Numbers 25

God had spoken amazing words of triumph for Israel through the mouth of Balaam, a man who did not love the Lord or the descendants of Jacob. The king of Moab was unable to crush Israel through the words of this sorcerer. Yet, “the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.”

There is more than one way to bring trouble upon the church. That which could not be accomplished through incantations, came to pass, at least in part, through immorality.

The immorality was not only sexual, it was religious. The men of Israel became entangled in Baal worship.

This spiritual adultery brought about the fierce anger of the Lord against His beloved. God instructed Moses to put the chiefs of Israel to death publicly. Moses sent out the judges as agents of divine judgment against all those who had joined themselves to a false god.

One man, Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, zealously obeyed the Lord's call for justice, and his story is recorded in this chapter. Because of this one man's dedication to the Lord, a plague that killed twenty-four thousand people was stopped.

Phinehas killed one man and his Midianite partner with a single spear, piercing them both for their tansgression. That one act brought a covenant of peace to him and to his descendants.

The story of Phinehas is a story of divine justice through the death of the guilty. The story of Jesus is the account of an innocent man being pierced for our transgressions.

The death of Jesus brought about a much more extensive covenant of peace for the Lord's people. A plague of far more devastating dimensions was ended for us in the death of our perfect Substitute.

What motivated Christ in this great battle against sin? Zeal for the Lord's house consumed Him. We are that house, the true bride of our faithful Redeemer, and the spiritual descendants of the One who bore our iniquities through His very public death.

Later in this book, in Numbers 31:8 and 31:16, and even in Revelation 2:14 we learn that Balaam the sorcerer had a teaching role in the immoral events that took place in Peor. We read about what happened to him in another place.

The Man that Balaam saw, the Star from Jacob, did not come to Israel as a sorcerer. He was not willing to travel unauthorized pathways to spiritual power. He showed His love for His Father's justice and mercy through the way of the cross. He has become the only everlasting atonement not just for Israel, but for the whole world.