Numbers 25:7 - Forerunner Commentary

Numbers 25:7

5 So Moses said to ^athe judges of Israel, ^b“Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor.”

6 And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, ^awho were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

7 Now ^awhen Phinehas ^bthe son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose 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 body. So ^athe plague was ^bstopped among the children of Israel.

9 And ^athose who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.

10 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

11 ^a“Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in ^bMy zeal.

Commentaries:

No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Numbers 25:7.

Numbers 25:7-9

They were weeping because of a plague that had killed quite a few people. Notice that the man did not secret the woman into the camp, but apparently paraded her defiantly through it, just like the homosexuals today seem to be doing in our society with their so-called gay parades, gay pride festivities. What happened?

There was clearly a moral issue here. We are not going to go into it in detail. Verses 14-15 indicate that the Israelite involved was the son of a leader of the tribe of Simeon and the woman involved was the daughter of an elder of the Midianites. So these were not 'nobodies.' These the adult children of honchos, of tribal leaders.

Phinehas said basically, 'Phooey.' He was not concerned with what was politically correct, and he was not concerned with the political fallout associated with dispatching with these two people. He had, of course, himself a position of responsibility. He recognized a challenge that was facing the Israelite people and he took action, and he took that action rather vigorously, with zeal, and fervor.

Did God consider him to be a reactionary? Did God consider him to be an extremist?

Excerpted from The Not-A-Problem Folk

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