Be Alert

While the Israelites were camped at Acacia Grove, some of the men defiled themselves by having sexual relations with local Moabite women. [Numbers 25.1]

What we see here is directly following the story of Balaam. And, although Balaam's story seemed innocent enough as concluded in Numbers 24, what we indirectly learn later is that it was in fact Balaam who suggested to Balak that the Moabite women seduce the men of Israel in order to conquer them.

Balaam's plan almost worked. 24000 men died but it was the zeal of one Phinehas who prevented further widespread destruction of Israel. One man.

There are a couple lessons we might learn from today's OYCB reading.

One lesson is that "there is more than one way to skin a cat." In other words, just because Moab was insufficient to defeat Israel militarily, their women were more than capable of seducing Israel into sin thus invoking the wrath of God upon them. Moab decided to encourage Israel destroy itself! The danger of such a strategy is real. It was real in Israel's history and it remains real today. To be sure, it is most likely one of Satan's top strategies against the Church today.

Another lesson we might draw from this story is that sex can genuinely be dangerous. Suffice it to say, and according to this story, the power of sexual attraction, while innocent enough between the sexes in the right context, is the perfect medium for ulterior motives because of the distractive nature of sex itself. As the story goes, the Moabite women were attractive and seductive enough to lure Israel's men not only into bed, but into the worship of Baal.

Bottom line: followers of God must be on alert for deception from the enemy.

Father, help us who follow You be on alert for the deception of our enemy.