Readings for today: Numbers 25-28
Baal is the Canaanite fertility god. Worshipped by the tribes occupying the Promised Land, he will continue to entice the people of Israel to abandon the true worship of the Living God. The Moabites and the Midianites (nomadic tribesman who wandered frequently much like the Bedouin’s today) worshipped Baal through sex and gluttony. They would hold massive parties where they would eat and drink to excess. In the midst of the drunkenness, they would engage in all kinds of sexual activity. All in an effort to show Baal how faithful they were to him so he would make their crops grow and their flocks multiply and open the wombs of all the women so they would bear children. So when Numbers 25 talks about the people of Israel “whoring” with the daughters of Moab, it is speaking literally. They were engaging in the worship practices of Baal and this was an abomination before the Lord. One of them even took it as far as bringing a Midianite woman before the Tabernacle and having sex with her in front of Moses and the whole congregation. It was a brazen act of defiance against God.
If we don’t learn anything else from this passage, we must understand how serious God is about worship. Not just what we do on Sunday mornings for an hour but the worship we give Him every single day. God demands our single-minded devotion. God will not tolerate us worshipping other gods. God will not allow our love to be divided. It’s black or white. You either love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength or you don’t. There really is no gray area. This doesn’t mean we will be perfect and God, in His graciousness, provides for our weaknesses. But the trajectory of our hearts must be set. God must be our North Star! God must be the sole object of our devotion! God alone is worthy to be praised!
It is critical to think about this passage in context of what we read yesterday. Balaam was paid by the king of Moab to curse Israel. Several times, he makes the attempt only to have God intervene. God will not allow Israel’s enemies to curse her. He will protect and guard His people. But what about when Israel curses herself? What about when she brings judgment down on herself for her actions? What Balaam could not do, Israel did to herself by worshipping Baal at Peor and this incident becomes proverbial in the national life of Israel. It will show up again and again throughout the Old Testament. Deuteronomy, Joshua, Psalms, and Hosea all refer back to this moment in time when Israel broke the first commandment and abandoned her God. In fact, it shows up in the New Testament as well when the Apostle Paul references it in chapter ten of his first letter to the Corinthians.
We aren’t so different, are we? Over and over again, God protects us. Provides for us. Guards us and keeps us. He rescues us from the curse of sin. He breaks the power of the devil. He overthrows death itself. But then we chase after other gods. We pursue success. We pursue wealth. We pursue comfort. We pursue safety. We make idols out of our children. Out of our health. Out of our professional careers. We even bring these idols with us to worship and ask God’s blessing upon them! (I think of the picture that went viral a few years back of the religious cult in Pennsylvania asking God’s blessing on their AR-15’s! Craziness!)
Unfortunately, this temptation is common to us all. I cannot tell you the number of people I have married over the years who engaged in premarital sex but then wanted God’s blessing on their relationship. I cannot tell you the number of people over the years who shared with me God told them to get divorced. I cannot tell you the number of people who told me they felt God blessed their adultery. And it’s not just sex. I’ve heard the same arguments from parents who try to justify putting their child’s activities above everything else in their life, including their marriage and the worship of God. I’ve heard the same arguments from individuals who justify their climb up the corporate ladder, no matter the cost to their family and friends. And I’ve heard similar arguments from addicts who justify their dependence on pills or alcohol or pot or some other drug that numbs all their pain. We seem so eager and willing to sacrifice everything on the altar of self-gratification, self-indulgence, and self-promotion. It’s like we’re still worshipping the Baal of Peor!
Friends, God will not be mocked! God will not tolerate our sin. We cannot pretend there won’t be consequences for our rebellion. It may not be Phineas with his spear but it could be much, much worse. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21) What sin are you indulging in your life right now? What thoughts do you entertain? What feelings are you holding onto? What activities are you engaging in that will bring down God’s judgment? A man by the name of H. Richard Niebuhr once argued that too many Christians want to believe in a “God without wrath bringing men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.” If you have fallen for this lie, you need to repent. If words like “judgment”, “sin”, “wrath”, etc. have fallen out of your vocabulary, you are in danger of missing out on the heart of the gospel. Yes, God is love. But because God is love, He hates our sin. Because God is love, He sent His Son to die. Because God is love, He bore the wrath we deserved. Paid the price we owed. Satisfied the judgment we earned. God’s love is not some warm fuzzy. It is fierce. Jealous. Loyal. Steadfast. True. And it will not tolerate any rivals.