Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 25-26.

The account given here of the incident involving the Baal of Peor can be confusing.  In particular, at the beginning of the account we are told that Israelite men indulged in sexual immorality with Moabite women and joined them in worshiping the Baal of Peor.  Then at the end of this particular incident we are told that God instructed Moses to treat the Midianites as enemies because they deceived them.  The confusion can be further compounded by the fact that Moses’ father-in-law was a Midianite.  As I explored why that happened the first thing I came across was another fact that might lead to confusion.  It is not clear if the word Peor here is used as a place name, or as a descriptive.  The word Peor means Opening, which means that Baal-Peor means “the Lord of the Opening”.  That meaning is somewhat suggestive considering the nature of Israel’s in here.  Whether or not Peor was a place name it seems likely to me that the worshipers of Baal-Peor took delight in the implications of that meaning.

As I was thinking and writing about the above I was hoping it would draw a connection between the meaning of Baal-Peor and the Moabite/Midianite crossover, but that it is not where I ended up.  Instead, I once again saw the important lesson about how sexual temptation often leads us into idolatry.  Here the Israelites had no intention of worshiping Baal, they just thought they could indulge their lust without compromising their fellowship with their people, the people of God.  We see here that Zimri, the son of a leader in Simeon, thought that he could indulge himself right in front of the people with no concern for consequences.  Many other Israelite men were acting likewise, perhaps a bit more discreetly, but also with the idea that they would suffer no consequences for their actions.  We see the same thing today in so many ways where people of faith think they can sample sins without suffering any consequences.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.