Sin's Subtle Seduction

Prayer

Indirect Attack

So, we’re finally there, our last week in the book of Numbers. We’ve been following the Israelites through the wilderness, we’ve seen them come to the land of the Moabites, on the east side of the Jordan River, also known as the Transjordan. The 40 years have passed and the time is coming near for the Israelites to enter the Promised Land, the land of the Canaanites.

Last week we saw what happened as the Israelites began to encounter different nations - how they avoided the Edomites, traveling around their kingdom. How they defeated the Amorites, two of the kings there, Sihon and Og, in battle, taking over their land. Finally, we saw how the Moabites tried a different strategy altogether, with King Balak trying to hire the prophet Balaam to pronounce a curse on the Israelites - but which God turned into a blessing for his people.

So that didn’t work - but the Moabites aren’t done. Now, just to clarify, you’re going to see references to both the Moabites and Midianites here, there seems to be a strong connection to these two peoples, to the point where they are almost treated as one and the same. The last time, the Moabites found out that they couldn’t manipulate God, that he would continue to be faithful to his people. This time, they are going to test the Israelites to see if they’ll be faithful to God (as you might guess, it doesn’t go well). By the way, as we’ll see in a bit, Balaam is the one behind this - his wickedness is going to be revealed here.

We pick up our story in Numbers 25:1-5, 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.”

I want you to notice the progression here - the Israelites are camped out in Shittim - and some of the Israelite men begin to indulge in sexual immorality. And this didn’t just randomly happen, it was an intentional act by the Moabites, they worked to seduce the men. And it worked, beautifully. They entice them sexually, then invite them to sacrifices to their gods. I’m sure the Israelites were thinking, what’s the harm, just going to share in the meal, check it out, be neighborly. But before you know it, not only are they sharing in the sacrificial meal, they begin to share in bowing down before their gods. “So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.”

And as you can imagine, God is angry. These are the people he has made a covenant with them. He led them out of slavery in Egypt. He provided them for as they made their way through the wilderness - and they are right outside the Promised Land, land of milk and honey, the land he has promised to give them - and they start turning to worshiping false gods.

So God commands Moses and Israel’s judges to take the leaders and all the people involved in this idolatry and put them to death.

Now, generally there are two responses to sinful behavior. The first is that when the sin is exposed, the response is one of shame, of trying to hide the sin. This is a good sign, healthy response - it’s a recognition that sin is wrong, that you should be ashamed of it.

The other response, the really dangerous one, is when it’s done openly, brashly - it’s an indication of a conscience that has been seared, the lie has been bought, a hardened heart. Something bad is now openly declared as good, and what it good is now bad. Morality is turned on its head.

And that’s exactly what we see here, Number 25:6, 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.

Note what’s happening here - Moses and all the Israelites are gathered in front of the entrance of the tent of meeting, and they are weeping. Weeping over the sin in their midst. Weeping over a plague that has inflicted the Israelites, God’s anger burning against them. And while this is happening, right in front of them, one of the Israelite men takes one of the Midianite (Moabite) women into his tent in order to do you know what (wink, wink).

To make it even worse, this man is an Israelite leader - as we learn from Numbers 25:14-15, his name is Zimri and he is the son of the leader of a Simeonite family. And the woman , Kozbi, is a daughter of a tribal chief of a Midianite family. Just a little brazen, don’t ya think? He’s not trying to hide his behavior, do it in secret - quite the opposite, he’s doing it in front of everyone, he’s flaunting it. There’s no shame here, he’s bought in to sexual immorality, he has yoked himself with Baal, the god of the Moabites.

If this attitude catches hold, if it spreads, the Israelites are done before they even enter the land promised to them. The promise of them being a great nation, a holy nation, is over and done with. So, what do they do?

One man steps up, Numbers 25:7-13, 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.”

Phinehas just marches into the tent, spear in hand, and drives that spear through the both of them as they are in engaged in you know what (wink, wink). Phinehas’ zeal for the honor of God, his willingness to put an end to the evil by killing the Israelite, stops the plague - but only after 24,000 Israelites had died.

