The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Numbers 25:1-8, “While Israel remained at Shittim (a place west of Jerusalem and east of the Jordan River), between, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.

2 For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

3 So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the LORD was angry against Israel.

4 And the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.”

5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you slay his men who have joined themselves to Baal of Peor.”

6 Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting.

7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand;

8 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked.”

There’s far more to be learned from these verses than from my comments. Just note that the Israelites’ sin began when they kept company with the wrong people. Watch out for the company you keep. You may have the mistaken idea that you can change them to righteous thinking. Yet, it rarely works. Israel was on Moabite

real estate. It was not long before they “joined themselves to Baal” and worshipped him.

Acting at the direction of the LORD, Moses commanded the judges of Israel to slay those who had joined themselves with the pagan god Baal. Some of the “arrogant young men” openly paraded their Moabite girls before Israel and even before Moses. Why do those who are fundamentally opposed to what we believe often seem attractive to us? Perhaps we want to show how diversely tolerant we are. Or, perhaps it is an open rebellion within us that arises from pride and self-assessed authority. In any event, they were wrong in God’s sight.

One Israelite, a man named Phinehas, the grandson of Moses’ brother, Aaron, went after the arrogant young man, who flouted his sinfulness in the face of the LORD’s servants, and he “pierced both of them… through their bodies.” God’s commands must be obeyed. Phinehas was not arrogant; he simply carried out the order the LORD had given through His servant, Moses. Why are we so slow in obeying the Word of the LORD? Is His Word not more valuable than as to be ignored? Is the upholding of the honor of the LORD more worthy than dismissing the sins of men as irrevelant?

Finally, it must be said that when God’s Word is obeyed, the troubles we face will be divinely erased. The burdens the LORD allows to fall upon us are multiple. Sometimes it’s an earthquake; sometimes, a tornado; sometimes, a flood; sometimes it’s a financial disaster; sometimes it’s death. With Israel, it was a plague. But the LORD stayed the plague when one man –Phinehas—obeyed Him. Sometimes it takes just one to bring about blessing. Are we willing to be that one who stands for the LORD, regardless of what others think? We are, if He is truly our LORD!

We think and pray for you daily,

Nana & Dado III

(Rose Marie & Gene)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”