“The Problem of Sin (Numbers 25)", Will DuVal | 5/11/25
Numbers 25 | 5/11/25 | Will DuVal
Polly and I just signed our daughter Ellery up last week for her first taste of SUMMER camp this July, and it got me thinking about my OWN experience years ago at Camp Soaring Hawk. I can still remember the brochure, filled with pictures of smiling kids all having the time of their lives, enjoying the camp’s “pristine” facilities and exciting activities - the brand new high ropes course, repelling off the giant rock wall; it looked AMAZING! And my parents told me the best part was that my best friends John Lyle & William were signed up TOO - we could all be in the same cabin and share the joys together.
But then we showed UP. And found out that John Lyle and William had BOTH been moved to different cabins. And later that night when our activities for the week were announced, I discovered I was one age group too YOUNG for the high ropes course and rock wall; I was assigned CANOEING instead. And I’ve repressed MOST of that week, but I do have three VIVID, lasting memories of Camp Soaring Hawk: the first is pooping my swim trunks on the canoe trip because we couldn’t get the boat to shore in time, the second was trying to get cleaned up in the showers later, and thinking, “I’m not 100% sure what the word “pristine” means, but I’m PRETTY sure this ain’t it!”; it smelled like a port-a-potty BEFORE I walked in and there were dead bugs littering the cold, concrete floor… And then my LAST memory is laying in bed that night, alone, homesick, CRYING, thinking my friends in the cabins next door might as well be a million miles away.
Sometimes the experience doesn’t live up to the BROCHURE, does it? The same could be said of God’s people, Israel, in Numbers ch25, where we turn our attention this morning. Commentator Iain Duguid (Numbers, p291-2) explains: “For several chapters we have been on the mountain heights with Balaam, surveying Israel from a distance and hearing about how blessed they are.” If you’re just joining us for the first time this morning, we’ve been in the wonderful book of NUMBERS since January, following God’s people as He leads them OUT of slavery in Egypt and TOWARDS the Promised Land of ‘milk and honey’, and they are FINALLY just on the CUSP of entering in. And LAST week in chapters 23 & 24, we read this fascinating account of this prophet-for-hire Balaam being contracted by the king of Moab, Balak, to CURSE Israel for him, but every time Balaam tried, GOD turned the curse into a BLESSING. As Duguid summarizes:
“In Balaam’s oracle Israel is “a people dwelling alone, and not counting itself among the nations” (23:9). They see neither misfortune nor misery, for the Lord their God is with them (23:21). No sorcery or divination could succeed against Israel, for the Lord had blessed them, and he would not change his mind (23:20,23). These people are “the UPRIGHT”, among whom it would be a privilege to die (23:10)... This is the glorious, ideal picture of Israel, the view from the brochure, if you like.
In Numbers 25, however, we descend from the lofty heights of Balaam’s prophecy to the harsh reality of the defiled people of God in the valley below. Far from being “the upright” who remain separate from the nations, the men of Israel engage in sexual immorality with Moabite women (v1), [which] leads to the further step of joining in the Moabites’ sacrifices and entering into a covenant with the god of Moab, Baal of Peor (vv2-3).”
So much for the brochure! But isn’t that US? Aren’t WE Israel? The Bible says that WE - the CHURCH - are now the covenant people of God. And it declares US “holy and upright” - “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, the old is gone; the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17); “you are [NOW] a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Pet 2:9).
…At least in the BROCHURE. From the “lofty heights” of God’s promised BLESSINGS; the IDEAL. But is it our “REAL”? Is that your lived REALITY, that “the old is completely gone” and you now live “upright and blameless” in every way? If you’re not sure, just ask your SPOUSE… ask your KIDS, THEY’LL hold the mirror up for you.
Speaking of looking in the mirror, it is this GAP between the IDEAL and the REAL that the apostle PAUL reflects on in Romans ch7, perhaps the most RELATABLE passage in the Bible, for those of us honest enough to admit it: “I do not understand my own actions… I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out… I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive… Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but SIN that dwells within me” (vv15-23).
