Numbers 25:1-18

The Old Testament Book of Numbers

In the Desert

Numbers

Marion Adams

Chapter 25

The *Israelites *worship false gods – Numbers 25:1-18

v1 The *Israelites were camping in the valley called Shittim. While they were there, some of the men had sex with the *Moabite women. v2 The *Moabite women invited the men to their ceremonies. During these ceremonies, the *Moabites offered *sacrifices of animals to their gods. The *Israelites ate meat from the *sacrifices. And they *worshipped the *Moabites’ gods. v3 They *worshipped Baal of Peor. The *LORD was very angry with them.

v4 The *LORD said to Moses, ‘Fetch all the *Israelites’ leaders. *Execute them in public, in front of *God’s Tent. Then I will not still be angry with the *Israelites.’

v5 Moses spoke to *Israel’s judges. He ordered each judge to *execute every man in his *tribe who had *worshipped Baal of Peor.

v6 Later, Moses and the *Israelites were at the entrance of *God’s Tent. All the *Israelites were crying. But a male *Israelite took a female *Midianite into the *Israelites’ camp. He did this in public, so that Moses and all the *Israelites could see them. v7 Phinehas saw them. (Phinehas was Eleazar’s son, and the grandson of Aaron the priest.) He left the crowd of *Israelites. He fetched a pole with a sharp metal point on it.

v8 The man went into his own tent. Phinehas followed him. Then Phinehas killed both the man and the woman with the pole. He pushed the sharp metal point through the *Israelite and into the woman’s body. Immediately, the *LORD stopped his punishment against the *Israelites. (He had allowed them to suffer from a terrible disease in order to punish them.) v9 But already, 24 000 *Israelites had died because of the disease.

v10 The *LORD said to Moses, v11 ‘I was very angry. But I am not angry now, because of what Phinehas has done. Phinehas did not allow them to *worship any god except me. He cared as I care about this matter. That is why I did not kill all the *Israelites.

v12-13 For this reason I promise *peace to Phinehas. I promise that he and his *descendants will be my priests always. This is because he was loyal to me only. He made it possible for me to forgive their *sin.’

v14 The male *Israelite, whom Phinehas killed, was called Zimri. He was Salu’s son. Salu was the leader of a family in Simeon’s *tribe. v15 The female *Midianite was called Cozbi. Her father was called Zur. He was the leader of a group of the *Midianites’ *clans.

v16 The *LORD said to Moses, v17 ‘The *Midianites are your enemies now. So you should attack and kill them. v18 They deceived the *Israelites. (To deceive means to tell lies. That is, to make people believe something false.) They persuaded the *Israelites to *worship their god at Peor. Also, they sent Cozbi, who was the daughter of one of their own leaders. Phinehas killed her on the day when there was the terrible disease. That disease was the result of what happened at Peor.’

Balaam knew that he could not *curse *Israel himself, with his *prophecies (Chapter s 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 Shittim before they entered the *Promised Land. The word ‘Shittim’ 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.

Verses 4-5 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.

Verse 6 Moses and the *Israelites were crying to show that they were sorry for *Israel’s *sin. But, while this was happening, a male *Israelite brought a female *Midianite into his tent. He did this in public. He did not care that God was angry. He did not care that he was *sinning. He was not sorry. He saw that the other *Israelites were crying about *Israel’s *sin. But he did not stop. He showed that he did not respect God or *Israel’s leaders.

Verses 7-9 The male *Israelites’ *sin was very serious because it had led them all away from God. They had joined the *Moabites when the *Moabites *worshipped their false gods. It seems that the *Midianites *worshipped these gods, too. Probably the *Moabites’ king ruled over them also. Phinehas, the *High Priest’s son, was completely loyal to God. He killed both the male *Israelite and the female *Midianite. Of course, this stopped their *sin. But also it stopped the disease that God had sent to punish the *Israelites. The punishment showed that God would not allow this kind of *sin. It warned the *Israelites that they should never *worship false gods.

Verses 10-13 God was pleased because Phinehas was loyal to him. God promised that Phinehas and his *descendants would be priests always.

Verses 14-15 In these verses, the author recorded the names of the male *Israelite and the female *Midianite. The man was from Simeon’s *tribe. Moses was from Levi’s *tribe. Reuben and Simeon were born to Jacob before Levi. Therefore, the leaders of their *tribes had a better right naturally to lead the *Israelites. In Numbers 16:1, the leaders of Reuben’s *tribe opposed Moses, and therefore, God. The result was that many of their *tribe died. By means of Zimri, Simeon’s *tribe were opposing Moses, and therefore, God.

Also, Zimri was a leader. He was an important man. It was his responsibility to lead his people to do what is right. But by means of his own *sin, he was leading them to *rebel against God. His *sin was affecting everybody.

The woman was not a *Moabite. She was a *Midianite. So the *sin had spread beyond the local people, too. Also, she was a member of a *Midianite royal family. They had sent her on purpose to make an *Israelite leader have sex with her. This was their plan.

The man Zimri was *defiant (see Numbers 15:30-31). When he took the woman into his tent, he was *rebelling against Moses’ authority and therefore God’s authority. So Zimri was trying to persuade people not to obey God. He thought that the people should not allow God to lead them. Then they could do whatever they wanted. That is what he was saying by means of his wicked act.

Verses 16-18 The *Midianites had caused the *Israelites to *sin. They had caused God to become angry with his own people. God warned Moses about them. The *Midianites were the *Israelites’ enemies.

It was important that the *Israelites obeyed God. It was important that they *worshipped him only. Zimri and Cozbi had *sinned *defiantly. The punishment for this was death (Numbers 15:30-31).

God is a holy God. We must *worship him only. We can please him only because of what Jesus did. We must *believe that he died on our behalf. When we *sin, we need to *repent. Then God can forgive us.

Israel ~ the Israelites and their nation.
worship ~ to give honour to God and to thank him. Sometimes, people worship false gods.
LORD ~ a special name for God that his people use. In Hebrew, it is Yahweh. This name means something like ‘I am’ or ‘always alive’.

Lord ~ one who rules. God is the Lord who rules everyone.

Hebrew ~ the language of the *Jews.
execute ~ to kill a person legally because they are guilty of a crime.
execute ~ to kill a person legally because they are guilty of a crime.
peace ~ a calm and content attitude, even when there are problems.
sin ~ the nature of all people since Adam chose not to obey God. People’s lives are not acceptable to God because of sin. ‘Sins’ are states, attitudes and acts that are not acceptable to God. A person sins whenever that person is guilty of a sin.
curse ~ a declaration that something bad will happen. In the early books of the Bible, a curse was a type of prophecy from God. This prophecy described something bad that would happen in the future. To curse means to speak this prophecy.

prophecy/prophecies ~ words and messages from God.

'prophecy/prophecies ~ words and messages from God.
covenant ~ a special promise that God made to the Israelites. The Israelites had to remain loyal to God because of the covenant.

Israel ~ the Israelites and their nation.

'Promised Land ~ the country that God promised to give to Abraham and his *descendants.'High Priest ~ the most important priest.
rebel ~ to oppose or to fight against a leader or a government.
repent ~ to decide not to do bad things that you did before. To decide to do what God wants.