Numbers 25; Jealous God ~ 20260726 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org
2026.07.26 Numbers 25; Jealous God; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20260726_numbers-25.mp3
The new generation is camped on the plains of Moab, poised to enter God’s promised land. In chapters 22-24 Balak king of Moab recruited the renown sorcerer Balaam to travel around 400 miles to curse Israel, to weaken them, so that he could drive them from his land. But the Lord makes it clear that he cannot curse those whom the Lord has not cursed; three times at great expense he attempts to curse them, but instead the Lord puts a blessing in his mouth for Israel. Frustrated, Balak sends him off without pay, but not before the Spirit of God delivered a magnificent promise of the coming God-king who would descend from Jacob, who would crush the nations. At the end of his seven oracles blessing God’s people and cursing their enemies, we read;
Numbers 24:25 Then Balaam rose and went back to his place. And Balak also went his way.
This is the last we hear of Balaam... or is it? Numbers 25 shifts the scene back down to Israel, camped on the plains of Moab, oblivious to the spiritual warfare waged against them on the mountains above, or how God stood as their defense.
Covenant Relationship and Covenant Treason
Meanwhile down on the plains…
Numbers 25:1 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.
This is shocking! This next generation, who witnessed their fathers falling in the wilderness because of unbelief, who were now experiencing victory over their enemies, experiencing the sovereign protection of the Lord from their spiritual enemies, and even when they sinned, they confessed their sin (21:7); this is the generation that began to replace grumbling with singing (21:17). These are the ones now on the verge of entering into God’s promised land, indulging themselves in the lusts of the flesh. Women and food. Sexual immorality, meat sacrificed to false gods, idol worship.
The sexual immorality was real, but it was a picture of a deeper issue; it was covenant unfaithfulness not only of each man to his spouse, but of the community to their God. In Numbers 5 we have the procedure for resolving the guilt or innocence of a wife suspected of unfaithfulness by a jealous husband; the penalty for marital unfaithfulness was death (Lev.20:10). God portrays himself as a husband jealous for the exclusive affections of his wife.
Isaiah 54:5 For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.
Isaiah 62:5 ...as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
Jeremiah 3:20 Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel, declares the LORD.’”
Jeremiah 31:32 ...the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.
Ezekiel 16:32 Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!
There are so many parallels in the relation of husband and wife that Paul, teaching on the marriage relationship in Ephesians 5 says ‘This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.’
The First Commandment; Competing Loves
The terms of his covenant relationship with his people were laid out in Exodus 20, which begins this way:
Exodus 20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
The question is who do you love? Who is your first love? Who holds your affections? Who has your attention? Who captures your imagination? To whom are you devoted?
God warns of this very danger in Exodus 34:
Exodus 34:12 Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. 13 You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.
This generation saw their fathers indulge in the same kind of unfaithfulness; while Moses was on mount Sinai, receiving the signed copy of their covenant relationship with God, the people made a gold bull idol, feasted before it, worshiped it, and indulged in sexual immorality (Ex.32:6-8). Here, the pagan prophet Balaam is compelled to speak God’s blessings over the people from the mountaintops, and the people on the plains commit covenant treason, bow to worship a different lord (Baal), feast before him, and indulge in sexual immorality. By their actions they transferred their allegiance from YHWH to Baal, entering into a covenant relationship with the false god Baal. No one can serve two masters. Where supernatural cursing failed, at the allure of carnal pleasures, they caved.
This is catastrophic. At the golden calf incident in Exodus 32
Exodus 32:9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
God was ready to wipe out the whole nation and start over with Moses. Moses interceded for the people, and called for the Levites to purify the camp, and about 3,000 men died that day (Ex.32:28).
Leadership Inaction and its Consequences
Numbers 25:4 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.
God instructs Moses to hold the leadership of the tribes accountable for their failure to lead, their failure to restrain the people under their charge. This is covenant treason. Execute the leaders publicly to turn God’s wrath away from the entire nation. This seems severe, but this is gracious; God will hold the leaders accountable for their failure to lead, possibly 12 men, the chief of each tribe (1:4), or if these were the chiefs of thousands (10:4), that would be just over 600 men; they were to die in place of the entire nation.
But it seems Moses doesn’t follow the Lord’s instructions. The fierce anger of YHWH was set against Israel, and Moses instructed the judges (were these the same men sentenced by the Lord to die (Dt.1:15-16)? Or were these the 70 appointed in Numbers 11 to share the burden of the people with Moses?); Moses instructs the judges to ‘kill those of his men who had yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.’ But even this we don’t see happening; instead we see weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Grieving over sin is good, but was this disobedient inaction on the part of the leaders of Israel? It’s hard to say for sure. The sin of the people was so flagrant, and the passivity of the leaders implying consent, so that a son of the chief of Simeon had the audacity to parade a Midianite woman into the tent for immoral purposes in full view of Moses and the whole congregation.
