Moabite | Wayfarer

While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.
Numbers 25:1-3 (NIV)

I get it. The ancient episodes in the Great Story are often strange, confusing, and even offensive to modern political and cultural sensibilities. Yet, lying behind the veil of time are deep spiritual implications that are as relevant today as they have ever been. Today’s chapter is one of those.

We’ve just been through two chapters telling the story of Balaam the spiritual guru for hire who was contracted by Balak the King of Moab to curse the Hebrew tribes camped outside his kingdom. Balaam failed and returned home. So it would appear that Balaam has exited the story and the events of today’s chapter are unrelated.

But they’re not.

In today’s chapter, men from the Hebrew camp begin flirting with some women from Moab. They are invited for a meal, which turns into some wild parties that turn into sexual orgies. The Hebrew men are then invited to go to the Moabite’s pagan church with their new girlfriends, make some sacrifices, and participate in the pagan rituals. The men shrug and follow along.

Hard stop.

At this point, I find it important for me to remember that God sees his covenant relationship with the Hebrew people as a marriage. They were slaves crying out in Egypt. He showed up. He redeemed them. He delivered them. He agreed to dwell among them in the center of the camp, provide food and water, provide protection, and promised them a great home and life. Thus, God made a covenant with them to be their God and they His people. Husband and wife. This literal covenant agreement came with a prenup that listed 10 major items. At the top of the list: “You’ll have no other gods.” Fidelity. Faithfulness. I redeem, save, provide, protect, and bless and in exchange I want you to honor me by being faithful to me.

So, when the boys from the Hebrew tribes willingly choose to be seduced, led astray, and shrug off the top item on their prenup with God, it’s not just a small thing.

And, the events of today’s chapter were not a random case of multicultural curiosity and innocent lust gone astray. The seduction was a Moabite plot rooted in the counsel of guess who? Balaam, the spiritual guru.

Fast forward to John’s Revelation at the end of the Great Story. In His dictated letter to the believers in the city of Pergamum, Jesus writes through John: “You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.”

Balak was mad at Balaam for not cursing the Hebrews. Balaam offered the Moabite King some parting advice: “If you can’t curse them, corrupt them.”

So, as I meditate on these things in the quiet this morning, I find in the sordid and bloody Moabite seduction an apt spiritual reminder for myself. After all, Jesus carried the spiritual marriage metaphor forward. He is the bridegroom while I and all of my fellow believers are His bride. He came and paid the bride price with His own life to make an eternal covenant with me. He redeemed me, saved me, offered me protection, provision, blessing, and promise. I don’t want to be unfaithful and dishonor that love and commitment.

Yet Jesus warned His followers the night before His crucifixion that the enemy, while standing condemned, will never be idle. Jesus’ blood and sacrifice forever protect me from the enemies curse. But the enemy knows Balaam’s counsel: “If you can’t curse them. Corrupt them.”

As I think about entering another day of the journey in this fallen world, the sage voice of Obi-wan Kenobi just flit into my mind:

“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy…We must be cautious!”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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But when the Israelites cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man.
Judges 3:15 (NRSV)

When it comes to a good novel, I have always loved espionage thrillers. So, it comes as no surprise that I find the story of Ehud, the southpaw who saved the nation, most fascinating. Three things stood out to me this morning as I read the story of Ehud’s assassination of the Moabite king, Eglon, and Israel’s subsequent military victory.

The first thing that struck me this morning was simply how brutal life in the time of the judges really was. Get ready, because we’re just getting started and there’s a lot of brutality to wade through in the coming weeks. I have said it before as we’ve journeyed through the ancient texts of God’s Message, and I’m reminded again: I have to try and take myself out of my 21st century, American cultural mindset to imagine the realities of tribal culture in Canaan 3300 years ago.

The second thing is that Ehud was a lefty, and lefties have always had a pretty bad rap throughout history. We humans are lemmings by nature and history reveals that we are continually suspect of social outliers. Lefties in history were thought to be anything from evil omens to downright evil themselves. As a lefty, I can remember my elementary teachers at least making an attempt to have me write with my right hand because they believed being right handed would be better for me. How silly of us to be afraid of that which is natural, if only different. Ehud’s south-paw sword hand came in handy.

Finally, Ehud hatched a brilliant plan, and he seems to have understood several key pieces of strategy. The fact that Eglon trusted himself to be alone with Ehud tells me that there was trust built between the two. He seems to have known what Don Corleone learned thousands of years later: Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Then you can strike when the time is right. Ehud also understood that if you strike the shepherd the sheep will be scattered. He started buy killing the King and then the Moabite subjects were easier to defeat. Ehud was also perceptive about human nature. By speaking privately to Eglon, then shutting & locking the door behind him, he anticipated the servants’ reluctance to barge in on the king. He bought himself more time to get out.

Today, I’m thinking about the fact that God uses our unique differences for specific purpose. Ehud the southpaw was the right guy at the right time in the right place. Our natural strengths and corollary struggles mean that we are uniquely suited to play our part in the Great Story. It’s our job to respect that part we play, and the parts played by others – rather than judging them as better, worse, greater, or lesser.