Abide in Covenant with Christ – Numbers 25:1-18
25 While Israel encamped at Shittim, the people began to indulge in sexual immorality with the Moabite women; (2) because they had invited the people to offer sacrifices to their gods, and the people ate with them and bowed down to their gods. (3) So it was that Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor; and the anger of Jehovah was aroused against Israel. (4) Jehovah said to Moses, Take all the leaders of the people and hang them up* in broad daylight for Jehovah, so that Jehovah’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel. (5) So Moses said to Israel’s judges, Put to death all those who have joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor.
(6) One of the Israelite men came back and brought among his people a Midianite woman, right before the eyes of Moses and the whole congregation of the children of Israel while they were mourning at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. (7) When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the congregation, took a spear in his hand, (8) and followed that Israelite man into his tent. He thrust the spear through both of them—right through the Israelite and into the woman’s body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped. (9) Those who had died from the plague numbered twenty four thousand. (10) Then Jehovah said to Moses, (11) Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the children of Israel, so that I did not consume them in my zeal—for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them. (12) Therefore, tell him that I am making my covenant of peace with him. (13) It shall be the covenant of a perpetual priesthood for him and his descendants after him, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the children of Israel. (14) Now the name of the Israelite man who was put to death, the one who was put to death along with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, the leader of one of the families of the tribe of Simeon. (15) And the name of the Midianite woman who was put to death was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.
(16) Jehovah said to Moses, (17) Treat the Midianites as enemies and put them to death, (18) because they treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the incident at Peor and the affair involving their sister Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was put to death at the time of the plague that came as a result of the incident at Peor.
*If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance. (Deuteronomy 21:22-23)
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
