seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Numbers 25:1 While Israel was staying in ####tim, 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.”
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.”
So, this is from the easy English site.
Balaam knew that he could not curse Israel himself, with his prophecies (chapters 23 and 24). But he wanted Balak to pay him. So he made a plan. God would act against the Israelites if they did not obey the covenant. Of course, God did not allow the Israelites to worship false gods. So the Moabites and the Midianites began to tempt the Israelites to worship their gods. This chapter describes what happened as a result of Balaam’s plan. Balaam’s greedy desire for money caused him to do this wicked thing (Numbers 31:16; 2 Peter 2:15, Jude 1:11; Revelation 2:14).
Verses 1-3 The Israelites camped in the valley called ####tim before they entered the Promised Land. The word ‘####tim’ means acacia, which is a type of tree. So probably this valley was a pleasant place. The Israelites were comfortable there. And they sinned. They did not obey the first rule of God’s 10 special rules. This rule was that the Israelites should worship God only. They should not worship false gods (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7).
This happened because the male Israelites had sex with the female Moabites from that area. The Moabites were the Israelites’ enemies. They wanted to persuade the Israelites not to obey the covenant. Their intention was to make God angry with the Israelites.
The Moabites used sex, food and special ceremonies to attract the male Israelites. So the male Israelites joined the female Moabites in ceremonies to worship the Moabites’ gods. The Moabites had sex in order to worship Baal. This was part of their religion. So as the Israelites were having sex with the Moabite women, they were worshipping Baal. This was a very serious sin. It showed that the Israelites were not loyal to God. And in order to stop them, God had to punish them.
God sent a bad disease to punish the people (verse 8). But also, Moses had to execute the leaders who had led the Israelites to sin. The leaders were responsible for the people that they led. And they had not stopped the men who were sinning.
Israel’s judges (verse 5) were responsible for a whole tribe or part of a tribe.
Verses 1-3 The Israelites camped in the valley called ####tim before they entered the Promised Land. The word ‘####tim’ means acacia, which is a type of tree. So probably this valley was a pleasant place. The Israelites were comfortable there. And they sinned. They did not obey the first rule of God’s 10 special rules. This rule was that the Israelites should worship God only. They should not worship false gods (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7).
This happened because the male Israelites had sex with the female Moabites from that area. The Moabites were the Israelites’ enemies. They wanted to persuade the Israelites not to obey the covenant. Their intention was to make God angry with the Israelites.
The Moabites used sex, food and special ceremonies to attract the male Israelites. So the male Israelites joined the female Moabites in ceremonies to worship the Moabites’ gods. The Moabites had sex in order to worship Baal. This was part of their religion. So as the Israelites were having sex with the Moabite women, they were worshipping Baal. This was a very serious sin. It showed that the Israelites were not loyal to God. And in order to stop them, God had to punish them.
God sent a bad disease to punish the people (verse 8). But also, Moses had to execute the leaders who had led the Israelites to sin. The leaders were responsible for the people that they led. And they had not stopped the men who were sinning.
Israel’s judges (verse 5) were responsible for a whole tribe or part of a tribe.
This will lead to what the Peor Incident, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Back in the late 60's we had "free love". It was a time when "anything goes". That's what comes to my mind when I read these verses. Oh, wait, that's how it is now.... only bigger....now we share bathrooms. What a lure!
If you can't curse them.... offer them sex in worship! Balaam, the prophet for hire was pretty clever..... here they are, ready to go into the Promised Land and now they have to take time to weed out the lusty and slay them. It's a war with casualties and the Moabites didn't have to fire one shot or drop one mother of all bombs.
