CHAPTER 25

(1452 B.C.)

BAAL

¹And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab (Balaam could not get the Lord to curse Israel, so he concocted another scheme; through this counsel, Israel would be seduced [31:16]).

²And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods (and Israel was invited, under the guise of peace): and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.

³And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor (seduced by the daughters of Moab): and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel (while nothing could cause the Lord to be angry at Israel as His People, He definitely was angered at their sin, as He is all sin).

JUDGMENT

⁴And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun (in other words, execute those who are guilty), that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel (if they continued on this course, the entirety of the nation could be destroyed).

⁵And Moses said unto the judges of Israel (the first place where judges are mentioned by this name), Slay y ou everyone his men who were joined unto Baal-peor (the worship of this heathen god entailed every type of sexual immorality, which was used to seduce Israel).

⁶And, behold, one of the Children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the Children of Israel (flaunting their wickedness before all), who were weeping before the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation (realizing the depths of this depravity, and the judgment that it would bring upon Israel, a great foreboding filled the hearts of many, and rightly so!).

⁷And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the Priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand (he seems to have been the only son of Eleazar, then the High Priest, and his natural successor in the office of High Priest).

⁸And 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 belly. So the plague was stayed from the Children of Israel. (God cannot abide sin in any form. If Christ is accepted, judgment is stopped, because He has borne the judgment for all, at least all who will accept Him. If Christ is rejected, then ultimately judgment must come upon the sinner. There is no alternative.)

⁹And those who died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. (In I Corinthians 10:8, Paul said twenty-three thousand. There is no contradiction. The ones addressed by Paul took place in one day. Evidently, a thousand died the following day.)

THE PRIESTHOOD

¹⁰And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹¹Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the Priest, has turned My Wrath away from the Children of Israel, while he was zealous for My sake among them, that I consumed not the Children of Israel in My jealousy. (We are to be as zealous today against sin as was Phinehas so long ago; however, the type of zealousness presently commanded is that the Believer be determined to rid himself of all sin, which can only be done by making the Cross of Christ the Object of ones Faith, which then gives the Holy Spirit latitude to perform the Work, Who Alone can do such [Rom. 8:1-2, 11].)

¹²Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him My Covenant of peace:

¹³And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the Covenant of an everlasting Priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an Atonement for the Children of Israel. (Phinehas, by his act, became a Type of Christ, Who would defeat Satan at the Cross. The Everlasting Priesthood belongs to Christ, and will belong to Him forever [Heb. 7:21-24].)

¹⁴Now the name of the Israelite who was slain, even who was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a Prince of a chief house among the Simeonites.

¹⁵And the name of the Midianitish woman who was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian.

WILES OF SATAN

¹⁶And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹⁷Vex the Midianites, and smite them:

¹⁸For they vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a Prince of Midian, their sister, which was slain in the day of the plague for Peors sake. (All of this tells us that the women of Midian were employed by their rulers, on the advice of Balaam, in a deliberate plot to entangle the Israelites in heathen rites and heathen sins, which would alienate them from the favor of God. While the Lord would greatly punish Israel for her sin, as stated here, He also took vengeance on those who enticed them into that sin. Some seven years later, Balaam was also killed by the Children of Israel [Josh. 13:22]. Due to his rebellion against God, he did not die the death of the righteous. His love of money closed that door, and did so forever.)