Numbers

Numbers 25:1-13

Acacia Grove appears to be the final stop before entering the Promised Land.  It is from here that Joshua sends out the spies (Joshua 2:1).  This place is also called Abel-Shittim and Josephus said it was 9 miles from the Jordan; however, archeology has never been able to pinpoint the site. 

It was here the people began to commit harlotry – this is likely meant to be spiritual harlotry.  The apostasy came about when the women invited people to the sacrifices of the local gods.  The Israelites apparently didn’t want to be rude to the locals and were open to exploring other gods.  The people ate and bowed down.  See also Psalm 106:28 which says they ate sacrifices to the dead.  Baal was the god of fertility and rain but apparently adultery and worship of the dead entered in.  The anger of the Lord was aroused and manifested as a plague (vs 9). 

The Lord instructed Moses to direct the leaders to execute the offenders of their tribes.  The ‘hang’ of verse four could be impale or hang with rope.  This was a public display of the executed – in God’s sight to end the plague, in the people’s sight to end their sin.

Instead of executing offenders, one man presented a Midianite woman as his bride at the tabernacle while the children of Israel was weeping over that very sin.  They were asking for God’s mercy in regards to the plague and this guy showed up hoping to normalize the sin.  Phineas went after these two.  The word ‘tent’ in verse 8 is only used here – however in Rabbinic literature it is used in reference to a brothel.  This may have been a tent for ritual sex in Baal worship.  Phineas entered in and thrust them through.  The fact that both were killed with a single spear implied they were having sex.  The plague was stopped with a death toll of twenty-four thousand.

The Lord offered Phineas a covenant of peace, which may be his protection from retaliation from the family of the Israelite man or Midianite woman.  See Hosea 9:10.

Numbers 25:14-18

In verse 14 we learn this man was named Zimri and that he was a leader of the Simeonites.  He was to be enforcing God’s command and setting an example.  Instead, he had taken a Midianite and become part of the problem. 

The name Zimri means ‘celebrated vine’ or ‘song to the Lord.’  Cozbi means lying, deceit or deception.  This woman was the daughter of a leader of the Midianites.  God instructed Moses to ‘harass’ the Midianites.  This word means to become their enemy and attack them. 

See Revelation 2:14,

© 2023 Doug Ford, Calvary Chapel Sweetwater