Slices
Prepare
‘Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?’ (Matthew 5:13, The Message).
Bible passage
Moab seduces Israel
25 While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, 2 who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. 3 So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.
4 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the Lord’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.’
5 So Moses said to Israel’s judges, ‘Each of you must put to death those of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.’
6 Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand 8 and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and into the woman’s stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; 9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
10 The Lord said to Moses, 11 ‘Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites. Since he was as zealous for my honour among them as I am, I did not put an end to them in my zeal. 12 Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. 13 He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honour of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.’
14 The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was put to death was Kozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.
16 The Lord said to Moses, 17 ‘Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them. 18 They treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the Peor incident involving their sister Kozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of that incident.’
Explore
On the high places, Balaam has recognised that Israel is different from other nations (Numbers 23:9). They are called to be holy, as their God is holy (Leviticus 19:2). Meanwhile, on the plain below, they start behaving like the surrounding nations, lured into the sexual promiscuity associated with the worship of Baal, the fertility god. Their behaviour is reminiscent of that of an earlier generation, after receiving the Law at Mount Sinai (Exodus 32).
The blatant behaviour of Zimri (vs 6,14) epitomises the corruption of the whole nation, while the action of Phinehas conveys the holiness of God (v 11). This gory killing of a man and woman, possibly in the very act of sexual intercourse, sounds horrific. However, it served to protect the nation from the far more extensive punishment that God had pronounced (vs 4,11).
We may be more shocked by the actions of Phinehas than those of Zimri. The role of the priesthood was not just to perform sacred ceremonies: it was to maintain the holiness of the nation. Phinehas courageously acted as a true priest. Without holiness, Israel was just like any other nation. These stories have been preserved so that we don’t make the same mistakes (1 Corinthians 10:6–8).
Respond
Am I losing my Christian distinctiveness? Is there an area of compromise that needs to be checked?
Deeper Bible study
‘Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise, / thou mine inheritance, now and always: / thou and thou only, first in my heart, / high King of heaven, my treasure thou art.’1
We last glimpsed the Israelites camped on the plains of Moab, victorious in battle, feared by the surrounding nations, poised to possess the Promised Land. However, ‘there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip’! Their ‘slip’ was a sin as old as time: the creature’s failure to give the Creator his rightful place.2 It was no accident that ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ was God’s first commandment.3 This command was the bedrock of the covenant relationship and the basis for promised blessing. At Sinai, even before the metaphoric ink was dry, God’s people had flouted this commandment!4
The Bible ‘juxtaposes the brightest of revelations and the darkest of sins.’5 The events in these verses have many echoes of those at Sinai.6 At Sinai, the golden calf is worshipped; at Shittim, God’s people bow before Baal, the Canaanite fertility god. At Sinai, they feast and ‘indulge in revelry’;7 now they eat the ‘sacrificial meal’ (v 2) and ‘indulge in sexual immorality’ (v 1). On both occasions, the Lord’s anger burns fiercely, many die by plague or execution and those who defend God’s honour are highly commended. To be ‘yoked’ (vs 3,5) is to be bound in pursuit of a common purpose. The marrying of spiritual idolatry and sexual immorality is a recurrent theme in the Bible. Brazen sin calls for a bold response. The violent action which gives rise to God’s ‘covenant of peace’ with Phinehas (vs 8,12) foreshadows a greater covenant of peace where the violence is directed against the Son of God himself, who makes peace in his own flesh.8 The sin of idolatry is as old as time but also prevalent throughout time, assuming different forms and faces.
Graven images and golden calves may no longer captivate us, but are we captive to the lures of riches, lofty ambitions, digital delights and a host of glittering pleasures?
1 Eleanor Hull, 1860–1935, ‘Be Thou my Vision’ 2 Gen 3:5 3 Exod 20:3 4 Exod 32 5 Wenham, 1981, p184 6 Exod 32:1–10,25–29 7 Exod 32:6 8 Eph 2:14,15
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Proverbs 21,22; 1 Thessalonians 3
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray that south east Mission Enabler Lisa Jones will have wisdom in helping Faith Guides to navigate this challenging time. She especially asks us to pray that she will be able to focus on coaching rather than trying to fix things.
