Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. [James 1:14-15 (NLT)]
As the Israelites journeyed toward Canaan, they turned south to the plains of Moab. Fearful of so many Israelites in Moab and Midian, King Balak of Moab sent the elders of Moab and Midian to hire Balaam, a sorcerer and prophet, to curse the Israelites. Although Balaam tried to do just that, the Lord intervened by speaking through the mouth of a donkey, opening the prophet’s eyes to see an angel of the Lord, and being told he could speak only the message the Lord put in his mouth. Rather than cursing the Israelites, Balaam ended up blessing them and cursing Moab! Needless to say, the prophet did not receive the rich reward promised him. Although God prevented Balaam from cursing Israel, the unscrupulous prophet found another way to get his reward from Balak—he got Israel to bring a curse upon themselves!
Any reading the Hebrew Scriptures tells us that Israel’s biggest threat wasn’t from pagan curses or foreign armies. The danger lay in their continual failure to remember and obey their God—the God who delivered them from Egyptian slavery, brought them safely through the wilderness, and even protected them from Balaam’s curse. Sacred prostitution was a common practice among the Canaanite religions and, while camped at Shittim, Israel’s men began to have sex with the local women. Encouraged by these women, they then began attending their local feasts, pagan sacrifices, and worshipping Baal of Peor (one of the main gods of the Moabites, Midianites, and Ammonites). The Lord grew angry with Israel for their debauchery and idolatry and commanded the deaths of all who defiled themselves by participating in the sacrilege. 24,000 men died in the violent plague of judgment. It turns out that the same Balaam who blessed Israel instead of cursing it was the one who instigated the women’s invitation to fornication and idolatry. Even though Balaam set the stage for the seduction of the Israelite men, no one forced them to respond; that responsibility fell squarely on each man’s shoulders.
Moab’s King Balak didn’t need a curse to kill any Israelites; they did a fine job of doing that on their own! But, the story didn’t end well for Balaam and the Midianites, as well. The Lord commanded Moses to take vengeance on them for their seduction of His people. A brutal massacre of the nation followed and the prophet Balaam died in the carnage. Nevertheless, the Israelites’ fall to temptation reminds us that our greatest battles are not against enemy armies or pagan prophets but against Satan and our own sinful natures. God, however, has not left us defenseless. While our worst enemy is self, our strongest ally is Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us. [Charles H. Spurgeon]
Earlier this week, I wrote of the Levites’ failure to protect Judah from idolatry but one Levite stands out in his loyalty to God and commitment to the temple: Jehoiada the priest. When Judah’s King Ahaziah died, his mother, Queen Athaliah seized Judah’s throne. The daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, she was as evil as her parents and tried to kill all of her son’s heirs. Unknown to her, Ahaziah’s infant son Joash was hidden by his aunt and survived. Raised by the high priest Jehoiada, the boy’s existence was kept secret while the priest plotted to put him on the throne. When the boy was seven, Jehoiada made a pact with five army commanders who covertly travelled throughout Judah to summon the Levites and leaders to a meeting at the Temple.
The Levites (descendants of Jacob’s son Levi) were set aside for religious service. While all priests were Levites, not all Levites were priests. The most sacred tasks, like offering the sacrifices and conducting ceremonies, were reserved for the priests (kohanim) who were descendants of Aaron; the rest of the Levites supported the priests in their duties.
When writing about nitroglycerin recently, I realized there’s something else in our lives much like this strange chemical that is both helpful and harmful. Like nitroglycerin, man’s capabilities are a dichotomy between good and evil, constructive and destructive, and beneficial or detrimental. The same mind capable of creating a vaccine that saves thousands of lives is capable of creating a nuclear bomb that can take those lives. James speaks of this incongruity when writing about the way we use our words, “We use our tongues to praise our Lord and Father, but then we curse people, whom God made like himself. Praises and curses come from the same mouth! My brothers and sisters, this should not happen.” [3:9-10]
Aaron’s four sons were priests and, in Leviticus 10, his oldest sons Nadab and Abihu offer incense to God in the Tabernacle. The incense symbolized the people’s prayers rising up to God and the coals used for burning it were to be taken from the altar of burnt offerings outside the sanctuary. Although priests were required to fulfill their duties precisely, Scripture tells us the two offered “strange” or “unauthorized” fire and were immediately consumed by fire from God!
Because the literacy rate in the 1st century was around 10 to 15%, only a few people could read the Hebrew Scriptures or Apostolic letters. By necessity, the new faith came about through public reading and preaching. In his letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul warned of a time when sound doctrine would no longer be tolerated. Rather than reproof, rebuke, exhortation, and instruction, people would want to have their itching ears knéthó (meaning tickled or scratched). Rather than knowledge and doctrine, they’d be more interested in myths, sensationalism, and viewpoints suiting their desires. I fear that time has come!
