"Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure."You can actually read the first five books of the Bible as prophecy.
I spend a lot of time meditating on the story of Baal Peor. There are so many aspects of this story that matter. As a matter of fact, if you have read through my blog, you will see several references to Phinehas from this story. It was here, in the story of Baal Peor, that we have the story of Balaam, a character whose donkey I have also referred to several times in this blog. I have actually started writing what may turn into a small book on this story. It is literally a treasure trove chock full of biblical gems.
That being said, there is at least one aspect of this story I have been unable to figure out and I think God has finally given me some insight into it; but first, the story.
In the book of Numbers, chapters 22-25, you will find the story of what happened to the Israelites just before they crossed into the promised land, just before Moses dies, just before their journey through the wilderness would come to an end, and it happened at Baal Peor in the plains of Moab.
Israel had already defeated two kings on their way to Moab, Sihon, King of the Amorites and Og, king of Bashan. It should be made known that Israel didn't set out to fight these kings. Israel asked Sihon for permission to pass through his land and said they didn't want anything from the king but safe passage. Sihon refused and went out to make war with them and was defeated. Og went out after and was defeated as well, which is how Israel got the land east of the Jordan.
Anyway, Balak, king of Moab is seeing this massive migration of people that has already taken two kingdoms and he gets nervous. He tries to hire the local prophet, Balaam, to curse them. Apparently, Balaam had quite the reputation.
Balaam prays to God, it clear that it is the God of the Bible, and God forbids him to curse Israel. Balaam sends the bad news to King Balak who promptly gathers some royal friends, or ups the ante, and sends them to Balaam with a bigger bribe which includes glory. Balaam again refuses to curse Israel but says that he would inquire of the Lord again. God says he would allow Balaam to go with the emissaries if they came and asked him.
Balaam skipped right past the condition that God had placed on the trip, saddled up his donkey and headed off to Balak. This shows his greed and God gets angry. He sends his angel to kill Balaam. Balaam's donkey can see the angel and tries to turn from the path. Balaam hit her. So this poor donkey tries to do what her master wants but that angel is still there with his sword so she turns toward the wall. She ends up mashing Balaam's foot against a wall and Balaam beats her again. The third time, the angel of the Lord stood in such a place that there was no escape and she couldn't turn to the right or left. So the poor donkey just falls to the ground. Balaam is pretty angry at this point and beats her again.
I know I'm spending a lot of time here but you just have to love what happens next. God gives the donkey the ability to speak. She says something like, "Look buddy, haven't I been your faithful donkey all this time? Have I ever behaved this way? Why are you beating me like this!"
Instead of fainting or screaming, "Aaaaaa! a talking donkey!" Balaam says, "Because you have mocked me. Why, I would kill you right here on the spot if I had a sword."
God opens Balaam's eyes and he sees the angel of the Lord. There is quite an exchange at this point and Balaam repents and declares his sin. He tells the angel he will go back but the angel told him to go on with the men.
Balaam ends up standing on a high place of Baal (basically Satan) overlooking the people and blesses them even to prophesying the coming of the Messiah. Balak gets upset and by the end of chapter 24, you think it is the end of Balaam's story. You find out later that Balaam had sabotaged Israel. When he couldn't curse them, he told Balak how to get Israel to curse themselves, by sin.
Chapter 25 opens with Israel committing whoredoms with Moab. Moab called to Israel to sacrifice to their false gods and Israel did. It was pretty bad and the sins of Baal Peor are a study in and of themselves. But, needless to say, God's anger was kindled against Israel and Moses was instructed to take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord in the sun to turn away the anger of the Lord. Then slay everyone that was joined with Baal Peor.
We are getting to our lesson. Bear with me.
So, all the people are weeping and repenting when one of the children of Israel came and brought 'unto his brethren' a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, in the sight of all the congregation and all the people who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle, and took her into his tent.
Phinehas, the priest, saw this. He rose up, took a javelin in his hand. He went into the tent of the man and thrust the javelin through the bellies of the man and the woman as they were engaged in sin. God blessed Phinehas with a covenant of an everlasting priesthood. If you have read my post on Hanukkah, you already know that Mattathias, the priest who started the Maccabean Rebellion, was a descendant of Phinehas.
My question has always been, "Why a woman from Midian? Why was the woman not from Moab? Wasn't it Moab that were the bad guys in this story?"
Here is your nugget. The Midianites were familiar. Everyone knew the Midianites. Moses' wife, Ziporah, was from Midian. Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, had traveled with the people for a while and even given Moses sound advise, advise that effected all the people so they would have known him.
So, here is Israel camped at the base of Baal Peor mesmerized by this new exotic religion that was very sexual in nature and these good Jewish boys had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years and probably hadn't seen much.
It is safe to say that the whoredoms that were committed with Moab were committed out there in the plains. But, even if you aren't out there in the plains with the temple prostitutes, you may think it is alright if it's someone from church. It is not.
Notice that Zimri, the man that was slain, didn't think twice about what he was doing. He strolled right through the camp in front of Moses and all the people. I think that he may have been inspired by the behavior of those who had gone to the plain with Moab, but he brought it home, right 'unto his brethren'.
The point is, well one of the points is, familiarity can breed sin. Don't put yourself in a situation with someone familiar. Don't complain about your husband to your best friend's husband because, "He is so understanding," or, if you're a man, take your neighbor's wife with you to pick out his birthday present. Aside from the fact that the Bible tells us to abstain from the appearance of evil, it is too dangerous to put yourself in that situation. Sin usually doesn't come bursting in, it comes little by little. Don't give a foothold to the enemy and familiarity can be that foothold.
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