The Enemy is in The Camp

 While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. And the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.” And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”

And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

And the LORD said to Moses, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”

The name of the slain man of Israel, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, chief of a father’s house belonging to the Simeonites. And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, who was the tribal head of a father’s house in Midian.

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Harass the Midianites and strike them down, for they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the chief of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague on account of Peor” (Numbers 25).

Brothers, the enemy is in the camp.

Notice the scenario in Numbers 25, written for our instruction for all things regarding life and godliness.

Israel was not yet home. The congregation was living in a foreign land among pagan nations, yet they were called to be holy to the Lord, and the Lord was with them and lived among them.

Israel was living in a certain place, and while they were there, and the Lord tarried in bringing them into the Land, they were tempted to look at the way the people around them lived. Specifically, it was the men who drifted first. Adam cannot blame Eve for the sin of this scenario; it is written clearly in the Book: they “began to whore with the daughters of Moab.”

Who were the daughters of Moab? The Moabites (like their kinfolk, the Ammonites) were the descendants of an incestuous, drunken, immoral relationship between Lot and his daughter in the hill country outside of Sodom. Moab is the name of the child conceived by the first daughter; Ben-Ammi (father of the Ammonites) is the name of the child conceived by the second. These two tribes were a constant thorn in the side of Israel. Continually, the Moabites and Ammonites fought with Israel and frequently they enticed Israel to worship idols.

We read elsewhere that the Moabites, in particular, allied themselves with the Midianites because they were afraid Israel would overpower them (see Numbers 22:4, 7). In the passage quoted above, it is clear that their intent is one and the same: to undermine the holiness of God’s people and, therefore, bring shame and disgrace upon the LORD himself.

Were the leaders of Moab and Midian so wise and cunning that they set out to deceive God’s people for the singular purpose of disgracing Yahweh? I don’t think so; I think they were much more based in their desires. Instead, they were led to self-gratification by the gods they worshipped – the gods Christians know as “demons” and “the Devil himself.”

This is the way of the Enemy who hides his true intent behind a guise of delightful lies. Moab, as a pagan nation, indulged in every form of evil imaginable, led astray by the Devil himself. While they were drinking punishment upon themselves, they fancied themselves “right” and “tolerant” and “not so bad.”

Today, I’m more interested in looking at what led Israel’s men to whore after the Moabites.

It is clear that any devoted Israelite, such as we see in the character of Phinehas, would not disgrace himself with a foreign woman who worshipped foreign gods, who practiced foreign rites and rituals, who dressed and behaved in a manner consistent with the world, and who did not honor the Laws of God. Such a man as Phinehas presumably said “no” to the idolatrous relationships that many of his peers were involved in. Even more so, he cried out to God to intervene on their behalf.

But to the men who did whore after the Moabite woman, what drew them? Certainly it couldn’t have been only their disdain for Yahweh. Someone having a disdain for a deity would not, by necessity, be led to brazen sexual sin in front of the congregation. The embarrassment! No, I don’t think Israel’s men set out to whore after the foreign women in order to displease God. I think they were following the lusts of their fallen flesh (lusts which, of course, do displease God).

These men had seen the looseness of the Moabite women, probably intermingling with them at games or parties. These young men saw these young women dressing provocatively, speaking brazenly, and appealing in all manners to their fleshly appetites. With their appetites thus whetted, it was nothing to appease their lovers by paying a little homage to their little statues to get what they were really thirsting for.

I can only surmise that the good, Hebrew girls weren’t willing to bring themselves to such baseness in order to compete for the attraction of these wayward Hebrew boys. I’m sure some did, but we aren’t told for sure. I’m sure the pressure to dress and behave like a Moabite (or a Midianite) was tempting. “There goes Gad traipsing after that Moabite girl again. His tongue is practically wagging! Look how silly he looks. You can see who wears the pants in that relationship. And look at what she’s wearing – if you can even say that she’s wearing anything at all.” And then, in secret: I wonder if I could attract a man that way? I do long for such attention, deep down.

