Yesterday we saw God’s gracious hand to protect the people of Israel, blessing them with the words of Balaam, after Balak kind of Moab had hired Balaam to curse them. Yet even while that was happening, Israel was busy bringing a curse upon themselves. The people of Israel were camped near the frontier of Moab, and the men of Israel began to have sexual relations with the women of Moab. These women invited their new lovers to join them in the worship of their gods. And the men agreed to this, joining in festival meals and bowing down before these other gods: “thus Israel yoked itself to the Baal of Peor” (Number 25:1-2).

The wrath of God was kindled in response to this, and Moses commanded the divisions of judges to slay any person in Israel who had yoked himself to the Baal of Peor (25:5). There was in addition a plague, with twenty-four thousand deaths recorded (25:9).

While all this was going on, one of the Israelites, Zimri son of Salu, brought a foreign woman, Cozbi daughter of Zur, into his camp and into his tent, right in front of Moses and the other leaders: an in-your-face decision to reject the covenant of Yahweh in favor of yoking with foreign people and their gods. In a ghastly visual parable, Aaron’s grandson Phinehas responded to this by making the “yoking” deadly specific: he jointed the two of them together with a bar of wood, by piercing them both through the middle with a spear. The text does not make this explicit, but presumably we are to understand that Phinehas killed them with one long thrust, through Zimri’s back and on through Cozbi’s belly, while they were in the midst of intercourse.

This is a harsh story. Phinehas is commended by the Lord for this grim act of violence (25:10-13). Yet while we may well feel squeamish about his murderous action, we should not miss the vivid symbolism: if you yoke with another god, you are yoked with death.

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We would like to claim that we are more faithful than Zimri, Lord, and would never deserve such terrible treatment. Yet we routinely choose to do what we want, assuming you will always forgive us for our disloyalty to you. When will we learn that turning from you can have such terrible results?