Numbers 25

If you can’t beat them, seduce them.

We don’t always realize how the people we hang around with, the colleagues we work with, or the spouses we marry will influence us. The Moabites were able to lure the Israelites into idolatry by having their women seduce them. It sounds like a plot in a spy movie! God was not pleased, and a plague is the result. Believe it or not, there was actually a leader who brought one of the women into his tent in the midst of the nation’s punishment. Phineas recognizes this, kills him, and God’s wrath is assuaged and the plague stops. Phineas and his offspring are rewarded as a result of his actions. God then instructs Israel to wage war against the Midianites for their part in the plot.

Thought for the day: Holiness is important and necessary if we hope to experience God’s blessing. A part of holiness is being careful who we hang around with and who we marry.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (WEB) “Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever? What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people.’ Therefore, ‘Come out from amongst them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”