And THAT is the problem we’ve gotta address this morning: the problem of SIN. We ALL know the world isn’t the way it SHOULD be. But the question is: Why NOT? “What’s at the heart of the problem?” According to Buddhism, the problem is suffering driven by our worldly attachment. In Hinduism, it’s the cycle of reincarnation that’s driven by our karma. For secular humanists, the problem is intolerance driven by our ignorance. But friends, God’s answer to the question is crystal clear in His word: our fundamental, ROOT problem is SIN; it is our rebellion against the LORD.
In Numbers 25 we’re gonna see this problem on full display, in the example of Israel. But so too are we going to see God’s answer - His SOLUTION - to the problem of sin, in the example of a guy named Phinehas. And MOST importantly, we’re gonna see how Phinehas points us ahead to God’s FINAL, once-for-ALL time remedy for sin: His SON Jesus Christ.
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I invite you to STAND with me… Numbers ch25:
“While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. 2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. 4 And the Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” 5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”
6 And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand 8 and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. 9 Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
10 And the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. 12 Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, 13 and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”
14 The name of the slain man of Israel, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, chief of a father's house belonging to the Simeonites. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, who was the tribal head of a father's house in Midian.
16 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “Harass the Midianites and strike them down, 18 for they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the chief of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague on account of Peor.”” [This is the word of the Lord…]
If our #1 problem - the root issue that you and me and EVERY person who has ever lived must DEAL with, must OVERCOME - if our problem is SIN, our rejection of God, then this passage teaches us five massively important truths ABOUT sin, and about its SOLUTION.
#1- And the FIRST is that Sin is PERNICIOUS. (vv1-2; 31:16)
“Causing insidious harm or ruin; hurtful; fatal; EVIL, wicked” (dictionary.com). That’s what sin IS and what it DOES.
Sin - and sin’s AUTHOR, SATAN himself - are so pernicious, in part, because they are so subtle, subversive, SNEAKY. I pointed out last week that like ISRAEL, we TOO have an “enemy” who is doing his best to try and curse US; Balaam is a SYMBOL of sorts, for SATAN. And Balaam’s DEFEAT last week in chapters 23 & 24 - his utter inability to CURSE the one whom GOD has BLESSED - was deeply significant for us; 1 John 5:18 promises that Jesus Christ “protects [us], and the evil one does not touch [us]”... at least not DIRECTLY. But we discover now this morning that Satan’s inability to curse us HIMSELF doesn’t stop him from subtly TEMPTING us into cursing OURSELVES! That’s been his M.O. from the very BEGINNING, in the GARDEN: “Did God really say you can’t enjoy that DELICIOUS fruit; what kind of GOD would want to DEPRIVE you…? Go ahead, just a little nibble…”.
And Satan does it again here in Numbers 25, through his representative, Balaam; I should have WARNED you last week that we hadn’t seen the LAST of this guy. And even though we don’t read his NAME here in ch25, there is a fascinating and diabolical BACKSTORY to this episode at Peor that we know of from two OTHER passages of Scripture.
One is all the way at the END of the Bible, when Revelation 2 refers back to this story and says that “Balaam taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.”
And that “teaching” will be alluded to just a few pages from now in Numbers ch31, when Israel DEFEATS Midian in battle but then displeases God by failing to execute his wrath & justice on Midian by putting ALL of them to the sword, so Moses REBUKES Israel by saying: “Behold, these [Midianite women], on Balaam's ADVICE, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor…” (31:16).
So apparently Israel’s SIN here at Peor, was the BRAIN-child of none other than the failed sorcerer-turned-SEDUCER Balaam.
Apparently after his fourth and final attempt to JINX Israel last week, when we read that “Balaam rose and went back to his place” (24:25), it wasn’t to SULK but to SCHEME. Not to POUT but to PLOT.
Then he got an idea. An AWFUL idea. The enemy got a wonderful, AWFUL idea (Dr. Seuss, “Grinch”): “Maybe I can’t CURSE them, but I bet I can COAX them… I wasn’t able to ENCHANT them, but perhaps I can ENTICE them… I can’t TOUCH them but I’ll TEMPT them into condemning THEMSELVES… by SINNING.”
