Numbers 25:6 ¶ And, behold,
one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish
woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the
children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation. 7 And
when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it,
he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; 8 And he went after the man of Israel into the
tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through
her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. 9 And those that died in the plague were twenty
and four thousand. 10 And the LORD spake
unto Moses, saying, 11 Phinehas, the son
of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the
children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I
consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. 12 Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my
covenant of peace: 13 And he shall have
it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting
priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the
children of Israel. 14 Now the name of
the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish
woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the
Simeonites. 15 And the name of the
Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was
head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian.
After the command given by Moses, Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson,
obeyed and killed both an Israelite and the daughter of a Midianite prince who
were engaged in sexual relations.
Regarding verse 9 notice this curious verse in Paul’s letters to
the Corinthians.
1Corinthians 10:8 Neither
let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three
and twenty thousand.
Bibles typically say 1Corinthians 10:8 is referring to this
passage in Numbers 25. The Modernist heresy in modern Christians then says,
“those numbers aren’t the same! They should be exactly alike!” But, Paul is not
wrong. The number he mentions is contained in the number given in Numbers. Paul
is writing a letter and we have seen approximations before, conversational
illustrations referring or alluding to the Old Testament writings. He does not
have to be reading from the Scriptures when he writes this from memory as part
of his argument. However, some commentators get around this by saying that
1Corinthians 10:8 is referring to a different event. That is fine as long as
you don’t need a long, convoluted argument juggling numbers from different
passages to get where you want to be.
Numbers 25:16 ¶ And the
LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 17 Vex
the Midianites, and smite them: 18 For
they vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter
of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, their
sister, which was slain in the day of the plague for Peor’s sake.
To underscore that there was something religious in Zimri and
Cozbi’s sexual dalliance notice what is written. This incident relates to the
worship of the local god or lord of Peor which clearly is a reflection and
confirmation of the sexual nature of Canaanite religion and the dangers, the
very spiritual dangers that the Israelites faced.”
Not only sexual deviance in the pursuit of religion was caused by
this idolatry but many other character traits of humanity resulted.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jeremiah
10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man
is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
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