Tuesday, Nov. 19
Numbers Chapters 25 and 26 Click here to read
Chapter 25 is a bit confusing, leading many interpreters to think it started as two separate stories that became interwoven. Despite the different references to Moabite women and a Midianite woman, there is a unifying concern about introducing foreign women into the community. As we have seen before, this has more to do with the effect they have on faithful religious practice than with any concern about racial or ethnic purity.
The reason for that concern is made clear in the opening verses: the men who engage in sexual immorality with the women become involved in worshiping their foreign god, Baal.
While nothing in scripture suggests that sexual sin is any more or less “bad” than other sin, it does seem to be uniquely connected to straying into worship of other gods. As I have mentioned before, adultery is a common biblical metaphor for worshiping other gods, and, in passages like this one, there seems to be a pretty direct connection.
Even in our day there seems to be a correlation between fidelity to a scriptural perspective on sexuality and fidelity to a firm scriptural basis for theology. The correlation was visible in the recent divisiveness in Methodism to the extent that it was often impossible to be sure if the discussion was about sexuality or theology.
Christians have been accused of being overly concerned with sexual sin and overlooking other sins like greed, gluttony, pride, wrath, envy and sloth. While that may at times be true, it doesn’t justify overlooking the harm sexual sin does to both individuals and society.
In Matthew Chapter 19 Jesus speaks of a husband and wife becoming one flesh. In 1 Corinthians Chapter 6 Paul warns that a man who unites himself with a prostitute becomes one flesh with her. There seems to be a level of connection that, however society may view it, is never completely casual and without consequence.