And it doesn’t have to be some big, OUTRAGEOUS sin; sometimes the more SUBTLE the sin, the more pernicious. In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis imagines the correspondence between a veteran demon - Screwtape - writing to share advice with his inexperienced nephew demon Wormwood. And Screwtape’s guidance is apropos and chilling:
“My Dear Wormwood… You [don’t] need a good book, which he really likes, to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep; a column of advertisements in yesterday's paper will do. You can make him waste his time not only in conversation he enjoys with people whom he likes, but in conversations with those he cares nothing about on subjects that bore him. You can make him do nothing at all for long periods. [Sounds like Lewis was prophetically describing doom-scrolling on SOCIAL MEDIA, doesn’t it?! But now listen especially to THIS part…] “You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy [GOD]. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope… without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts…” (Lewis, pp25-26)
Friends: THAT’S how you end up shipwrecking your faith: not with MURDER; Satan doesn’t TEMPT us with MURDER, does he? But with ANGER. He doesn’t TEMPT us with ADULTERY; just a little LUST. A little harmless flirting in the office, that’s all. It’s just a little BITE of an apple; what could go wrong…?
Our waywardness doesn’t start with “spectacular wickedness”, but with the “very small sins” that over TIME, have the “cumulative, gradual effect” of “edging” us away from GOD.
And that’s what happens to ISRAEL here. It didn’t START with total APOSTASY - forsaking their covenant relationship with Yahweh to be “yoked” instead to Baal of Peor - No; how did their sin START?
If you look at v1 and answer, “the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab”, sorry but you’re WRONG. Because I just TOLD you: “It never STARTS as an AFFAIR, as “WHORING”; no, it STARTS… with a little LUST.”
Balaam went back to Balak the next day, and Balak said, “Oh no! No, no, NO; Not YOU! Get AWAY! Haven’t you done ENOUGH already?!”
And Balaam said, “I know, I know; sorry AGAIN about that, but like I told you, “Yahweh MADE me bless them”. But just hear me OUT; I’ve got a NEW plan…” See, Balaam knew he couldn’t beat Israel if GOD was fighting for them. So he figured: we gotta find a way to turn Israel against GOD. We can’t win if God’s fighting FOR them, but ISRAEL can’t win if they’re fighting against GOD.” (Pastor Kenny Baldwin, “Numbers 25” sermon)
“SO,” Balaam says to Balak, “you know how the saying goes: “If you can’t BEAT ‘em… [what?]”
JOIN ‘em. We’re gonna JOIN Israel, in the most INTIMATE way POSSIBLE, if you know what I mean…”
Balak says, “Ewww!”
Balaam says, “Not YOU; send your WOMEN down! Make sure they’re wearing their LOWEST-cut, TIGHTEST-fitting robes, and then send ‘em down AMONGST the Israelites.”
Now if you said, “That’s what I said; Pastor didn’t fool me; I knew Israel’s first sin was LUST…” - Ehhh! You’re wrong again; sorry. Because in Deuteronomy ch2,v9, Moses is gonna admit that God TOLD him not to even MESS AROUND with the MOABITES, “for I am not GIVING you any of their land for a possession”. The Israelites weren’t supposed to be HANGING OUT here in Shittim this long in the FIRST place (Baldwin). Notice the English VERB translated here in v1: “While Israel LIVED in Shittim”; not “camped”, not “passed through”; No, Israel started putting down ROOTS in Shittim.
And listen: before you ever even OVERTLY sin, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time can be SINFUL if you KNOW better. If you KNOW that you’re not supposed to BE in that place at that time, and you put yourself in that position ANYWAY. We’re reading through the Bible in a year together as a family, and we just read the story of David and Bathsheeba last week. David’s sin didn’t START with his ADULTERY. It didn’t even start with his LUST. It all STARTED, according to 2 Samuel 11, v1 “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, [but] David sent Joab [instead…] And David remained at Jerusalem.” David was supposed to be gone with his TROOPS, leading them into BATTLE; he never should’ve been lounging around on the palace rooftop that day to BEGIN with! Bathsheeba thought she was safe to take her bath outside that afternoon, because all the REAL men - like her husband Uriah - were supposed to be off FIGHTING.
But when you’re in the wrong place at the wrong TIME… listen: SOME of us have NO business mindlessly surfing the internet at 10:30 after our WIVES have gone to bed. Wrong place, wrong time; I gotta KNOW myself better than to do that.
