Rev. David Holwick ZI Make It Count, #16
First Baptist Church (original date canceled by Great Halloween Snow Storm)
Ledgewood, New Jersey
November 6, 2011
Numbers 25:1-5
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I. It's a weakness that is as old as man.
A. It worked for the Jews.
In the 1970s, an Israeli named Mordechai Vanunu had a change of
heart about his government.
He joined protest movements and opposed Israeli militarism and
the oppression of Arabs.
This was rather dangerous because his day job was being a
technician in Israel's Dimona nuclear weapons facility.
Before he was fired for participating in a pro-Arab rally, he
secretly smuggled a camera into the nuclear facility and
illegally took 57 photographs.
Vanunu then moved to Australia and the son of an orthodox rabbi
renounced his Jewish faith and became an Anglican Christian.
In 1986 Vanunu flew to London to tell his story to British
newspapers, hoping to embarrass Israel - and make a pile
of money.
Even though Israel has always been ambiguous about whether it
had nuclear weapons, neither affirming it nor denying it,
Vanunu claimed he could prove it with his photographs.
The period of negotiation among the newspapers was tense.
At one point the London Sunday Times was keeping Vanunu hidden
in a secret location in suburban London while it attempted
to verify his story.
The newspaper was extra cautious because it had just been burned
by the "Hitler Diaries" hoax.
But their research showed that Vanunu probably was the real deal.
In the meantime, Vanunu got restless.
He announced to his minders at the paper that he had met a young
woman while visiting tourist attractions in London.
They had gotten along so well that they were planning a romantic
weekend in Rome.
The newspaper felt it had no right to prevent Vanunu from
leaving.
It was a huge mistake: Soon after arriving in Rome with his lady
friend, Vanunu was seized by Mossad officers.
He was forcibly drugged and smuggled out of Italy by ship to
Israel, where he was eventually put on trial for treason.
Vanunu served 18 years in jail, 11 years of it in solitary
confinement.
Released in 2004, he is still confined to Israel under tight
restrictions, which include not being allowed to meet with
foreigners or talk about his experiences.
The woman who set the honey trap was a Mossad officer, Cheryl
Ben Tov, code-named "Cindy."
Born in Orlando, Florida, she was married to an officer of the
Israeli security service.
The Mossad could not have risked a diplomatic incident by
kidnapping Vanunu from British soil, so he had to be lured
abroad.
It was an audacious undertaking, but in this case a successful
one.
#63439
B. It worked for Balaam too.
1) Cursing Israel on behalf of Balak had been a failure.
a) God would not let him do it.
b) Instead, Balaam pronounced blessings on Israel in seven
messages (oracles).
c) No curse, no money.
2) So Balaam came up with a "Plan B."
a) It is not evident in this passage, but look at Num 31:16.
1> The outcome of this debacle is a final battle
against the Midianites.
2> In 31:7, every Midianite man is killed in battle.
3> But verse 9 shows the women were spared.
b) Moses was upset with this.
1> The reason was that the women had followed Balaam's
advice in seducing the Israelites. 31:16
2> It didn't happen by chance - it was a cunning plot.
C. Honey traps are everywhere.
1) Many Christians are tripped up by them.
2) Be careful that you don't become one of them.
II. They should have been stronger than this.
A. The Israelites were in a choice situation.
1) The Promised Land was just across the river.
2) They had recently defeated major armies so nothing stood
between them and their goal.
3) They had clear moral guidelines from God himself in the
Ten Commandments.
4) The pagan prophet Balaam had been forced to bless them.
B. You are never weaker than when you are strong.
1) When Moses came down with the Ten Commandments, he found
the people having a blow-out party.
a) There are a lot of similarities between that episode
and this one.
2) After Elijah defeated hundreds of false prophets in the
showdown on Mount Carmel, he wimped out after a woman
named Jezebel sent him a threatening message.
3) When Peter made the great proclamation of faith that Jesus
was the Son of God, it was only a short time before
Jesus told him he was under the control of Satan.
4) Only Jesus never had a reversal like this.
a) He went from strength to strength rather than to
weakness.
b) Don't you wish you were more like Jesus?
III. It wasn't limited to sex.
A. The men also sacrificed to the gods of the Moabites.
1) Most scholars feel that the sex was tied to the Canaanite
religion.
a) Clay tablets found at Ugarit in Syria revealed that
their religion had been based on fertility rituals.
b) Having sex in the temple assured a better crop in the
fields in the autumn.
c) So the women were simply being spiritual.