So, before we shift to some thoughts on this passage, let me give you a quick summary about some of the things that we find through the book of Numbers, so we know what’s happening in the overall story. We’re going to set aside our journey through the story of the Old Testament for the rest of year as we move into Advent and Christmas - we’ll pick it back up after Christmas, diving in Deuteronomy.

At the end of this chapter, God orders Moses to treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them. Which they do - story is told in Numbers 31, describing how they kill the five kings of Midian and catch this, verse 8, “They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.” We learn why later, verse 16, “They (the Midianite women) were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident...” So, Balaam was the mastermind behind the seduction plan in Numbers 25.

A few other things from the remaining chapters in Numbers: God commands Moses to conduct another census - again, a military census. But all those who had been counted before have now died and this is a new generation. It’s a reminder that they are preparing to enter the Promised Land - and they must be ready to fight.

Moses prays for a new shepherd to lead the people, and in response to that prayer, God commands Moses to lay his hands on Joshua in front of all the people, establishing him as the one who will lead the people into the land.

Finally, a note about tribes - the Gadites and Reubenites like the land they have conquered so far - it had good grazing lands, for livestock. So those two tribes, along with the half tribe of Manasseh, ask to be able to settle in those lands, what’s known as the Transjordan, the east side of the Jordan River. Moses is initially opposed - after all, it wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the tribes to fight for the land of the Canaanites without their help. But the men of the tribes promise to cross over with the rest and help engage in the battle to conquer the Canaanites and claim the land for the other 9 1/2 tribes.

So, that brings us to the end of the Book of Numbers, and back to our story today. Part of what intrigues me about this story is the different battle tactic that the Moabites employed here - it was not an direct attack. It was an attempt to win them over by enticement, by slowly winning them over to your side, so that bit by bit, gradually, they have now become - in this case - yoked to Baal instead of to God.

This is not the sort of thing that happens quickly - these men were bound to God, part of his people, yoked to him. We don’t give up our way of thinking, or our allegiances, quickly or easily. But we can - and do - slowly, over time.

True today - people, when they “deconstruct” from faith in Jesus, it doesn’t happen quickly or suddenly. But slowly and gradually, as questions arise, doubts stirred, new ways of thinking are considered, rationales embraced - until one day they find that they no longer believe what they once did. (By the way, this happens the opposite direction, too - people coming into faith). But this morning’s story is the enticement away from faithfulness.

We see so much of that happening in our culture today - you may wonder how we got to point in our society where things that we would never think would be considered good, are...

For years, even those who supported the right to an abortion thought it should safe, legal and rare. In other words, we know it’s not a good thing, but in certain - and rare instances, it’s the better option than not being able to get one. Not any more, for many now, abortion is seen as something good, something to be proud of - “shout your abortion!”

Or drag queen shows - how did we get to the point that these weren’t things that happen in isolated places, away from general society to point because we acknowledged that it’s not the type of behavior we want to see normalized - because it’s perverse. But now, for many, it’s seen as a good. Men dressed garishly as women should be reading to children. There should be highly sexualized drag queen shows at public festivals - fun for the whole family!

Things that were recognized as moral evils are now not simply tolerated, but embraced as good. This did not happen overnight, but slowly and gradually, as different ideologies, different ways of thinking were considered, embraced and taught, until enough people accepted them so that they are publicly seen as good, desirable things for our culture.

That’s what was happening in Numbers 25, with Israelite men taking up with the Moabite women, sleeping with them, then attending the sacrificial meals with them, until they themselves begin to bow down and worship Baal.

And just like we see in so many instances in our culture today, not only does it becomes acceptable, but praised, flaunted, seen as a good - we see that in the brazen behavior of Zimri taking the Midianite woman into his tent in front of the assembled, weeping Israelites. Well, he’s brazen until Phinehas drives a spear through both of them.

So, we’re not going that far. But this story - and the things we see happening in our culture today - are reminders of the enticement of sin, and that, if we’re not wary, we can be enticed into wrong thinking - that will led to wrong behavior. To embracing what is evil, calling it good.

