#DailyDevotion Don’t Be Led Astray By The World’s Temptations
Psalm 106 19At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an image of poured metal. 20So they traded their glorious God for a statue of a bull that eats grass. 21They forgot God Who saved them, Who did great things in Egypt, 22wonders in Ham’s country, and terrible things at the Red Sea. 23He said He would destroy them – if Moses, whom He chose, hadn’t stood in His way to turn back His fury and keep Him from destroying them.
How quickly people turn from God to idols even having seen the power and majesty of the LORD. The Israelites saw what God had done to the Egyptians in Egypt and at the Red Sea. They heard the voice of the LORD at Mt. Sinai give the Ten Commandments. Then when Moses was gone, they forgot the word they heard from the LORD Himself, made a golden calf and worshiped it. It just shows how seeing miracles is not enough to create saving faith. Hearing the Good News of the LORD alone is what creates saving faith. Trusting in the word alone is our rock when doubts arise. Miracles can only lift up a faith that is already present.
The Israelites sinned and the LORD was going to destroy them. Moses interceded for them and they were saved. Similarly, the wrath of God is directed toward the people of the earth. Jesus shed His blood for us and He intercedes at the right hand of the Father for us. His blood makes atonement for our sins. His intercession has us persevere until He calls us home to Himself. But there is coming a day when the Father says the time is up. Then He will send His holy angels to remove all the wickedness from the world and we will like Him.
24They scorned the delightful country, didn’t believe what He said, 25grumbled in their tents, and didn’t obey the LORD. 26Raising His hand, He swore to them to strike them down in the wilderness, 27disperse their descendants among the nations, and scatter them in the various countries. 28But they went to serve Baal at Peor and ate what was sacrificed to dead idols. 29So they made Him angry by what they did, and sudden death broke out among them. 30Then Phinehas stood up between God and the people, and the plague was stopped; 31and it was credited to him as righteousness through all the generation forever.
So we have a couple different incidents here. The first was probably the worst of the offenses. The LORD had brought them to the Promised Land. He promised to fight for them and give them the land. Their spies said the land was good but there was no way they could defeat the inhabitants. They rejected and disbelieved the Word of the LORD. Because of this, they had to wander the wilderness until everyone who was twenty and over died before entering the Promised Land.
The second is when Balaam of Peor had the Moabite king tempt the men of Israel into worshiping Baal their god with their women. They were sexually immoral with them as per their worship of Baal. They offered up sacrifices to Baal as well. The LORD sent out a plague among them. During this time, one of the men of Israel took a Midianite woman into his home. Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, went after them and pierced them through with a spear and the LORD ceased the plague. It is not clear what was wrong here. Moses had married a Midianite woman so it wasn’t that. Perhaps these Midianites also worshiped Baal which would make sense. The other possibility is the people were mourning before the LORD because He had commanded the elders of people to be hanged who permitted this apostasy and the death of the men who worshiped Baal. Perhaps it was the impropriety of the action. But I think the context would be more the Midianites also were worshiping Baal.
We should learn from this how important it is to watch and guard our faith from temptations.
Heavenly Father, we pray, lead us not into temptation. Fulfill our prayer so when temptations come, we may overcome them by Your grace. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.