2) The Jewish faith had a different perspective.
a) To approach God, they abstained from sex rather than
practicing it.
b) God blesses your fields because he desires it.
B. Their direct violation of God's covenant.
1) The Jewish men were breaking two of the Ten Commandments.
a) Thou shalt not commit adultery.
b) Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2) This is why the punishment was so severe.
IV. It is not just an ancient problem.
A. The New Testament makes the same connection.
1) Balaam's honey trap made an impression on Christians.
2) There are at least two passages that draw on it directly.
B. Revelation 2:14 gives the perspective of the risen Jesus.
1) It is a message from Jesus to the church of Pergamum.
2) He accuses them of holding to the teaching of Balaam.
a) Two aspects of their sin are highlighted:
1> Eating food sacrificed to idols (which was only
done in temples).
2> Committing sexual immorality.
b) Note the parallel with Numbers 25.
1> False faith and free sex.
2> These Christians were compromising with pagan
religion and pagan morality.
c) His word to them - you'd better repent!
C. The Apostle Paul alludes to Balaam in 1 Corinthians 10:8.
1) The immorality Balaam encouraged brought about a divine
plague that killed tens of thousands, as in Numbers 25:9.
2) Paul points out that God still judges today.
V. Our society is very compromised about sex and religion.
A. Sex is a lot cheaper than it used to be. #63440
1) An article on Slate.com struck a chord with many people.
a) It says 30% of young men get sex with no romance at all.
b) No wooing, or flowers, or free dinner, is necessary.
c) No commitments means marriage itself is superfluous.
d) This is why we have weddings that cost $10 million and
marriages that last 72 days. (Kim Kardashian)
2) Even some Christians buy into this.
B. Society's lies on sex.
1) Promiscuity is natural and risk-free.
2) Cohabitation is necessary before marriage.
3) Homosexuality is predetermined and unchangeable.
4) Your sexual identity is up to you alone.
From Britain's "Daily Mail Online" comes the following
headline:
"Two men who divorced their wives, came out as gay,
became transgender lesbians, now marry after one has a
sex change."
For the uninitiated, a transgender lesbian is defined as a
lesbian female trapped in a man's body.
Since only one of them had the necessary surgery, they
wed as "husband and wife."
(In their previous lives, these guys had five children
between them.)
They took their vows in a church - the Metropolitan
Community Church of Manchester, England.
#63441
C. When you compromise in this area, you will compromise elsewhere.
1) Your view on the Bible's authority will weaken.
2) You won't witness because you feel like a hypocrite.
VI. God calls us to something higher.
A. The Bible's expectations are pretty well known.
1) Sex is limited to male-female relationship within marriage.
2) No sex until marriage.
3) No sex outside of marriage.
4) Purity in actions and even thoughts.
B. Is it really possible?
1) Many argue it cannot be done be due to human nature.
a) Statistics on adultery and lust.
b) Ubiquity of internet pornography.
c) We are no different than animals, and animals are
promiscuous.
1> Critics would say we should just get over it.
2> Unrealistic boundaries concerning sex just create
guilt.
2) Look at your personal experience.
a) How many have never had sex before you were married?
b) How many have never had sex outside of your marriage?
c) How many limit yourselves to pure thoughts?
C. It can only be done with God's help.
1) Study to learn his principles for living.
2) Ask him to make you strong where you are weak.
a) Seek out other believers who will reinforce you rather
than tear you down.
3) Ask his forgiveness where you have failed.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#63439 “Honey Traps,” by David Holwick, adapted from the Wikipedia.org
article, "Mordechai Vanunu."
#63440 “Sex is a Lot Cheaper Than It Used To Be,” adapted from the article
"Sex Is Cheap: Why young men have the upper hand in bed, even
when they’re failing in life," by Mark Regnerus, Slate.com,
February 25, 2011; <http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/
doublex/2011/02/sex_is_cheap.2.html>
#63441 “Yet Another Sign of Sexual Disintegration,” by David Holwick,
adapted from <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2054294/
Transgender-lesbians-fathered-children-tie-knot.html>,
by Daily Mail reporter, October 27, 2001.
For an interesting article on honey traps, see “The History of the Honey
Trap: Five lessons for would-be James Bonds and Bond girls -- and the men
and women who would resist them,” by Phillip Knightley, Foreignpolicy.com,
March 12, 2010, <http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/03/12/
the_history_of_the_honey_trap>
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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