The Dangers of Temptation for the Blessed (Numbers 25)

You might think that Israel is due some easy times, based on the prophetic vision of their future blessings. But you would be wrong. Every step of the way, the people have been saved by God, only to indulge their own sinful desires. In this case, Moab and Midian had failed on their “supernatural curse invocation” front, but they had apparently more than one weapon in their warfare. Their daughters launched a religious prostitution campaign.

The bible says that Israel began to whore with the daughters of Moab. This means that they literally engaged in sexual activities with them, but it also has the oft-seen biblical sense of them “whoring” spiritually by worshiping and serving other gods. Here, it is the Canaanite fertility god, Baal.

Unlike in the previous rebellions, where God threatened to destroy the whole people, or where He declared that the whole generation would die out in the wilderness. Here God simply demands that the perpetrators be executed and hung up as a warning to the others. This may seem a bit harsh to our modern ears. Why can’t just the ones who wish follow God and let the others do their own thing? However, this is a perilous period in the life of the nation. They are about to embark on the conquest of the promised land, full of idolatrous nations. Even with zero tolerance for shenanigans, they nation will not succeed in routing out all the evil in the land.

Apparently, a plague was also sent into the nation as a result of the sin, and it is only stopped when Phinehas, and grandson of Aaron, kills a man and a Moabite woman who were flaunting their sin for all to see. Even with this stark action, thousands of Israelites die.

As always, we can be ever grateful that we do not live in this period of history! However, the generations in the wilderness serve as an ever present warning to those of us who read their example. Even in our current age—after the cross, when people face God through the grace of salvation bought with the blood of Christ—we do well to remember that such salvation does not negate a need to live as the people of God. He had saved the nation from Israel, but they continually rebelled and face dire consequences. Even in the promise of future and eternal blessing, God allows people to face consequences for their actions. We would do better to try to remember how we have been purchased and to whom we belong. Temptation still holds a huge danger to the people of God if they will allow it to sway them!