Some of you have no BUSINESS even walking down the frozen FOODS aisle at Schnucks, because ever since BLUE BELL came to town, you just can’t CONTROL yourself. “I’ve got the desire to do what’s right, but not the ability to carry it out… my [TASTE BUDS] are waging WAR against my MIND and making me captive”; “the Spirit is willing but the FLESH is so WEAK!”
Some of you need to politely excuse yourself from the weekly BRIDGE game, or the WALKING club, or the beauty parlor… or whenever TEA time is, and I’m not talking about LIPTONS. “Tea time” is what the KIDS call GOSSIP. And you oughta KNOW yourself better, that you struggle with being “loose-lipped”, so don’t even put yourself in that situation, to be tempted to sin.
And we could go ON and on and try and find a nerve to hit for each ONE of us, YOUR weak spot, where you are uniquely vulnerable and susceptible to temptation, but we’d NEVER exhaust them all; our hearts are FAR too “prone to WANDER”. But you get the POINT: sin is PERNICIOUS. It may be SUBTLE, it may SEEM insignificant, but it is DEADLY.
And SECONDLY, now: we need to recognize that (#2-) Sin WANTS to PROLIFERATE. (vv3a, 6, 9, 14-15) That IS, “to increase in number or spread rapidly and often excessively.” (dictionary.com)
Though Israel’s sin didn’t START as sexual immorality or idolatry - they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time; they just wanted to hang out in SHITTIM a few extra days… - but it doesn’t STOP there, does it? Sin is a CANCER, it’s a VIRUS that inherently wants to SPREAD. One of the Bible’s favorite metaphors for sin is YEAST or “LEAVEN”; it “multiplies rapidly and excessively”. What STARTED as just a few extra days in Shittim ENDED with Israel “yok[ing] himself [binding… ATTACHING] to Baal of Peor” (v3). The wording and imagery here of “yoking” is MEANT to evoke the picture of MARRIAGE: “2 become 1 flesh”. Which drives home the verb used in v1 even more forcefully: “the people began to WHORE with the daughters of Moab.” Idolatry IS spiritual adultery. And make no mistake: it is not Israel’s sexual immorality, but rather their idolatry that constitutes their TERMINAL sin here in Numbers 25. That really is the perfect word for it, because idolatry is both the “end and extremity”, the “conclusion of the series” - Israel’s sin CULMINATES and TERMINATES in idolatry - but it is ALSO “terminal” in the medical sense, in that it “causes the end of [Israel’s] life”. It wasn’t their FORNICATION - that would have been bad ENOUGH! - but it was their IDOLATRY that ULTIMATELY “kindled the anger of the Lord” and led to Israel’s RUIN here. Commentator David Guzik points out that “To this point in their story… Israel has sinned in many ways. They murmured, grumbled, and complained, not being grateful for God’s generous provision. They worshipped Yahweh in a false way, claiming an image of a golden calf could represent Him. They sinned by their unbelief, refusing to trust God and His promise to them. But before this, they had never plainly worshipped another god. This was… idolatry unlike any previously seen in the [the Bible to date]” (Enduring Word, “Numbers 25”). So too Iain Duguid (295): “The primary issue in this story is not sex but idolatry… Israel’s abandonment of the true and living God was the crime that merited their death. This is countercultural in our society. Surveys repeatedly show that when asked to rate the 10 Commandments in order of importance, people invariably rank “Thou shalt not kill” as the most important… and “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” as the least important.”
But there’s a REASON it’s #1 on GOD’S list, friends. Because IF there’s really a God - a LOVING, Creator - by whom and FOR whom EVERYTHING exists, who SPECIALLY designed US, humanity, for relationship with HIMSELF, and who graciously INVITES us (and authoritatively COMMANDS us!) to “LOVE him with ALL of our heart, mind, soul & strength” - that’s why he PUT us here! - then what on EARTH could be more EGREGIOUS than giving your heart, mind, soul & strength to ANYTHING else?!
