Too Easy to Fall

Numbers 25:1-5 -  While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people began to have sexual relations with the women of Moab.  These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. Thus Israel yoked itself to the Baal of Peor, and the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel.  The Lord said to Moses, "Take all the chiefs of the people, and impale them in the sun before the Lord, in order that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel."  And Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you shall kill any of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor."

 

No sooner had Balaam blessed them three times…than the Israelites step outside God’s protection and mercy. They are lured by the daughters of Moab…..women who have been raised to worship Baal….with the intimate act of sex. The lure of these women must have been strong…for not only did the Israelite men quickly defile themselves with these women…they began to worship their God as well. God was so angry he told Moses to impale them all….and put a plague upon the people to show his fierce anger toward these unthinkable acts.

 

Sounds way harsh to me at first…but when I began to think about it...it fits the pattern of God’s other punishments up to now. These deaths were just carried out a little quicker…in a public way that showed the people that God would not tolerate any more of this behavior.  Phinehas was so angry at one man for ignoring the God of Yahweh…that he went right in the tent where the immorality was taking place …and impaled both the man and the woman involved.  God was so pleased with Phinehas…that he rewarded this bold act with the end of the plague against his people.

 

This was not Israel’s first mess up…this flub…was number …well I lost count of them all. And it sure is a doozey …it reminded me of the wild party they had with the golden calf...when Moses was up on Mount Sinai…getting the commandments from God for them to live by. It was so easy for them to be tricked into worshiping a God they could see….so easy for them to succumb to peer pressure and do what everyone around them did.

 

It reminds me of a time in my own life when God was more forgiving of my own fall….a huge flub for me….because I always prided myself on the purity I had maintained in not drinking alcohol. But when I think back… it wasn’t very hard for Satan to provide a second job…a workplace where I was exposed daily to drinking…and people who drank heavily at times. At first I even thought I could save a few from this practice …but being the hypocrite…I really did not realize I was….and having problems with my marriage of 20 years that made me feel lonelier than an elephant in a room of mice…I took the first of many drinks.  I couldn’t wait to go out with the gang after work…till 4-5 in the morning….and drink and laugh and be with people who loved to be with me.  I really will never understand how I got home some nights…without  a DUI!

 

Just goes to show you that God’s way of dealing with us is never a predictable thing.  He has this big picture that we don’t see…and he allows things in our lives …to teach us lessons…to prove to our hearts we are not as good as we think we are…to demonstrate his love and mercy…or to just build character in the heart he placed in us to use for his glory. I will never deserve anything God gives me….and probably missed some huge blessings he had prepared for me...because I let Satan trick me…and push all the buttons that gave me immediate love and acceptance. But what is truly amazing to me is that God blesses me daily …in spite of my huge flub…and even uses it now as a testimony of God’s love and grace to others who are trapped in the same lies of Satan.

 

Father...fresh tears of love fall from my face as I thank you for your love and covering.  I stand in awe that you could ever love me…but I am so glad and grateful that you do. I ask you to forgive me anew this morning…and keep revealing the things I am doing that bring about your anger in the sins I commit. Help me to throw off these things that bind me to the world…and give me courage and wisdom to know when you can use my mistakes as a message to others.  Amen.