(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Numbers 25:1–5, “And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor.”
On the one hand there was the visible battle to prevent Israel from coming into the Promised Land there was also a spiritual battle going on. From the very early days of the earth there was a contest between the Lord God and Satan. This was carried on in the spiritual realm and could be seen in the material world. Satan knew that the Lord’s curse included the Promise that one day a super spiritual man would be born with the resources to bruise his head (Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”) Satan also knew that this man would come from Israel, Abraham’s descendants (Gen 12:1–3, “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”) The only way that all the families of the earth could be blessed is through Satan’s defeat when his head was bruised. However, Satan realised that he would not be able to engineer a comprehensive defeat of Israel as long as the Lord protected them. He followed another scenario by leading them into sin, that is, he taught them to break the Ten Commandments by worshipping other gods and committing adultery. However, Moses still remained true to the Lord and there were enough other people who sere loyal as well so they were able to punish the people who led Israel into sin and the nation was saved from the Lord’s anger.
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