And yet we DO it every DAY, don’t we?! Aren’t WE every bit as IDOLATROUS as the Israelites? Be honest: what “gods” did YOU put “BEFORE” the LORD, Yahweh, this past week? Who got MORE of your “heart, mind, soul & strength” this week: your GOD, or your PHONE?
Your God, or your SPOUSE?
God or your KIDS?
God or your JOB? Your MONEY? Your STUFF? Your COMFORT, Your FRIENDS, your CHURCH (Yes, even THIS can become an idol!), Your REPUTATION, your HEALTH, your SEX LIFE, your SELF!!
Who or what got MOST of your heart, mind, soul & strength this week – THAT’s your IDOL!
And what starts out so small and SUBTLE, can so QUICKLY proliferate and ESCALATE out of CONTROL. Consider what I’m calling (*trademark*) the proliferation progression of PREPOSITIONS that we find here in Israel’s sin:
They Lived AMONGST the Moabites → until they started Lusting FOR the Moabites → before eventually Fornicating WITH the Moabites → which led to them Partaking IN the Moabites’ same sins (Israel ATTENDED “the sacrifices of their gods” and “FEASTED” right along) → before finally, Devoting themselves TO the Moabites’ idolatry (Israel “bowed down to their gods… yoked himself to Baal”).
Amongst → For → With → In → TO. I wonder if that’s not a paradigm for the proliferation of sin, regardless of the idol.
Take WORK. Maybe you didn’t start OUT as a workaholic… but you worked AMONGST a few of them. Then you started noticing all the extra attention and praise, the promotions and RAISES those folks got, and over time you started to long FOR it yourself. So you started spending more time WITH them, schmoozing and ingratiating yourself. And before you knew it, YOU were the one missing your kids soccer games and cancelling on your wife for DATE night because of the deadline on that important work project. And after YEARS of just ACCEPTING that “this is just what it takes to succeed in this business”, you are now YOKED TO - you’re CHAINED to the office. You think that just because the placard on the door has your NAME on it, that the office belongs to YOU… not realizing that SOMEWHERE along the way, YOU started belonging to the OFFICE. You don’t possess the job; IT possesses YOU.
And that’s what an idol IS, by the way: it’s when some thing - ANY thing - becomes your ULTIMATE thing. That’s why the best things make for the most NATURAL idols. Spouse, kids, money, sex - ALL good things. But we can only have one ULTIMATE thing.
Now, just a couple other quick things we need to note here about the PROLIFERATION of sin before we move on (we’re ALMOST through verse THREE!):
But first, let’s note how WIDE their sin is: in MOST of their previous rebellions, we heard that “SOME of the people sinned…”, “Aaron & Miriam sinned…”, “Korah stirred up 250 well-known leaders of the people…”, but HERE, we just read “the people began to whore… So Israel yoked himself to Baal…”. And the extensiveness of Israel’s sin is UNDER-scored by its PUNISHMENT in v9: “those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.”
But just as shameful as the BREADTH of their sin was the DEPTH of Israel’s iniquity, as evidenced and epitomized by this cat ZIMRI “son of Salu, who was chief of a father's house (he’s not just a “rank and file” Israelite; this is yet another LEADER of the people gone astray. A LEADER…) “ belonging to the Simeonites”. Duguid points out (294): “There were apparently serious consequences for the Simeonites, [which] became apparent when the second census was taken in Numbers 26. In that census they were the only tribe whose numbers had dramatically decreased over the forty-year period… from 59,300 to a mere 22,200. Perhaps because of their leadership in this sin, they suffered most of all of the tribes of Israel in the final plague.” Proliferative SIN can have proliferative CONSEQUENCES; FAR-reaching.
But when I call out the DEPTH of Zimri’s sin here, I’m not just decrying its impact; I’m highlighting the class and CALIBER of his sin. This guy is BEYOND bold; he is BRAZEN… and BRAIN-less! He doesn’t even TRY and hide HIS sin; while everyone else is WEEPING over their 24,000 plague-stricken brothers and sisters, Zimri proudly PARADES this Midianite chick - Cosby daughter of BILL (sexual immorality - it runs in the family…); No: Cozbi, daughter of Zur - he PARADES her in front of the “the whole congregation of the people of Israel” according to v6, and not only THAT, but “in the sight of Moses” as well.
