Numbers 25:4, commentary and pictures

The Lord ordered Moses to seize the chief offenders in Israel's apostasy and execute them openly in daylight before Him, so that His burning anger against the nation would be turned aside. This was at Baal-peor on the very borders of the promised land, where through Balaam's counsel the Midianite women had lured Israel at an idolatrous feast into fornication and worship of Baal-peor. The leaders were singled out because their part had made the sin national, and their bodies were displayed to reveal God's abhorrence of sin and to strike the people with fear of following their example. In that plague tens of thousands died for joining Baal-peor while those who clung to God lived, showing that disobedience brings destruction and loyalty brings protection, and that cutting off the corrupt was mercy to keep all Israel from being ruined. That fierce wrath stands as a warning now, for the same snares are laid for God's people on the borders of the heavenly Canaan, and those with great light who indulge ease, pleasure and impurity will not be spared.

Public Judgment at Peor

The command was to take all the heads of the people and hang them up publicly before the Lord against the sun, executing them before Him so that His fierce anger might be turned away from Israel. This order came after Israel had joined itself to Baal-peor, and the punishment was carried out against those who had joined in that apostasy to answer the transgression that had brought divine judgment. Its public execution was meant to make the people fear following their example.

The leaders were singled out for death and public display because their leadership in the apostasy had helped make it national. Their bodies were hung up publicly so that all Israel would see God's abhorrence of the sin and the terror of His wrath. That visible judgment was intended to awaken the people to the enormity of their sin and to turn away God's anger.

The command was given at Baal-peor near the close of the wilderness wandering on the very borders of the promised land, just before Israel's entrance into Canaan. It was a time when Satan laid snares for them, and those same snares are laid for God's people now. The history just before entering Canaan shows how snares can lead God's people into grave unfaithfulness when lightness, love of pleasure, selfishness, and impurity increase.

Israel had been enticed to sin through the snare laid at Balaam's suggestion, his counsel carried out through the Midianite women. Their deceitful wiles drew Israel in, and at a luxurious feast connected with idolatrous worship and Baal-peor the people were led into fornication, licentiousness, impurity, and idolatry, bringing God's anger upon them. Indulgence in ease and pleasure thus led to idolatrous worship and sexual sin and brought divine judgment.

The judgment involved a pestilence and plague in which tens of thousands died for the heinous sin of fornication, with swift judgment following close upon the sin. Twenty-three thousand fell in one day, and thousands fell with their polluted bodies left overthrown in the wilderness. Though all the fathers were under the cloud and passed through the sea and were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and ate the same spiritual meat and drank the same spiritual drink from the spiritual Rock that followed them, which was Christ, with many of them God was not well pleased and they were overthrown.

The judgment on Israel was followed by the divine mandate to vex and smite the Midianites, whose wiles had drawn Israel into sin and brought the wrath of God upon Israel in the destruction of many thousands. Their sin in the matter of Peor filled up the measure of their iniquities after long mercy and clear light from God, ending their day of probation and closing the door of mercy to them. Through Moses the conditions of the covenant were then repeated, those who remained faithful renewed their vows of allegiance, and Israel was warned against future temptations and earnestly exhorted to remain separate from the surrounding nations and to worship God alone. The fearful events at Beth-peor remained vivid to Israel and made them view Canaanite idolatry with disgust and horror.

Justice, Mercy, and Warning

The judgment at Baal-peor displays the difference between disobedience and cleaving to God, for the followers of Baal-peor were destroyed by disease and death while those who remained loyal and faithful stayed alive. Transgression brought disaster, and obedience was associated with protection. The destruction of those led astray was an act of mercy, because if they had lived their influence would have corrupted all Israel. God judges disobedience to restrain the spread of crime and to warn the people not to dishonor Him, while showing mercy to those who obey Him. Israel's impurity and defiant wrongdoing at the border of Canaan called for severe punishment to stop the spread of crime.

Those with great light and spiritual advantages who refuse to live by them face punishment, for mercy does not spare those who persistently despise grace. The punishment of the guilty leaders was justice in visiting punishment upon sin and mercy in giving Israel victory over a people seeking by every hellish art to accomplish their destruction. It was to be executed not to gratify malice or revenge but as God's instruments influenced solely by zeal for the divine glory. Sin is a deadly leprosy contaminating all brought in contact with it. God as Creator and owner has perfect right to take from men the blessings they have abused, and His name and authority as ruler in the universe must be maintained, so when idolatry rears its proud head and blasphemy and rebellion strengthen He reproves the sins of the nations and provoked divine anger comes upon transgressors of His law.

Finite wisdom cannot determine what conduct befits the Judge of all the earth, so to doubt His wisdom and benevolence and to call His judgments cruelty reveals ignorance of the malignity of sin. Those chosen as instruments to perform His will must faithfully do the appointed work however repugnant to natural feeling, and thoroughness and severity are never reproved while lack of faithfulness in executing His judgments is reproved. In the future judgment retribution will surely be visited upon every soul that does evil according to deeds done in the body. Those who cherish sin and laud only benevolence, long-suffering, mercy and tenderness, while passing over threatenings of wrath against sin and sinners and scathing denunciations of hypocrisy and self-deception, cannot comprehend this justice, as seen also in the severe punishments of the Amalekites, Canaanites and Midianites. God's command required thorough retribution upon the guilty, with the idolatrous licentious women as the principal criminals to be destroyed rather than spared and brought into the camp as captives.

Preserving such women would constantly endanger the morals of Israel. The sympathy that would spare those transgressors was contrary to the will of God, and the same sympathy for sin and sinners that excuses wrong and shields the guilty is dangerous to the prosperity of the church at the present day and is not the charity of the Bible. The friendship of the wicked is more dangerous than their enmity, because none can prevail against the servants of the living God except by tempting them to disobedience. The offensive character of sin and the certainty that God will punish transgressors of His law can be estimated only in the light of the cross where Christ took the guilt of the disobedient and suffered in the sinner's stead. The fierce wrath visited upon Israel for joining themselves to Baal-peor, after a luxurious feast connected with idolatrous worship and licentiousness brought anger and a plague in which many were slain, with twenty-three thousand falling in one day, stands as a warning.

Indulgence in ease and pleasure can lead to idolatry and sexual sin and bring divine judgment. The event warns against rebelling against the Lord and departing from the true faith by setting up separate worship, lest wrath come upon the whole nation, and even after that punishment many still cherished the same sins, so those living surrounded by worshipers of that idol were in danger of again partaking of that iniquity. The history just before entering Canaan shows how snares can lead God's people into grave unfaithfulness, a pattern repeated when lightness, love of pleasure, selfishness, and impurity increase. Even as God's people stand on the borders of the heavenly Canaan they must not treat sin lightly. Those with great light and spiritual advantages who persistently despise grace face punishment and His mercy does not spare them.

Satan laid snares for Israel just prior to entrance into Canaan, and those same snares are laid for God's people now, who are repeating the history of that people. God's signal displeasure and fierce anger against the heinous sin of fornication was followed by swift judgment when thousands fell and their polluted bodies were left overthrown in the wilderness. Though all the fathers were under the cloud and passed through the sea and were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea and ate the same spiritual meat and drank the same spiritual drink from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ, with many of them God was not well pleased and they were overthrown in the wilderness, with three and twenty thousand falling in one day through fornication. These things were examples to the intent that God's people should not lust after evil things as they lusted, and are written for admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. He that thinketh he standeth must take heed lest he fall.