch Israel (also known as Jacob) was brother to Esau (also known as Edom), as related in Genesis 25:19-34.

They give him the story about all the hardships they’ve been through and that they will not harm their land at all. The king of Edom says no, and if they try anyway, he would go after them in battle. They tried again asking if they could even just go by one highway and again, he said no, at which point the Israelites turned to travel away from Edom’s territory and they got to Mount Hor (verse 22). The refusal was truly unnecessary. It would have cost Edom nothing to agree. But what was the lesson for the Israelites? It was the same as it is for us today: when people do not support our work or cause and set up barriers for our service to God, leave them to God and don’t try to avenge their actions. In my own life, I’ve seen God take care of those kind of uncooperative sorts appropriately soon after their refusal to help.

God once again speaks to Moses and Aaron. This is important because now God is telling them that it is time for Aaron to die because they both rebelled against God at Meribah (where the water miracle took place). And Moses was to take Aaron and his son Eleazar up to Mount Hor. God uses the phrase “bring them up” so we could assume that He was going to be there as well. Moses was to strip Aaron of this high priestly garments and put them on Eleazar. And then Aaron was to die there. And that’s exactly what happened. Then Moses, after supposedly burying Aaron (we don’t know for sure), along with Eleazar went back down.  The whole congregation connected the dots and realized that Aaron had died, and they all wept and mourned for 30 days.

Several things to note here. Aaron’s death had been announced prior to the trip up Mount Hor. So, there was time for an orderly and appropriate transition from Israel’s first High Priest to their second. Also, we must remember that as good as Aaron was, he was also involved negatively in the whole situation with the Golden Calf. He, like sister Miriam, and later Moses, could be said to have had a mixed record in serving God. What’s the lesson? Guzik suggests that many times the office and the work is more important than the man (or woman) carrying it out. [I can’t but think of how so many Christians today complain about the personal sins of a president but fail to see what that president may be doing that God wants done. We need to think about that as we verbalize our opinions.]

What is not lost on us and Matthew Henry is that these same people who time and again came out and complained about Aaron, now mourn 30 days for his loss. That is human nature. That is the fickleness of people. That is the hypocrisy of people. I can go on.  I won’t. Our job is to work and live throughout our lives for an audience of one – our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is my prayer for you and me today.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.