Devotional Messages

The Wrath of God

The Israelites were God's chosen people: He made a covenant with Abraham, He led them out of Egypt, He provided for them in the desert. But they were a rebellious people: as we have seen from previous readings in the history stream, they rarely lasted long without ignoring God in some way. Today's reading from Numbers gave us another example of this; and it is interesting to note that Chapter 25 of Numbers alone carries the reasons for Israel's sin, the sin itself, God's reaction, and the method of reconciliation. Today's message will examine this chapter, and its impact on our lives as Christians.

First we read that the Israelite men indulged in sexual immorality with Moabite (pagan) women. The Moabites then invited the Israelites to sacrifices to their gods, and the Israelites (well, at least some of them) went and bowed down to these false gods. So this is their sin and its cause. The men were tempted and failed with the sexual immorality, which led to the further sin of idolatry.

Can I note here that this exact scenario still occurs today - and can happen in almost every aspect of our lives in some way? An obvious example is that of Christian men being lured into watching late night movies by the attraction of scantily clad women, which it is not uncommon to hear of leading to an 'addiction' to pornography; being enslaved to the lures of the flesh in this way could only be described as idolatry.

Another example could be found in the desire to appear attractive yourself - perhaps imagining others reacting to your impressive appearance; this is idolising yourself, or possibly the person you're imagining. Other examples could be found from idolising the television, sports, work, study, wife/husband, girlfriend/boyfriend. There are many things the devil uses to try and focus our attention on anything but God - it worked with the Israelites, and it still works today.

God's reaction to the Israelites' sin was anger - "the Lord's anger burned against them" (v.3) - and He had many of them put to death. One example of such a death was given in the case of Zimri son of Salu and a Midianite woman, Cozbi daughter of Zur. Their sin was particularly obvious, so Phinehas took up a spear and killed both of them (vv.7-8). Does this seem extreme to you? Does the number who died in the plague (24,000) seem extreme to you? Phinehas was rewarded with a covenant of peace from God for his actions and the people were reconciled to God - the deaths were not extreme to God, they were deserved.

I must say that my reaction when reading stories from the Bible like this is that it was "a bit extreme". But then, the simple fact remains that God created us, He created us for a purpose, and as such He has the right to determine laws and punishments. Doing things God's way should have the utmost importance, it should be the ultimate aim of everyone and everything on earth - that's why we were created. But it's not - as our reactions to the deaths of those Israelites (and soon the Midianites) shows, we have become accustomed to sin. We must realise that even the 'little' sins are of deathly importance to God - "for the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23).

But, God is a loving and merciful God and so, as we have read already from the Gospel of John and the Epistle to the Romans, He sent His Son to die for us - literally in our place. God's anger toward sin as expressed in today's readings and throughout the Bible was let loose on Christ so that He wouldn't have to punish those who would trust in Christ's death for salvation. This doesn't make sin any less serious; but should in fact compel us further to seek to please and glorify God in all that we do. Upon consideration, I would say that we do not have an accurate view of the seriousness of sin until we can say that the penalty of death for sin, inflicted upon Zimri and Cozbi and the 24,000 others, was deserved; although thankfully (praise to God) it was inflicted on Christ in our place.

Based on the way you live, what is more important to you than God?

Reflect on your life and consider where you have been previously ignoring God; ask for His strength to please and glorify Him in all that you do; and praise Him that even though we are all sinners, we are forgiven through Christ who took the punishment for our sins.