Read Numbers 25
Questions from the Scripture text: Where was Israel camping (Numbers 25:1)? What did the people do with whom? And what did these women do (Numbers 25:2)? With what effect (Numbers 25:2-3)? What did YHWH tell whom to do (Numbers 25:4)? For what purpose? But what did Moses do (Numbers 25:5)? What were Moses and all the people doing in Numbers 25:6? But what did someone still do? Who saw it in Numbers 25:7? What did he do (Numbers 25:7-8)? With what effect? How many had died (Numbers 25:9)? Who spoke to whom in Numbers 25:10? What does He say Phinehas has done (Numbers 25:11)? With Whose zeal? And what result? What does YHWH do for him (Numbers 25:12)? And for his house (Numbers 25:13)? What were the names and statuses of the perpetrators (Numbers 25:14-15)? Who spoke to whom in Numbers 25:16? What does He say to do (Numbers 25:17)? Why (Numbers 25:18)?
What provokes and stops God’s wrath? Numbers 25 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eighteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that sin provokes God’s wrath, but Christ turns it away.
One last trial to display unconditional election. Israel are at Shittim (“Acacia Grove,” NKJ, Numbers 25:1), camped across from Jericho, from where Joshua will later send out spies (cf. Joshua 2:1). And now, after all of the grace and patience that we have seen thus far, Israel commits a “grand finale” of sins. They commit harlotry. This would be bad enough within Israel, but they commit this harlotry even with Moabite women! For the last three chapters, we have been privy to both Moab’s treachery/cursedness and God’s marvelous faithfulness and goodness to Israel. And it is against this backdrop that we see the events of chapter 25. The climax of the book of Numbers affirms, one more time, that Israel’s election by God is not at all for anything good in them!
Something worse than harlotry: idolatry. The wickedness of relations without marriage is bad enough, and to do that with Moabites is even worse. But it gets even worse in Numbers 25:2. The Israelites eat and bow down to the Baals of Moab. The language may imply that they weren’t worshiping “from the heart”—just going through the motions of religion and enjoying a feast of meat (cf. Numbers 22:40). But the logic of the verse implies that the immorality of the harlotry in itself is secondary to the immorality of the idolatry to which the harlotry led (cf. Exodus 34:16). Numbers 25:3 confirms this: the incident isn’t described by harlotry with Moab’s women but by marriage to Moab’s god! Let us take note of how God treats dabbling in the religious rituals that men have invented. It is worse than rampant extramarital immorality!
A crisis of leadership. YHWH tells Moses to hang the heads of the people out where everyone can see (Numbers 25:4). The reason given is not as a warning to those who might commit idolatry but to turn away God’s wrath. It is evident that, at this point, the plague has begun. The word “judges” in Numbers 25:5 is not the same as the word “heads” in Numbers 25:4; the text doesn’t give us cause to think that Moses has disobeyed. It may well be that the judges are a different group than those heads/elders. The mourning of the whole congregation in Numbers 25:6 may well be due to executions, as much as due to plague.
Whatever the case, it is not enough. The idolatry and the plague both continue! The Midianite in Numbers 25:6 is no better than a Moabite; it is still a question of idolatry. The word for “tent” in Numbers 25:8 is actually “inner chamber,” a reference to the inner room of a shrine (the most unholy, idolatrous equivalent of the Holy Place in the tabernacle). And it is almost identical to the word “body” in the same verse. They had gone into the belly of the shrine, and Phinehas had thrust the javelin through the belly of the harlot. It turns out that the offending Israelite was himself a leader of the Simeonites (Numbers 25:14). And the woman was from a leading family of the Midianites (Numbers 25:15), for which reason YHWH marks the Midianites as enemies, just as much as the Moabites (Numbers 25:16-18).
We must be careful about usurping authority or position simply upon dissatisfaction with what we consider to be inaction. But in this case, there was an actual plague raging among the people of God. Phinehas was not among the judges, but no one else was acting, and thousands were dying, so he took action.
Where leadership came from: grace. YHWH Himself identifies the source of Phinehas’s zeal: it was the Lord’s own zeal (Numbers 25:11). The word is the same as “jealous” in Exodus 20:5. God graciously produced His own zeal in Phinehas’s heart. And Phinehas is commended and rewarded for taking action (Numbers 25:12-13). Throughout the kingdom period, even many kings who cut down Baal worship were “docked” for not ending worship at the high places (cf. 1 Kings 15:14, 1 Kings 22:43; 2 Kings 12:3). It is the duty of those in leadership to purge manmade worship from the church (cf. WLC 108). And this depends upon the grace of God. Ultimately, Christ is the One Who is full of God’s own zeal for His worship (cf. Psalm 69:9; John 2:17), and He is the One Who is hung (cf. Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 21:23) and thrust through (cf. John 19:34–37; Zechariah 12:10; Revelation 1:7) to turn away His wrath against sinners!
In what manmade worship or religious practices might you be in danger of dabbling? How should your praying for your leaders in home/church/nation be informed by their duties in this passage? How should your submission to them follow it? What does it look like to consider as enemies, of God and His church, those who tempt believers into manmade religion? But what are we commanded to do with our enemies?
Sample prayer: Lord, give us to hate harlotry, adultery, and all other sin. Especially give us to hate idolatry. Help our leaders to love You and the purity of Your worship. Don’t let us act as those who hate You and bring our sin upon three and four generations of our children. Thank You for giving Your Son to be the Priest Who has turned Your wrath from us. For His sake, help us against our sin, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP69A “Save Me, O God” or TPH341 “Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed”
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