And Israel abode in Shittim; and the people began to commit fornication with the daughters of Moab.
Numbers 25 opens with Israel camped east of the Jordan. God had just stopped the prophet Balaam from cursing His people, and made him bless them instead. The blessing held — and then Israel fell, not to an army, but to an invitation from the women of Moab.
The chapter marks a sharp drop in perspective. Before this, we hear how God sees His people. Here we see what they were doing.
As we start reading Numbers 25, we come down from Israel as God's purpose views them. We come to Israel as they really were at that time: fleshly and unbelieving. Balaam is not mentioned in the chapter but, as we have noted, he was at the bottom of the evil, urging Balak to promote it. The result was that Israel joined himself to Baal-peor. They no doubt committed this immorality in honour of Baal, and that disguised its wickedness in their minds. Not all the people took part, but enough did to make it an act of apostasy. It deserved severe and immediate judgment, and it got one.
Balaam had been powerless to curse. So the attack switched from outside pressure to inside seduction.
Balaam could not succeed in enchantment against Israel... The aim was to get the Lord to curse His people. He could not, and he was forced only to bless. There is no possibility of using Satan's power against the people of God. God held the lips of Balaam, and made him bless despite himself. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." He has no power as an adversary. It is as a tempter that he has power. The enemy could not bring a curse on the people. So he sought to seduce them into wickedness — and then how could God bring them in? (Num. 25).
Nothing in the invitation looked like an attack. That was the point of it.
What was the next step for Israel? While they were living there, Balaam's counsel is, "Let us all be together; let us be social." And oh, what a subtle delusion of the enemy this is — this plea of friendship!
The verse names where this happened. Israel was camped on the doorstep of the land.
A plain on the east of the Jordan, where the Israelites camped before they crossed the Jordan. The name means 'acacias.'
Older translations read "abode" where the ESV has "lived." The word describes more than pitching a tent for the night.
One key is the word "abode." It suggests a settled state of mind, not a temporary one. Further, immorality and idolatry have both become common practice. (Immorality's spiritual counterpart is idolatry.) Here we reach a different degree of sin: a state of established idolatry, which resulted in Israel joining himself to Baal-Peor.
The two sins in this chapter are not separate incidents. One writer sums up Balaam's teaching and treats them as a pair.
Here we get a summary of Balaam's teaching. For the full details we have to turn to Numbers 25:1-9 together with 31:16. Balaam stayed in the background, but he prompted Balak to put the stumbling block in place. It enticed Israel to idolatry and immorality — two things that are always joined together in the pagan world. The first is the most basic of all sins against God. The second is against mankind as well as God.
One writer names the Moabites at the head of a list of nations that drew Israel away, and turns it into a warning.
At the head of this humiliating list we find the Moabites. They had led Israel astray into the idolatry of Baal-Peor, gaining control of them through the lust of the flesh (Num. 25:1-5)... We are in danger of going to the world, or of letting it come in to us. Perhaps the second possibility is even more dangerous than the first. Out of conscience towards God, a Christian may hold back from an act of self-will or disobedience that would take him out to the world. But the world can seduce him more easily by coming to him. Little by little it works its way into our homes and into our lives. Often when we open our eyes to the danger, it is already too late.
- Joined, not conquered — no enemy defeated Israel. Israel joined itself to Baal-peor.
- Curse failed, temptation worked — as an adversary the enemy has no power over God's people. His power is as a tempter, so he turned to that when the blessing stood.
- The bait was friendship — the call was simply to be together, to be social. That plea of friendship is the enemy's subtle trick.
- Settling preceded sinning — the older word "abode" points to a settled state, not a passing lapse. Immorality and idolatry came in together.
- The danger runs both ways — we may go out to the world, or let it come in to us. Writers warn that the second creeps in unnoticed until it is too late.
And they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods.
Numbers 25 opens right after God refused to let Balaam curse Israel. What a curse could not do, a dinner invitation now does — Moab's women call Israel to their feasts, and Israel eats and bows down.
The welcome was not simple friendliness. One writer traces it back to its source:
How wrong and senseless it was for the men to commit sexual immorality with the women of Moab. The Moabites invited them to the sacrifices made to their gods, and they joined in that idol worship. Numbers 31:16 shows that Balaam's counsel set this in motion. He was Satan's cunning tool. When Satan cannot defeat God's people, he will befriend and corrupt them, if they will listen to his clever schemes.
God had called Israel to dwell alone, separate to Himself. The invitation was aimed at exactly that.
Here we may well consider Revelation 2:14. Israel was caught in the snare of those friendly advances. Behind them lay the enemy's purpose: to destroy the character of God's people, who were called to dwell alone, separate to God. He had revealed His holy ways and worship to them. God's thought was that His people should stay separate from all the widespread evil of the nations. Balaam's teaching was that the two should mix. The tools were bodily desires and false religious activity.
Why does a shared meal matter so much?
When we share in a sacrifice, we express communion with everything it stands for. That is why it is so serious for a Christian to share in anything that expresses fellowship with idols.
That is why the next verse says Israel "yoked himself to Baal of Peor." The meal had already made the bond:
Peor is where Balaam was called to curse Israel. It is also where the people were trapped into sacrificing to the gods of Moab, eating things offered to their idols, and committing sexual immorality. So Israel joined himself to Baal-peor. He had full fellowship with its demon worship and with the uncleanness that went with it.
The chapter first says Israel lived in Shittim — older translations read abode. One writer makes that word the key to the collapse:
A first key is the word "abode." It suggests a settled attitude, not a temporary stay. Further, sexual immorality and idolatry have become common practice. The spiritual counterpart of sexual immorality is idolatry. Israel has reached a different degree of sin here: a state of established idolatry.
Moab is a fitting host for that kind of drift. Commentators read its character from Jeremiah 48:11, where Moab is at ease and "settled on his dregs":
Moab is the picture of sensual, easy-going religion (Jeremiah 48:11). It usually works by seduction, not by open conflict... Yet Moab knew how to tempt Israel into evil partnership with their women and their gods. In the same way, the easy lifestyles of the world can tempt Christians to choose a self-indulgent life — with little serious exercise of heart, little sense of pleasing God, and little real concern for the needs of others.
Eating leads to bowing, and bowing costs. The order in the verse is not accidental:
They begin to give up their separation from the nations around them. That separation was not arbitrary. It was a needed separation from the sin those nations were sunk in. So the result is wild and terrible license. Idolatry degrades God, and it always ends in degrading man. "So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel." Judgment goes out, as that implies. The plague begins its deadly work.
Revelation 2:14 points back to this very episode. One writer sees the same pattern in the church's own story:
The Church was no longer to be distinct from the world. It was to be its agent and ally... To be in the world is one thing; to dwell in it, that is, to settle down and be at home in it, is quite another.
- Invitation. When the enemy cannot curse God's people, he invites them. Friendliness wins where hostility failed.
- Table. Sharing a sacrifice expresses communion with everything it stands for. No seat at an idol's feast is neutral.
- Joined. Eating led to bowing. Bowing led to Israel yoking himself to Baal of Peor, in full fellowship with its demon worship.
- Ease. Moab pictures easy-going religion that wins by seduction, not conflict. Israel had already settled in Shittim before it sat down to eat.
- Judgment. Lost separation ended in wild license, God's anger and a plague. Revelation shows the same strategy still at work.