Numbers 25 Summary: A Concise Overview in 5 Minutes

Numbers 25 Summary - A Quick Overview

WHEN:

• These events occurred towards the end of the Israelites’ 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

• The Israelites were in the wilderness from approximately 1490-1450 B.C.

CHARACTERS:

• Moses – God selected Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and guide them to the land of Canaan.

• Phinehas – The grandson of Aaron and son of Eleazar the High Priest.

WHERE:

• The Israelites were camped on the border of the Amorites and Moabites near Pisgah at a place called Shittim (21:20; 23:14, 25:1).

OUTLINE:

• ISRAEL IS PERSUADED TO WORSHIP BAAL OF PEOR (25:1-9):

  • The women of Moab befriended the Israelites and enticed them to participate in their idolatrous worship to a false God known as Baal.

  • God was extremely angry with the Israelites, and he told Moses to kill all the chiefs of Israel who had participated in the idolatry and hang their bodies in the camp.

  • In addition, God sent a deadly plague to punish the people.

  • As God’s commands were being carried out and the people were weeping at the Tabernacle, an Israelites man brought an idolatrous Midianite woman into the camp in the sight of all the people.

  • Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the High Priest, was enraged by the man’s disrespect for God. He took a spear, went to the man’s tents, and killed both the man and the woman by piercing them through the stomach.

  • God withdrew the plague, but not before it had killed 24,000 Israelites.

• GOD HONORS PHINEHAS (25:10-15):

  • The man Phinehas killed was Salu, a chief from the tribe of Simeon.

  • The woman Phinehas killed was Cozbi, the daughter of a tribal leader in Midian.

  • God spoke with Moses and told him Phinehas’ zeal had “turned back” His wrath and saved many lives.

  • The Lord made a covenant with Phinehas’ household and promised the priesthood would continue through his descendants.

• GOD COMMANDS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MIDIANITES (25:16-18):

  • God told Moses to make war with the Midianites.

  • Moses was to destroy their nation because they intentionally led God’s people into idolatry.
    

APPLICATION:

• It is right to be angry about people disrespecting God, especially when it’s done by people who should know better.

• There is a place in the Christian life for anger and confrontation.

• I think this is important to point out because we tend to stress the Christian virtues of gentleness and kindness, and I suspect our emphasis on those virtues has caused some to think an angry Christian is an unloving Christian, but that isn’t necessarily true.

• Anger and bold confrontation can be Christian virtues in themselves if they are motivated by a zeal for the holiness of God.

• Jesus shows us this when He entered the Temple and overturned the tables of those exploiting a holy place to extort people for personal gain (Matthew 21:12).

DIAGRAM OF THE CAMP OF ISRAEL:

DIAGRAM OF THE TABERNACLE: