Bible Discussion Thread

Num. 25 cont.

YHWH tells Moses to lead the nation against the Midianites and smite them because of the way they vexed Israel with their wiles and beguilement.

At first, it seems to say the women were Moabites, but here it says they were Midianites. Perhaps it was women from both peoples.

The account of this battle is in Numbers 31.

There are many lessons from this chapter.

The foremost one to me is that we need to be sure we are worshipping the LORD rightly and to never think that we can worship both Him and any other idol and expect to be blessed and spared from punishment. God is jealous for His own honor and for His bride, the Church.

The second lesson for me is how it seems that sexual immorality and idolatry are very serious sins, and especially so when done together as was done in this chapter. We must have God's view on moral sexual expression and not adopt the mores of the popular culture. Our culture today accepts every form of sexual expression as permissible. Even in the church, many are not bothered by people co-habiting prior to marriage with an active sexual relationship. Many are not fazed by the rampant divorce and remarriage in the church, the breaking of the one flesh union and covenant of marriage so readily and the unashamed remarrying after a divorce.

Third lesson is for us to value our commitment to the covenant we have with God, realize the cost of attaining it to our Lord and the giving of the benefits of this covenant to us who believe despite our sinfulness. We must commit to staying within the parameters of this covenant and not seek to covenant with anyone else but God.

The fourth is that God is not mocked. What we sow, we reap. So, we should sow to that which is lasting, given unto eternal life rather than sowing evil and reaping unto death and judgment. We cannot run with the world and have peace with God. Jesus is our peace and we have peace when we abide in Him.

Hi Gigi , I hope you don't mind me commenting on your post . With regards to sexual immorality being a more serious sin than some others , it's my belief that all sins are as serious as others , it's all disobedience to God's commandment , remember the man who was stoned to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath ? Remember the first sin ? It wasn't about the eating of the fruit , it was the disobedience to God command . That's what sin is , disobedience to God's command . Luke chapter 13 verses 1-5 , the word perish in these instances , means to be utterly destroyed. We are all under the same condemnation , this was recognised by the man who was crucified on Jesus's right hand and was his confession . It should also be all of ours .

1 Corinthians 6:18

"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body."

I do not disagree , of course I don't , why would I ? I do not agree with some people who seem to want to imply that sexual sins are some how worse than others. Jesus says that even to think of adultery is to commit it , to me this does not mean that sexual sins are worse than others , it just reminds me of all the other kinds of sins that go through my mind every day . We all have sinful thoughts , some of a sexual nature but there are very many more kinds of sinful thoughts , judging others , looking down on others , pride in our appearance , pride in our so called accomplishments , witholding a kind word when we know it's needed , the list is literally endless as I'm sure we all know . These sins in our thoughts are easy for us to hide from others , we can keep doing them all day every day and no one can accuse us or point the finger at us because they don't know about them , we hide them in ourselves and so may appear to others to be holier than thou , but in fact we are festering inside . Some sins go before , outwardly appearing to others and inviting judgement and condemnation from others , who will not miss the opportunity to point the finger . God knows every thought that passes through our minds and hearts , we can hide many of our sins from others but we can hide nothing from our Heavenly Father . He knows what we all are and I believe that we all , including me , need to recognise who and what we are before pointing our fingers at others . How do we know any one else's prayers to their God ? How do we know any one else's struggles with their own personal weaknesses ? We don't and we are not judges in this life other than of our own weaknesses and faults and failings . God is my judge and I'm glad He is . He is righteousness and He is merciful and whatever judgement He lays on me I will take it because I know that He alone is pure and in a perfect state in order to judge me . Any one can think anything of me and I don't mind , God alone is pure and right

Hello Jema, I agree that before God any and all sin is equally deadly to our souls.

However, my point was that the effects of sin on a person that manifest in a person's life vary. It seems that sexual sin and idolatry do more harm to the community of believers than many other sins, such as in this instance. The draw of such enticement easily pervaded the camp of the Israelites, not taking very long to bring 24,000 men into such sin in a short period of time. This is what i was emphasizing.