Baal of Peor is the god Israel yoked itself to in the wilderness.
The people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.
They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods,
and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
Peor is the place. Baal is the lord they bowed to there. Balak could not get a curse from Balaam. The people were invited to sacrifices, ate, and bowed down. Idolatry and sexual immorality arrived together. God’s anger was kindled. A plague broke out. Phinehas turned it back with a spear. Moses says this was on Balaam’s advice.
- Moses tells Israel to remember it. The Lord was not finished with Peor.
- Psalm 106 puts the dead in the story. They yoked themselves, and a plague broke out.
- Jesus does not use the name Baal of Peor in Revelation. He names the teaching: food sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality, the stumbling block Balaam taught Balak. That is Peor in the letter to Pergamum.
The yoke is the word. Israel joined itself to a local lord. The blessing on the mountain did not keep them from the feast at the foot. A church can hold Christ’s name and still hold this teaching.
They ate.
They bowed down.
They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.
The anger of the Lord was kindled.
- Baal of Peor is the god of that place, not a vague name for sin.
- The invitation was sacrifice, food, and bowing down.
- The yoke joined Israel to that god. The Lord’s anger followed.
- Balaam’s advice is the counsel behind the feast.
- Phinehas stood up, and the plague was checked.
- The same pair, idol food and immorality, is the teaching Jesus hates at Pergamum.
- The Place – Peor, in the plains of Moab.
- The Invitation – Sacrifices of their gods.
- The Act – They ate and bowed down.
- The Yoke – Israel joined himself to Baal of Peor.
- The Anger – The Lord was kindled against Israel.
- The Counsel – Balaam’s advice to Balak.
- The Echo – A stumbling block still named by Christ.
- Numbers 25:1-3 – “The people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.”
- Numbers 25:9 – “Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.”
- Numbers 31:16 – “Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor.”
- Deuteronomy 4:3 – “Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor.”
- Psalm 106:28-29 – “Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead; they provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.”
- Revelation 2:14 – “The teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.”
They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
On Balaam’s advice they caused the people of Israel to act treacherously in the matter of Peor.
Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor.
Do not treat Peor as an old feast. It is the stumbling block Christ still names. They ate. They bowed down. They yoked themselves. The anger of the Lord was kindled.
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