Introduction: Many years ago I knew an honored and important man who
was the president of a university. He fell into sexual sin, lost
his job, his reputation, and who knows what else. Have you been
blessed by God, and then managed by some silly sin to defeat God’s
blessings? Our lesson this week picks up on the topic on which we
closed our study last week: how to mess up God’s blessings. Let’s
plunge into our study and learn what not to do!

  1. Snatching Defeat Out of the Jaws of Victory


    1. Last week we learned that Balak and Balaam could not
      curse Israel. All they were able to do was to bless it.
      Balaam, however, thought that he could get around God’s
      blessings by enticing the Israelites to sin. Balaam
      should know a thing or two about human weaknesses!


    2. Read Numbers 22:1. Where is Israel at this time? (It is
      ready to cross over into Canaan. The long-awaited goal of
      the exodus from Egypt is now in sight. They need only
      cross the Jordan river to be home.)


    3. Read Numbers 25:1-3. How safe and secure are the
      Israelites? (They had defeated several nations and Moab
      was terrified of them. God not only protected them, He
      was arranged for their enemy to bless them! Full of
      blessings and under the protection of God they were ready
      to reach their life’s goal.)


      1. How dangerous are “good times” when it comes to sin?


      2. Are you presently experiencing “good times?” Times
        of blessing and peace?


      3. Can you sympathize with any part of the sin of the
        Israelite men? Anything like this in the news today?
        (Since I’m a man, it is not hard for me to imagine
        why Israelite men engaged in sexual immorality with
        Moabite women. Recall that Revelation 2:14 reveals a
        plan for the Moabite women to entice the Hebrew men.
        No doubt these were attractive women and it was
        their government’s idea.)


        1. But, why worship their gods? What is the
          attraction of their gods? (Wycliffe Bible
          Commentary explains that spring festivals
          celebrated the mating of Baal of Beth-peor with
          the goddess of fertility. According to
          archaeological discoveries, prostitution was
          part of the worship service.)


        2. Imagine that you are looking for a new church.
          In church A they kill animals as part of the
          worship. In church B, they have sex as part of
          the worship. What is your guess as to the
          relative popularity of those two churches?


          1. I’m not aware of any churches in my area
            (or even my nation) in which sex is part
            of the worship, but is this idea of
            choosing a church based on whether the
            worship service pleases you an issue
            today?


    4. Numbers 25:3 says “the Lord’s anger burned against them.”
      Put yourself in God’s place. Why is He angry? (What the
      Israelite men are doing is wrong on so many levels. It
      is disloyal to their God, their wife and their family. It
      shows no allegiance to God who brought them to the border
      of the promised land. It violates God’s rules on sexual
      conduct. It is even disloyal to their nation.)


    5. Read Numbers 25:4-5. Does God care about our conduct?


      1. Notice that the disloyal men had “leaders.” What
        does that tell us? I thought it was a few drooling
        men who sneaked over to the Moabite camp! Is that
        true?(Like almost all sin, we try to justify it.
        Some must have claimed this was a superior means of
        worship to a superior god. They lobbied others to
        join the group. This was a movement, not a lapse.)


    6. Read Numbers 25:6. Israel is “weeping” before God. Why?
      (Consider the emotion of this. Some have friends and
      family who were part of the Moabite sin and now have been
      publicly executed. Others are saddened because of the
      offense to God. Others are concerned about dying from the
      plague. Others are discouraged about the way things are
      going when they are so close to victory. The good news is
      that they all are coming to God for help.)


    7. Read Numbers 25:6-9. We just discussed that the nation is
      weeping, what is this “Israelite man” doing? How do you
      explain his conduct? (While the nation is repenting, and
      a plague is raging, this man is so bold and reckless in
      his sin that he brings a Midianite woman into his tent in
      the sight of everyone. This bolsters my earlier
      conclusion that this was a movement, not just a few men
      skulking around in the dark.)


      1. Is hypocrisy under-rated? (At least hypocrites
        acknowledge the proper course of conduct. Surely
        advocating wrong and doing wrong is not superior to
        advocating the truth but doing wrong. Hypocrites
        just look bad, they don’t have converts.)


      2. What do you think about the actions of Phinehas, the
        future High Priest? Does this sound like the right
        thing to do, or does this sound like the Taliban?
        (The account suggests that the couple were having
        sex, otherwise it would be a real trick to drive a
        spear through both of them. The boldness of the sin
        is matched by the boldness of God’s servant to fight
        against sin.)


      3. Read Leviticus 20:10. Is Phinehas acting outside the
        law? (No. This is not just some wild deed. Phinehas
        is executing the well-known judgment on this
        fellow.)


        1. Wait a minute. The woman did not know about the
          rule, right? (Wrong. Recall that this was part
          of the Moabite plan to entice Israel to be
          disloyal to their God. She knew about the
          plan.)


    8. Read Numbers 25:10-13. What does God think about the
      motives of Phinehas? (It says that he was “zealous” for
      the honor of God.)


      1. Notice Numbers 25:13 says Phinehas made “atonement”
        for the Israelites. How is that true? I thought
        atonement was made when the priest sacrificed an
        animal, not humans? (The animal was a symbol of
        Jesus who atoned for our sin. He died in our place.
        If we reject Jesus, we will die for our sins just as
        surely as this couple died in the midst of their
        sin.)


      2. Read Psalms 106:30-31. How does this act “credit”
        Phinehas with righteousness? What happened to
        righteousness by faith? Has it been replaced with
        righteousness by spear? (I think it was boldly
        standing for God, boldly choosing God, that credited
        Phinehas with righteousness. This fits the comment
        in Numbers 25:11 that Phinehas was protecting God’s
        honor.)


      3. We don’t have to look far to see sexual sin in our
        culture. When it comes to your own actions, do you
        boldly stand for God? How do others view you when it
        comes to sexual purity?


    9. Notice both in Numbers 25:8 and Psalms 106:30 that the
      plague was checked as a result of Phinehas’ action. Let’s
      jump ahead and read Numbers 31:22-23. This is a reference
      to plunder taken from the Midianites. What does this
      suggest about the origin of the plague? (This suggests
      that the Midianites had some disease to which the
      Israelites had no immunity. These men introduced the
      plague into the Israelite camp. God stopped the plague as
      a result of the righteous action of Phinehas.)


  2. Vengeance


    1. A book I’m reading made the passing remark that for a
      nation of Christians, the citizens of the United States
      like their vengeance a whole lot. We see this in our
      movies, books and national actions. Read Numbers 31:1-2.
      What has been done to Israel that deserves vengeance?
      (The plotting of Balak and Balaam that resulted in the
      plague.)


      1. What do you think about Moses’ last act being one of
        vengeance?


      2. Do you believe in vengeance? (How about the last
        movie, play or book you read where you cheered the
        demise of the “bad guy?”)


      3. Read Romans 3:5-6, Romans 12:19-21 and Hebrews
        10:30-31. Is vengeance a good or bad thing?


        1. Should Phinehas have given them a cup of cold
          water instead of the spear?


        2. What is our role in vengeance? (We are to leave
          vengeance to God. The instructions to Moses
          and the action of Phinehas show that the
          government is sometimes God’s instrument for
          vengeance.


    2. Friend, devotion to God is important. Will you determine
      today to be serious about honoring God with your life?
      Will you be faithful in the area of sexual purity even
      when others plot against you?


  3. Next week: The Second Generation: Admonitions.