Numbers (Part 18)
Bible Study Time 5-11-08
(From James Roberts 5-30-99)
Thank you for joining us for another session of Bible Study Time. Last week we saw that as the Israelites approached the land of the Moabites, Balak, the King of the Moabites, became afraid so He tried to hire a prophet by the name of Balaam to put a curse on the children of Israel. Balaam was a false prophet who loved the riches of this world and so he was more than willing to accommodate Balak.
However, when Balaam started to speak this curse, God intervened and spoke through Balaam a blessing rather than a curse. In doing so, God showed that He was able to speak through Balaam even as He had earlier spoken through Balaam’s donkey. Balaam voice was merely being used as an instrument in the hand of God.
As God spoke this blessing through Balaam, He gave a very important prophesy concerning the first and second coming of Israel’s Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ came the first time, His birth was accompanied by a star. As we all know, the wise men were guided by a star. But when Christ comes the second time, He will come with a scepter in His hand, and this speaks to the fact that Christ will rule and reign over the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The star and the scepter were both noted in Balaam’s prophesy when he said:
Numbers 24:17 NKJV
17 "I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel, And batter the brow of Moab, And destroy all the sons of tumult.
In Numbers, Chapter 25, we see that the Moabites and the Midianites conspired to seduce the men of Israel with the Midianite women. They felt confident that if the Midianite women could seduce the men of Israel to commit sexual sin, this would set the stage for these women to lure Israel into worshipping Baal of Peor, the god of the Moabites and the Midianites. They knew that according to God’s covenant with Israel, God would bless Israel only if Israel was willing to keep the Law of Moses.
How did they know this? It would appear that Balaam taught them all about these things and that this whole conspiracy was a result of Balaam’s doctrine. This is implied by the fact that the New Testament speaks not only of the error of Balaam but also of the doctrine of Balaam.
Numbers, Chapter 25, tells us that the Moabites and the Midianites successfully implemented this plan of seduction. Verse 1 says:
Numbers 25:1-2 NKJV
1 Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.
2 They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
Here we find Israel doing two things that were strictly forbidden by the Law. The word harlotry refers to their sexual immorality and this, of course, was strictly forbidden. Under the Law, anyone who was found guilty of adultery was to be put to death. Secondly, the Law forbade the worship of any god other than the Lord God of Israel. Here again, under the Law the punishment for idolatry was death. Therefore, God told Moses to enforce the Law. Verse 3 says:
Numbers 25:3-5 NKJV
3 So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel.
4 Then the Lord said to Moses,"Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the Lord, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel."
5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel,"Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor."
It’s interesting that these men were not stoned to death as would have been done under normal circumstances. Instead, these men were hung out in the sun to serve as a warning for all to see. Obviously, God wanted everyone to know the seriousness of breaking the Law. Then verse 6 says:
Numbers 25:6 NKJV
6 And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
Undoubtedly, while this capital punishment was being carried out, some of the women were crying at the door of the tabernacle. They were very upset that these men were being put to death. But, in the midst of all this activity, there was a man who defiantly brought into the public assembly one of the Midianite women, and he took her into his tent.
Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, was outraged at this blatant disregard for the laws of God, so he decided to take action. Verse 7 says:
Numbers 25:7-9 NKJV
7 Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand;
8 and 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 body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.
9 And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.
This was summary judgment on the part of Phinehas. There was no trial; there was no opportunity for lawyers to present evidence. This was simply instantaneous summary judgment, and the Bible says that God was very pleased with Phinehas .
This is a perfect picture of the way that the Lord Jesus will rule in His kingdom when He returns to the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In this kingdom, the Spirit of God will write the Law of God on the hearts of the believers. The believers will all know the Lord from the least of them to the greatest of them, and they will obey the spirit of the Law by the power of the Holy Spirit.
However, in the kingdom, there will also be unbelievers who are born into the kingdom. These unbelievers will have to be taught to know the Lord, but many of them will rebel. When these unbelievers sin against the Lord, they will be executed with summary judgment. Some Bible scholars have noted that the kingdom will not only be based on the Golden Rule but it will be a rule of iron for the Lord will rule in true righteousness and will establish true justice for all.
A good example of summary judgment is seen in the case of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts, Chapter 5. When Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit about the proceeds from the sale of their land, the Lord instantly struck them dead. This is the kind of summary judgment that will be administered in the kingdom.
In Numbers, Chapter 25, God decides to bless Phinehas with a covenant of peace because of his zeal for the righteousness of God. But then, in the last few verses of Numbers, Chapter 25, we read God’s instructions to Moses concerning the Moabites and the Midianites. Verse 14 says:
Numbers 25:14-18 NKJV
14 Now the name of the Israelite who was killed, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father's house among the Simeonites.
15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur; he was head of the people of a father's house in Midian.
16 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
17 "Harass the Midianites, and attack them;
18 for they harassed you with their schemes by which they seduced you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian, their sister, who was killed in the day of the plague because of Peor."
In Numbers, Chapter 31, we read that Moses and the children of Israel did carry out this command by the Lord to attack the Midianites. This attack was carried out specifically because the Midianites implemented this scheme to seduce the men of Israel into sexual immorality.
As the Apostle Paul wrote to the believers at Corinth, he was having to deal with the sexual sins of some the people. In Chapter 10 of I Corinthians, Paul referred back to this incident in Numbers, Chapter 25. He reminded them that God’s judgment for their sexual sins had resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. He instructed them that God still hates sexual sin and will most certainly judge those who commit such things.
As we close our lesson today, may we all be challenged to keep ourselves pure in our walk with the Lord. As we endeavor to serve the Lord, we need to be reminded that only a clean vessel can be used by the Lord to bring glory and honor to His name.
Well, I see our time is gone for this morning. The Lord willing, we will take up in our journey through the scripture next week. Thank you for studying with me in this another broadcast of Bible Study Time.
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