Had not Phinehas’s javelin tip pierced so suddenly, the spread of ungodliness may have spread much farther. What started as masculine sin could quickly spread to all corners of society.

What many of the Hebrew men were doing is not so difficult to grasp. They were putting the desires of their flesh in authority over the good, true, and beautiful desires they had been taught to practice as an Israelite. Some of these Hebrews fell back into temptations they had indulged while in Egypt, perhaps.

Sin in the camp, brought in willingly by some of the men, led to punishment for the entire congregation. Of course, the selfish sinner didn’t care. Zimri the son of Salu didn’t think twice about the harm he was causing to his family when he, in lustful rapture, ran to his tent with Cozbi the daughter of Zur. But the congregational leaders knew the effects of sin, and they were concerned for the people – their kids, their grandkids, and all the people.

What was the answer to preserving the purity of Israel? What would stop the plague? What would awaken the nation to the seriousness of its sin?

Phinehas’s spear tip would.

Sin must be stopped. Disobedience must be punished. Wrong practice must be rebuked sharply.

Today, I don’t believe our situation in the United States and the Western church is much different from Old Testament Israel.

The exchange of the truth of God for a lie isn’t made so openly and obvious; the trade begins in more subtle ways.

A nation doesn’t murder millions of babies, light up their national White House in a mockery of the rainbow, steal billions of dollars of its citizens’ money, mutilate children’s reproductive systems, make allowances for law-breakers (illegal immigrants) to live among us, and many more things overnight.

A nation – a people – doesn’t do all of those things without its moral leaders first giving up the fight.

A nation does these things because fathers have apathetically allowed their daughters to aspire to be OnlyFans celebrities. Leaders have laid their convictions down on the altar of “Feelings.” Men have given up prayer for calls to their representatives. Fathers have abdicated their authority in the home to the Department of Education. The list could go on and on.

I’m speaking broadly, but the point is this: men, husbands, fathers, and leaders – the problem may have started with us or our grandfathers, but it’s time to pick up Phinehas’s spear and put an end to it.

The enemy is brazenly within the camp, flaunting and parading his sinfulness in front of the entire congregation. It looks like women on the church’s board, bearing a burden they were never intended to carry, ruling with empathy. It looks like some im-pastor screaming “love thy neighbor!” at a pride march. It looks like not saying the truth (thus, telling a lie) because someone might be “triggered.” It looks like Hollywood taking off more clothes and plastering it on television screens for all ages.

 Brothers, the problems in our nation and our society are great and, when looking at the entire arsenal, it seems overwhelming and paralyzing.

Therefore, pick up your javelin and fight the battle directly in front of you.

It may have been that at the moment Phinehas picked up his, another young Hebrew man was walking in another gate with a different Midianite woman. It may well be that in multiple tents in the camp, multiple Hebrew men were fornicating with foreign women. Phinehas, though, picked up his javelin and went to war with what was right in front of him.

That’s what you and I are to do.

It starts with not only waging war against temptation, sin, and the devil in your own life, but on behalf of your family and community. That’s where it starts. We can’t defeat Medusa in one day or by ourselves. This isn’t a Greek fiction. It starts, men, with fighting the fight that’s right in front of you.

In closing, do these three things now before it’s too late:

1) Pray. This is what Phinehas was doing before he rose to do the job that was right in front of him.

2) Act. Prayer directs our hearts in the way we should go, giving us courage and wisdom for action.

3) Lead. Notice that after Phinehas acted in this bold way, he was rewarded with more authority. God gave to Phinehas and his entire household after him the priesthood. When you pray and then act, be prepared to lead. Others will follow.

Like Israel living among the Moabites, you and I are not yet home. While we wait to go home, draw confidence from the Second Adam, who picked up his javelin and put an end to what the First Adam dismantled. It was not his blame to bear, but Jesus Christ took on flesh, waged his sacrificial war, and conquered.

Go and do likewise.

Fortissime vive. Live boldly.