Which brings up a good question: why didn’t MOSES do anything about it? Phinehas will be COMMENDED for his ZEAL for God’s HOLINESS, but where has MOSES’s zeal gone? He’s still the LEADER… for NOW. But as we’ll SEE, not for much LONGER. Because no matter HOW faithfully you’ve led, no matter how many VICTORIES you’ve been a PART of - the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, receiving the 10 Commandments, bringing water from the rock, the bronze serpent… Moses’s résumé goes ON and on - but when it’s ALL said and done, if you lose your ZEAL for the Lord and his HOLINESS, you are no longer fit to LEAD.
What happened to the guy who got so mad at Israel for making the Golden Calf that he CHUCKED the stone tablets that God HIMSELF had written on at them; they need THAT guy back, to set them STRAIGHT!
What happened to the guy so zealous and passionate for the PEOPLE that he was willing to step in between and let God strike HIM down, lest God destroy the entire NATION; they need THAT guy back, to SAVE their sorry hides!
Make no mistake: this SIN, and its CONSEQUENCE - the plague - happened on MOSES’s WATCH. Duguid notes (293): “Clearly [Zimri] had discerned that there was no willingness among the leadership to actually enforce the death penalty that had been announced… so he flaunted his sin in front of everyone. He thought he could sin boldly and there would be no consequences.”
And speaking of the DEATH penalty that was announced: look more CLOSELY with me at vv4 and 5; what did GOD instruct Moses to do, as punishment for Israel’s idolatry? “Take all the chiefs of the people [the LEADERS, those responsible for keeping Israel’s sin in CHECK] and hang them [or IMPALE] them” out in the OPEN, for all to SEE; as a REMINDER of the consequences…
But what did MOSES actually instruct the JUDGES to do, in v5? “Each of you kill [ONLY] those of his men who have [actually] yoked themselves to Baal”. That’s not what GOD told him to do! And we don’t even hear that the judges actually carried OUT his order; that Moses ENFORCED it. He’s going SOFT in his old AGE!
But “a little LEAVEN leavens the whole LUMP”; sin SPREADS. Moses FAILED to stop the plague, and it continues ON. And so do Zimri and Cozbi, right in FRONT of Moses. “Many commentators believe they were having sex right in front of the tabernacle, and the text tactfully obscures this, because it was so outrageous and offensive” (Guzik). And yet Moses put UP with it. That’s how far Israel’s sin has now SPREAD; even MOSES is implicated.
But don’t miss THIS, friends: #3) Sin MUST be PUNISHED. (vv3b-5)
If not by MOSES, then by God HIMSELF. Hence, the plague. Because God will not be MOCKED; “whatever a man sows, that will he also reap” (Gal 6:7). Actions have consequences.
And the Bible says, “the wages of SIN is death”; the rightful, fair, appropriate, JUST consequence for sin - ANY sin… ALL sin… - is DEATH. That’s what you and I and every other SINNER who has ever lived - which is to say every other PERSON who’s ever lived - what we deserve.
Every other person, that is, but ONE. Only ONE man lived a perfect, SIN-LESS life, and therefore deserved NO punishment, NO death. But here’s the power of the GOSPEL: that man, Jesus Christ, God’s own SON, willingly laid down his LIFE, and SUFFERED death in our place, and even WORSE, he suffered the FULL punishment for our sin, being “forsaken” by his FATHER - “My God, my God; why have you FORSAKEN me?”, Jesus cried. But friends: God plugged his ears and turned his back on his own SON so that he would NEVER have to plug his ears or turn his back on YOU. And TODAY, if YOU will simply cry out: “My God, my God; THANK you for not FORSAKING me!” and turn FROM your sin, turn TO Jesus Christ in faith, YOU WILL BE SAVED!!
“The wages of sin is death… BUT… but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 6:23)
Please listen to me; if you hear NOTHING else this morning, you need to hear and believe THIS: *ALL sin MUST be PUNISHED. That means YOUR sin either HAS been punished ALREADY, on the CROSS, when Jesus died in your place… or it has YET to be punished, and you will spend the rest of ETERNITY trying in VAIN to pay the penalty. Because our God is THAT holy, and our sin is THAT PERNICIOUS. Only a PERFECT Savior could pay the punishment in FULL. And praise God: Jesus DID! But ONLY for those who would come to him in humble, repentant, genuine FAITH.