Jesus himself issues a warning to one of the seven churches in Revelation, church in Pergamum, based on this story. Revelation 2:14 - Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.

Now, I don’t think Jesus means here that they were literally listening to Balaam’s teachings, but, rather, he’s holding Balaam out as an example of a false prophet, a false teacher, who will teach things that will lead to, in this case, sexual immorality and idolatry. Somehow there were believers in this church who were involved in pagan practices, still eating meat sacrificed to idols, still engaged in sexually promiscuous behavior - and thinking somehow that was ok, even good.

Now here’s the thing - we could try to break down the line of thinking that led the Israelites into sin during the time of Numbers, or what Balaam’s teaching meant to church of Pergamum - or even the shift of thinking in our own culture that has moved us to the point of embracing abortion and sexually deviant behavior - and as helpful and interesting as that would be - we don’t have the time this morning. And the reality is, the lies, the false teachings, they kept shifting and changing. The Christian church has been fighting battle of false teachings for thousands of years.

So the best thing to do is to equip ourselves in right teaching. to be those people who come to the Scriptures, together, with a humble heart, ready to learn, ready to obey. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

All Scripture, all of the Bible, Old & Testaments, has been in-spired, breathed through with God’s spirit. And because it has been, it’s exactly what we want in order to be taught what is good and right - if we need to be rebuked or corrected because we’ve embraced false teaching. It will train us to become like Jesus, to be righteous - so we’re equipped to do his good work in the world.

God commended Phinehas, he blessed him, making a covenant of peace with him, because (and God says this twice) - he was zealous for the honor of the Lord. It’s easy to point out at all the other people who don’t honor God with what they believe and how they live, but really the first question to ask is, how I am in honoring the Lord? Am I zealous for the honor of the Lord?

The clearest way we know we have a zeal, a heart, to honor God is through our willingness to obey him. To abide by his teaching, to be faithful to him as he is faithful to us, so that we might serve him well. Which means not only going to the Scriptures to learn, but going with the right attitude, a teachable spirit, a readiness to hear from God, and a willing heart of submission, to have your thinking corrected, to obey what you’re learning, to put into practice.

To take seriously that this is God’s Word, words written by men but by empowered by the Holy Spirit, that God may reveal himself and his will to his people. And this is paramount - because people often diminish the truth of the Scripture when they focus on the fact that it was written by men (argument that it was written in a different culture - which it was - but assuming that means it doesn’t apply to us today, we’ve learned more, we know better).

This very week, I was part of a Zoom teaching Session that was the topic of theology of disability, what does God’s word teach us about how what it means to be disabled? How are we to consider them, include them, etc.? There was some thoughtful teaching. But a couple of times - I don’t know if I agree with that, that doesn’t sound right. That’s exactly the point I want to come in submission to God, because maybe I’m being resistant to this teaching. On the other hand, maybe the teaching is wrong - and I don’t want to embrace false teaching.

So I want to compare what they were teaching with what else I know about the Bible (why it’s so important to know Scripture), I want to do that as honestly and open-hearted as I can.

And I’m thinking about some other faithful people whom I can talk to in order to help me work through my questions. So important to engage with others, especially others you know and trust. Wrestling through the questions I think is an important part of growing in understanding of who God is, and how we are to live faithfully in obedience to him.

Because that’s exactly what we don’t see the Israelites doing in this story - it’s what we see them failing to do over and over again. But there are always those - like Phinehas, like Moses, like Joshua, who have a zeal for the honor of the Lord, they want to be obedient, they want to follow his Word.

Let me close with this, when we engage in God’s work, there are two disciplines here to consider...

Discipline of Study - learning. So we know. Information. Example of theology of disability. This equips us not just to know who God is and how we are to live in relationship with him and one another - but against false teaching. Involves Bible Study, reading good books. This is a way to honor God with our minds.

Discipline of Meditation - to chew, reflect, to listen to God’s word for you. This involves our hearts - this is where we honor God with a willingness to receive what he has for us, to live in obedience.

May we, too, be zealous for the honor of God.