Numbers 25:1-18 NKJV
25 Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. 2 They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel.
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the Lord, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.”
5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor.”
6 And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 7 Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; 8 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. 9 And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.
10 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 11 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal. 12 Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace; 13 and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’ ”
14 Now the name of the Israelite who was killed, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father’s house among the Simeonites. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur; he was head of the people of a father’s house in Midian.
16 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 17 “Harass the Midianites, and attack them; 18 for they harassed you with their schemes by which they seduced you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian, their sister, who was killed in the day of the plague because of Peor.”
Balaam may not have given Balak what he wanted when it came to cursing Israel, but, as we learn later on in the book of Numbers (31:16; cf. 2 Pet. 2:15), he still craved the riches that Balak had promised, so he came up with another way to attack the Israelites: by seducing them into committing adultery and idolatry with the Moabites and Midianites.
The Moabites were convinced by Balaam’s prophecies that they couldn’t defeat Israel in battle, since Israel’s God fought for them. So they reasoned (rightly!) that their only chance of defeating Israel was by driving a wedge between them and their God. They accomplished this by inviting the Israelites to sacrifice to their gods with them, and by giving them opportunities to share a bed with the Midianite women.
Tragically, their plan worked. Tens of thousands of Israelites treacherously turned their backs on their faithful God, who had just finished singing their praises to Balak, “He has not observed iniquity in Jacob nor wickedness in Israel” (24:21). A wedge had indeed been driven between Israel and their God, causing God to break out in anger against Israel with a terrible plague in which 24,000 people died.
But in spite of His righteous anger, God wasn’t ready to be done with the whole community. He had Moses and the judges of Israel round up the idolaters/adulterers and put them to death. And He was especially pleased with the zeal of Phinehas the priest, who made atonement for Israel by putting to death an Israelite and a foreign woman who were flaunting their adultery.
This event is referenced several times in Scripture as a warning to both Old and New Testament believers. No one can snatch God’s children out of His hand by force. But if we refuse to heed His warning to watch and pray that we may not be led into temptation, if we tempt the Lord by indulging our sinful flesh with its passions and desires, then we become the ones who separate ourselves from our God. So let us turn to Him in daily contrition and repentance, trust in Christ, our High Priest, who turns aside God’s wrath against our sin, and be careful to walk as Christians, and not as pagans. Let us pray: O Father in heaven, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; through Christ our Lord. Amen.