Reading: Numbers 25-27, Psalm 48

Yesterday we read a story about Balaam and the Moabite king Balak. This story, involving a talking donkey, is familiar to many a Sunday School attending child. The story appeared to end with the departure of Balak and Balaam, having accepted that they were not going to be able to get a curse on Israel. But that was not the end of the story.

Today’s reading opens with the people of Israel being led into the worship of the “baal of peor”, a Moabite god, through Moabite prostitutes. The word baal, which will show up a great deal in our story, means “lord” or “master” and is a title given to a vast number of local deities in Canaan and the surrounding land. Later in the story the Canaanite religions will have sort of amalgamated their local “baals” into a chief “Baal.” But at this point we are talking about a deity tied to a specific geographical area, in this case Peor. Have we seen Peor before? Well, yes, it is where Balak took Balaam to try and curse Israel.

Cursing Israel didn’t work, so it appears Balak changed tactics. In the incident with Balaam he learned that he could not combat Israel’s God- so he decides to turn Israel itself against their God by converting them to the worship of the local deity of Peor. He sent religious prostitutes to seduce the Israelite men. Now, this was not quite as bizarre at the time as it would be today, though that does not make it any less offensive. The worship of the various “baals” in Canaan involved, like many ancient religions, ritual prostitution. I’ll leave the reasons for this up to anthropologists and ancient religion scholars, but suffice it to say here that the intention of these prostitutes was as much (or more) religious as economic. And it worked.

The men of Israel begin worshiping the local deity, drawn in by the Moabite prostitutes. God is not amused, and judgment is issued through the leadership structure of Israel. The offenders are killed, and the assembly repents in front of the tabernacle. While this is happening, another incident occurs with a Midianite woman. The story tells us that while Israel is gathered weeping in repentance, Zimri, a chief of the tribe of Simeon, brings a Midianite woman into his tent in full view of the people, Moses, and his own family. Phinehas, one of the sons of the high priest Eleazar, grabs a spear, goes into the tent, and spears the both of them through the gut. Yikes. God is pleased with Phinehas’ response, and it averts further disaster for the people of Israel, though in this whole mess as Peor a ton of people still die.

So what is the deal with this story? One thing to consider: the way this is presented leaves little doubt that Zimri’s actions were deliberate. This guy was flaunting his actions. Though I generally don’t like jumping around in the story, we later learn in Numbers 31 that it was Balaam who advised the Midianite to send their own prostitutes to lure Israel away from the worship of their God. Both Balak and Balaam used alternative tactics to get what they wanted after their cursing expedition failed.

This is the first of many, many stories in which foreign peoples attempt (and generally succeed) in luring the people of Israel into the worship of gods other than the God of Israel. In a great number of these cases it is through sex- either prostitution or marriages, especially to kings and rulers. Phinehas’ radical reaction to the actions of Zimri are in line with how God feels about these practices- they must be directly eliminated. Before entering the land of Canaan, God will continually reiterate to the people of Israel that they are not to be like the nations around them. This is not how the worship of the God of Israel is to be done. This is not how the people of Israel are to act. Sex and marriage are reflections of the divine image, not tools of power, and God has a very low tolerance for using people in this way.

Following this incident, there is another census. The people have been wandering in the wilderness until the previous generation has died off, but their numbers have been maintained. There are two important items of note here. First, the sons of Korah have survived. God enacted terrible judgment on Korah for his rebellion back in Numbers 16, but did not wipe out his family from Israel. In fact, his descendants will end up working in Solomon’s temple, and they are given credit for writing quite a few Psalms. The second is the little story about the daughters of Zelophohad, whose inheritance is to be protected. They were concerned because as their family had only women in one generation, and property passed through the man’s line, their family would vanish from Israel. God sets up a rule that the family property will remain in the family. Both of these indicate that God is interested in giving his people continuity and continuation. Families will not be wiped out in Israel, even families of people like Korah. God wants his people to know that he is the God of the nation of Israel, but also cares about the families of Israel. He is the God of the great and the small.

The last story we come to today is the confirmation of Joshua son of Nun as the successor to Moses. This is unsurprising given Joshua’s status and actions in the story so far. God tells Moses to bring Joshua to the high priest Eleazar and commission him to lead Israel, though note that he is given only some of the authority of Moses. Moses is unique in the leadership of Israel- Joshua is his successor but not his replacement. There will not be anyone like Moses in the story of Israel for a very, very long time.