When Corruption Enters the Camp and Courage Stands at the Door

The Tactic That Has Never Stopped Working

There is nothing new in Balaam's advice to Balak. The same tactic has been used a million times by every government and every intelligence agency in history. We know from our modern times that Israel has used it several times — but not on a major national scale. Israel has used the same tactic on an individual scale more than once. Balaam's advice — send beautiful women to seduce the men of Israel — was not innovative. It was simply the oldest strategic weapon in the human arsenal, applied to a nation whose God could not be cursed. If you can't curse them from the outside, corrupt them from the inside.

The Torah tells us it worked. The beautiful young women of Moab were very successful in using their bodies to drag the Israelites to worship their idols and draw them away from the God of Israel. The worship of Baal-Peor was not casual immorality — it was sex committed to a Moabite god. This Moabite god has a horrible format of worship and horrifying practices. The sex was religious. The idolatry and the immorality went together, as they always do. Numbers 25:1-3 tells us the sequence: the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab, they were invited to the sacrifices of their gods, they ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor.

What Zimri Was Actually Trying to Prove

When Zimri the prince of the tribe of Simeon and Cozbi the princess of Moab performed their public act at the entrance to the Tabernacle, it was not just a horrible sin of desecration. It was also a political and theological statement. They were trying to show that the God of Israel is impotent — and that the leadership of Israel was impotent — when compared to the idol-worshiping women of the Moabites and Midianites. They chose the entrance to the Tabernacle deliberately. The Ark of the Covenant was housed there. The presence of the Lord was between the Cherubim. This was the chosen venue for the ultimate public contempt.

Moses and the elders of Israel were standing there watching. They were in total shock. The leadership was just paralyzed — they could not imagine that such an abomination would ever be performed by anyone from Israel, in such a blatant act. This story gives every law-abiding person mixed feelings. First, it is always good to know that God will raise up someone to do the job even when the leadership is weak and silent. Second, God can override the norm — and even the law that He gave to Moses — in order to promote justice and righteousness.

Note something important: Moses is passive in the story. He does not react at all, either for or against the action that Phinehas took. We should not be condemning of people who are willing to sacrifice their reputation and their freedom in order to do the will of the Lord.

The Covenant of Peace

When Pinchas took his javelin and pinned Zimri and Cozbi to the ground, the plague that had already killed 24,000 children of Israel stopped. And God's reaction was not punishment. It was a covenant. He gave Pinchas a covenant of Shalom — peace — and an everlasting covenant of priesthood. Why?

If Pinchas had been ashamed of God in front of the watching crowd at the Tabernacle, God would have been ashamed of him. If we are ashamed of our Savior in front of men, He, Yeshua, will be ashamed of us in front of His Father in the day of judgment.

This is not a call for rebellion against the leadership of your churches. It is a call, first and foremost, to be ready to stand up for the truth and for the righteousness of God when the elected leadership is not functioning and is at a loss. The whole world sees how Muslims honor the image and name of Muhammad. I would never suggest Christians or Jews do what Muslims do when a spoof newspaper in Belgium or Paris draws a cartoon of the Prophet. But on the other hand, Christians and Jews are showing weakness when they see the evil and hear the blasphemy against our God and just stand by and say nothing. There comes a time when all good men must stand up for the right and stop worrying about political correctness. Stand up and be counted on the side of the Lord and let the chips fall where they may.