Immorality and its Consequences
Numbers 25:7 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.
Phinehas is the grandson of Aaron, his father Eleazar is now the high priest which would leave Phinehas in charge of Levites. The Levites were commissioned to protect the sanctity of the tabernacle.
One of the lies of the enemy is that my sexual sin only affects me. It is true that it does affect me; ‘...the sexually immoral person sins against his own body’ (1Cor.6:18); why would anyone willingly destroy his own soul? But the lie that it is no-one else’s business, is a lie. Sin affects not only the individual who sins, but those around him, and ultimately the entire community. Paul addresses this issue in the church in Corinth, rebuking their complacent leadership, and says ‘purge the evil person from among you’ (1Cor.5:11-13).
Jesus takes the sexual purity of his followers seriously:
Matthew 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
We might be shocked at Phinehas’ action, but he took his God seriously. He took the sanctity of the people of God seriously. He took sin seriously. Because God accepted his action, the plague which had already broken out among the community was stopped. Still, 24,000 people died in the plague. To put this in perspective, that is about 4 percent of the original census of the people. In response to the golden calf, the Levites killed about 3,000 men (Ex.32:28). After God’s judgment on Korah (Nu.16:49), when Aaron took his censer and ran into the midst of the rebellious congregation to stand between the dead and the living to make atonement, 14,700 had died. That’s almost 10,000 less than died in this plague.
Zeal for The Lord’s House
Numbers 25:10 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.’”
Whatever we might think of Phinehas’ actions, YHWH approved. He was jealous with YHWH’s jealousy. By his action he turned away God’s wrath against the people. Like the Levites who went through the camp and killed those who were worshiping the calf, who were then entrusted with the service of the tabernacle, so God rewarded Phinehas’ zeal with the a covenant of peace and a perpetual priesthood.
Jesus, on seeing his Father’s house made into a house of merchandise, made a whip of cords and drove the moneychangers and those who sold out of the temple courts;
John 2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Sin is serious. Two people engaged in immorality died a violent death run through by a spear which turned away God’s wrath. Jesus, the only innocent one, was publicly humiliated, hung up before the Lord, and he turned the wrath of God away from all who would run to him for rescue. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities (Is.53:5). Every sinner who will turn to him will find forgiveness and freedom in his cleansing blood.
Public Shame and Dishonor
Numbers 25:14 The name of the slain man of Israel, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, chief of a father's house belonging to the Simeonites. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, who was the tribal head of a father's house in Midian.
These were prominent leaders of the community, both of Israel and the Midianites. Cozbi means ‘false’ or ‘deceiver’; probably a derogatory name given to describe her character. Where Phinehas is honored for his zeal for the Lord, these two bring public shame and dishonor on their families for their treasonous actions.
Proverbs 7 describes the fool who is led astray by a prostitute as an ox being led to the slaughter.
Consequences for Causing to Stumble
Numbers 25:16 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “Harass the Midianites and strike them down, 18 for they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the chief of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague on account of Peor.”
Where the men of Israel who committed covenant treason were punished for their actions, those who tempted them also had consequences. Jesus said:
Matthew 18:6 “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a huge millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the open sea. 7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!
The Instigation of Balaam
Balaam, the pagan sorcerer who was prevented from cursing Israel and thus forfeited his pay does not appear at all in chapter 25, because the chapter puts the responsibility for sin right where it belongs, squarely on the shoulders of those who succumbed to temptation. But there’s a backstory to this story. We are told in Numbers 31 that
Numbers 31:7 They warred against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and killed every male. 8 They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword.
I thought we had heard the last of Balaam?
Numbers 31:15 Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? 16 Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD.
Balaam forfeits the opportunity to die the death of the righteous for personal greed; although he was restrained from cursing Israel, he knew enough of YHWH’s character to get the people by their own sin to turn God’s anger against them. Such are the wiles of our enemy, who prowls about, seeking whom he may devour.
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2026.07.26 Sermon Notes
Numbers 25; Jealous God
Covenant relationship and covenant treason
Isaiah 54:5; 62:6; Jeremiah 3:20; 31:32; Ezekiel 16:32; Ephesians 5:22-33
The first commandment; competing loves
Exodus 20:2-6; 32:6-10; 34:12-16
Take God and his commands seriously
1 Corinthians 6:18; 5:11-13; Matthew 5:27-30; Proverbs 7
Zeal for the Lord’s house will consume me
John 2:15-17; 19:34-37
There are consequences on those who cause to stumble
Matthew 18:5-7; Numbers 31:7-8, 15-16
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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org