seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Numbers 25:1 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 honor 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 honor 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.”
Here's the link to the commentary I read.The anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel: Balak could never pay enough money to Balaam to make God curse Israel. In the previous chapter, Balaam tried to curse Israel and could not; but now, they are cursed because of their sin against the Lord.
The anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel: Balaam had done his best to curse Israel — but was unsuccessful. Yet, his love for money wouldn’t let the matter end without pleasing the man who hired him, the king of Moab.
Take all the leaders and the people and hang the offenders before the Lord: 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.
Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor: When sin such as this is tolerated or even approved in a culture, it is a sure sign of decay, and Moses wouldn’t accept that decay. He commanded the community to bring the offenders to be judged, to show they would not accept this kind of sin in their midst.
Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation: Phinehas was one among those in Israel who would not accept this wholesale rebellion against God. He brought God’s judgment by thrusting through an Israelite man and a Midianite woman with a spear — seemingly, as they were in the midst of immorality.
Twenty-four thousand: This many died in the plague. This must have delighted Balak, king of Moab. He knew that Balaam succeeded in cursing Israel — or, rather, in getting them to curse themselves.
And then in the New Testament, Paul would set up a church in a brothel. Ugh...The Israelites asked the King of Moab to allow them to pass. King Balak denied the Israelites passage. Then the king sent for Balaam to put a curse on the Israelites while they were camping just outside his border. God wouldn't let Balaam, hired by King Balak, put a curse on the Israelites.
Meanwhile, back at the border, the Moabite and Midianite women lured some of the Israelite men to their side. On top of that, they took these Israelite men to their temple where they made sacrifices to their gods. Seduced by the women of Moab, these men started "allowing" themselves to be perverted by the practices of the Moabite women. These men were eating the meat that was burn on an altar to the Moabite and Midianite gods.
Now God ordered these men be publicly killed. Capital Punishment was handed down for the men who slept with lewd women, ate sacrificial meat, and bowed to the gods the Moabite and Midianite women worshipped. God wanted it public.... so, the others would know better.
One couple was apparently making out right in front of the Tent of Meeting! Well, Aaron's grandson would not abide that. He pulled out a spear and ran it through the Israelite man and then through the woman he was lying on! Two humans on one stick!
Now there is mention of a plague, assumingly caused by sleeping with a Moabite or Midianite woman, eating the sacrificial meat, or bowing to the fake gods.
I tried to find more information on the cause of the plague. I didn't find anything. I did recall, however, that God told the Israelites not to eat the blood of the animals. Maybe the Moabite and Midianite women liked their meat blood rare, and that caused a plague to spread through the Israelite men who were messing with those women.
If the Israelite men were getting sick because they were eating bloody raw meat with a floozie, there must have been a lot of men messing with floozies! 2400 Israelites died. Since they didn't count women or children or slaves... the 2400 counted had to be men.
King Balak should have paid those women instead of paying Balaam.
Those Moabite women got it done!