#4) Sin should be (hated & therefore) PURGED. (vv7-8; 16-18)
This marks a TRANSITION point in the book of Numbers. I told you all the way back in our “Intro” of week 1, that most commentators outline the book into two parts: chs1-25 and the OLD generation of Israelites who were (MOSTLY) faithless and who will therefore DIE OUT in the wilderness, and then NEXT week and chs26-36 will focus on the NEW generation of Israelites who are (MOSTLY) faith-FUL and therefore receive LIFE in the Promised Land.
But really the turning point is right HERE, in v7, with PHINEHAS: “When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it”, saw Zimri’s blatant, flagrant, high-handed SIN, he did what MOSES should have done already by this point but FAILED to: he GOT up, grabbed a SPEAR, followed them INTO the tent, and turned Zimri and Cozbi into a human shish-kabob.
He PURGED the camp of this EGREGIOUS iniquity, and what happened? 8b? “Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped.”
Now the commentators point out that “Phinehas was not a vigilante… Numbers chs3 & 4 explained that the priests were responsible for the security of the tabernacle, guarding it against intruders, and killing those who dared to trespass.” (Guzik). Phinehas was just doing his JOB.
MAYBE. But there were PLENTY of other PRIESTS there that day. And Zimri waltzed right BY them. I have to believe that even if Phinehas HADN’T been a priest, God STILL would have commended him for his ZEAL for the Lord and his willingness to ACT. SOMEONE had to step up and do what had to be done. Sure, it SHOULD have been MOSES; SHOULD have been AARON. But better PHINEHAS - better ANYONE - than NO ONE.
It should be DAD leading the family spiritually, taking the initiative with family devotions, prioritizing church on Sundays, setting the tone and example in his personal prayer life… but if HE won’t step up, Moms: you better grab your SPEARS this Mother’s Day.
The kids shouldn’t HAVE to be the ones to reprimand you from the backseat for driving over the speed limit, or using that word when another driver cuts you off - anyone else have a little PHARISEE at home? The SIN police? But on second thought, maybe she’s just a PHINEHAS.
Church: if we HATE sin even HALF as much as GOD does, we will PURGE it from our midst. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump…” God warns, so “Purge the EVIL from among you.” (1 Cor 5:6,13) That’s why God instructs Israel in v17 to “Harass the Midianites and strike them down”; ROOT the cancer out ENTIRELY, lest it RETURN with a vengeance.
But LASTLY, friends, and quickly: we need more than our sin being PUNISHED, the penalty PAID. We needed even more than our sin being PURGED…
WE need our sin to be PARDONED. (vv10-13) FORGIVEN.
And praise GOD, it CAN be. How? Look at v11; God said to Moses:
“Phinehas… has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel… because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’””
I’ll cut to the chase: we needed a BETTER Phinehas. One who was also, equally “CONSUMED” with “ZEAL” for his father’s house and holiness, and sometimes that zeal drove him to make whips and drive the money changers out of the Temple (Ps 69:9; Jn 2:17). But that same zeal ultimately drove JESUS to the CROSS. Where, unlike Phinehas, instead of piercing the sinners in order to satisfy the wrath of God, Jesus was pierced BY sinners and FOR us sinners, in order to endure God’s wrath in our place. Jesus was pierced so that YOU don’t have to be.
And the “perpetual priesthood” and “covenant of PEACE” that Phinehas is rewarded with here was consummated in the person and the priesthood and the PEACE of Jesus CHRIST, who AS our great “high priest”, turned back the wrath of God against our sin by the sacrifice of HIMSELF on the cross, such that NOW the Bible says , “he is HIMSELF our PEACE, having KILLED the hostility that once existed between a holy God and a sinful people, by “reconciling us to God through the cross… and thereby MAKING PEACE” (Eph 2).
Are YOU at peace with God this morning; is Christ Jesus HIMSELF your PEACE? Have your sins been PARDONED? If not, what are you WAITING for - TODAY is the day of salvation! Come to Jesus and be SAVED.