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Numbers Chapter 25   (ESV)

1 While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. 2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. 4 And the Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” 5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”

6 And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand 8 and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. 9 Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

10 And the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. 12 Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, 13 and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”

REFLECTION:

• Read the passage slowly trying to understand the atmosphere then.
• God wants His people to be pure and holy in all aspects of life, including the arena of sexual morality. God’s anger was kindled against the Israelites when they engaged in the fertility rites of Baal with the Moabites.  Sexual immorality and the worship of other gods (idolatry) go hand in hand.  Nor is this an accident.
• Human sexuality was given by God as the highest form of intimacy between a man and a woman. Sexual immorality has not only physical ramifications, but spiritual ones as well.  We must be alert with regard to our thoughts and behavior at all times that we may be pure before the Lord, for our “body is a temple of the Holy Spirit”.

PRAYER:

• What are some modern cultural practices that could erode the purity of my Christian faith?
• What is the tension for me to live out the Christian faith in the contemporary culture context?
• Lay it out to the Lord my difficulties. Pray that the Holy Spirit will align my way of life to the way God has intended for me.

HYMN:

Build my life – www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZW4_8_zCBE