I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 25-26.
After Balak’s failure to get Balaam to curse the Israelites, the local Moabite women seduced some of the Israelite men into worshiping Baal of Peor. The passage tells us that God told Moses to have the ringleaders of this among the men of Israel put to death. Moses called together the leaders of the people of Israel to give them God’s command about this. As he finished doing this, an Israelite man brought a Midianite woman into his tent right there where Moses and the assembled people could see him doing so. This indicates a certain brazenness, an expectation that no one would, or could, do anything to stop him. Aaron’s grandson, the son of Eleazar (who succeeded Aaron as high priest), grabbed a spear and killed the man.
OK, my analysis of this passage. The first thing that confuses some people is the shift from Moabite women to Midianite women. However, this is not as big of a switch as it might seem. Before Balak sent emissaries to Balaam he consulted with the elders of Midian, which suggests that the Moabites and the Midianites were both part of one nation at the time. The next thing of interest is that, while the Moabite and Midianite women seduced Israelite men and involved them in the worship practices of Baal of Peor, there were leaders among the Israelites drawing other men into the practice. So, this was not just a case of foreign women leading Israelite men astray. The men themselves recruited other men to the practice of Baal worship. The final thing I want to bring up is that there was apparently a plague caused by the Israelite men doing this. The passage does not say so, but it is reasonable to suppose that this plague was some sort of sexually transmitted disease. I said that was the final point, but there is one more thing I want to write about this. This passage reminds us that sexual immorality is intrinsically linked with idol worship. That is, those who practice sexually immoral practices inevitably get drawn into idol worship/