numbers 25 and 26

Read Numbers 25 and 26 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions for today’s chapters are:

Num 25:1-9 {p} Idolatry with Baal of Peor
Num 25:10-15 {p} YHVH’s covenant of peace with Phinehas son of Eleazar son of Aaron
Num 25:16-26:1a {p} (and it came to pass after the plague. p) Harass the Midianites and attack them
Num 26:1b-11 {s} The number of Reuben was 43,730
Num 26:12-14 {s} The number of Simeon was 22,200
Num 26:15-18 {s} The number of Gad was 40,500
Num 26:19-22 {s} The number of Judah was 76,500
Num 26:23-25 {s} The number of Issachar was 64,300
Num 26:26-27 {s} The number of Zebulun was 60,500
Num 26:28-37 {s} The number of Joseph: Manasseh = 52,700, Ephraim = 32,500
Num 26:38-41 {s} The number of Benjamin was 45,600
Num 26:42-43 {s} The number of Dan was 64,400
Num 26:44-47 {s} The number of Asher was 53,400
Num 26:48-51 {p} The number of Naphtali was 45,400, total = 601,730
Num 26:52-56 {s} To this number shall the land be divided among them
Num 26:57-65 {s} Levites = 23,000 + not a man was numbered previously

I had said back in Num 21-22 that nearly all of the unbelieving generation had perished in the wilderness through judgments and trials. There were in fact 24,000 left of the unbelieving generation, who committed idolatry, in a trap laid for them by the women of Moab.

Israel obviously knew that YHVH was God. Why was idolatry such a trap for them? We, who are so far removed from ancient paganism, do not have a concept of the depth of its depravity. But one of the tenets of ancient paganism, was that life and everything that was created came into being by the union of the heavens with the earth. The earth was the “female” of the two, and this is why we still see terms like “mother earth” or “mother nature” even in our culture today. This is the lie that Nimrod taught at Babel – that the earth became pregnant by the heavens, and brought forth every living thing. In fact, modern darwinism is just ancient paganism dressed in a lab coat.

So, as part of the religious observance of paganism and idolatry, there were temple prostitutes. Idol worship involved immorality as a requirement, as a rite of worship, as a picture of the original act of the gods who were to have brought life into existence. When the women of Moab enticed the men of Israel, this is what they enticed them with, and this is why the man of Israel took the woman of Midian into his tent, and this is why Phinehas was able to kill them both with one javelin.

When the Scripture says, “So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor,” (Num 25:3) it means both literally and figuratively; physically and spiritually. Now it was just a minority in Israel who entered into idolatry – the rest, while all this was going on, were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting (Num 25:6).

Scripture reveals to us that this trap was suggested to Balak king of Moab by Balaam, when the whole cursing plan fell through (Mic 6:5, Rev 2:14). In other words, Balaam found a way to lay a curse on Israel, without technically going beyond the word that the LORD commanded him to speak. Is it any wonder that it is such a grief to the Holy Spirit when we obey the letter of the Law while ignoring the Spirit of the Law?

It turns out that the only way Israel could be cursed then, was if they chose to curse themselves by their own disobedient acts. Beloved, these things were written as examples to us! This is also the only way that we can be cursed. Now in the plague that followed, when 24,000 died, the last of those whose hearts were divided in their loyalties to the LORD, fell in the wilderness, and now the children of Israel were renumbered, “all who are able to go to war in Israel,” (Num 26:2), because the wilderness wanderings are over, and Israel is preparing to enter the land again.