I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 25-26. After Balaam failed to curse the Israelites, some of the Moabite and Midianite women living near where they were camped began to seduce some the Israelite men into taking part in Baal worship, which likely involved sexual behavior.  The passage gives the impression that this took place over a very short period of time, but probably involved a more extended period of time.  In fact, I suspect that it had been going on, on a small scale, for some time before this.  In any case, at least one of the men became so offhand about this behavior that he brought a woman to his tent right in front of a meeting of the elders to discuss addressing the issue.  It seems likely that this behavior on the part of many of the men had created discontent among the people.  If you think about it, there were likely quite a few young Israelite women who were feeling pressured to behave as the Moabite and Midianite women, to the anger and frustration of their fathers and mothers.  To make matters worse, a plague had broken out among the Israelites.  The passage does not tell us what the plague was, but I have always assumed it was a sexually transmitted disease.  When Aaron’s grandson, Phinehas, killed the man who so cavalierly ignored the Law in front of the elders, he sent a message which quickly put a stop to this behavior.  The important part, from our perspective today, is not that Phinehas killed the man and the woman, but that he made it clear that such behavior would not be tolerated.