Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals:
Monday June 8 2026
More Bible Studies Available @ http://www.marktabata.com. To Receive
Free Bible Studies And Updates Via Email, Contact Mark Tabata @ 606-216-1757 (SMS Only) or mailto:markatabata@gmail.com (Email). Follow me on Substack: http://substack.com/@marktabata. Also please visit my author page: http://amazon.com/author/marktabata
Numbers 25:6-8-And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 7 Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; 8 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.
All unrighteousness is sin (1 John 5:17), yet there are degrees of severity of sin. Jesus teaches us this when He speaks with Pilate.
John 19:11-Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”
Throughout the Bible, God warn us about the dangers of what we may refer to as “public sin.” This has reference to defiant and willful sin that is either private and becomes publicly known, or is committed in a public way in full recognition by others, with no concern from the transgressor for how such reflects on God or His people.
We see an example of this here in Numbers 25.
The children of Israel had been committing ritual fornication and child sacrifice in worship to the pagan gods of Moab. One of the men involved in this was named Zimri (Numbers 25:14). The Bible tells us that he “presented to his brethren a Midianite woman.”
What did this mean?
The answer is found later in the passage where we are told that Phineas killed both Zimri and the Midianite woman (whose name was Cozbi according to Numbers 25:15).
Number 25:8-and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.
The text is clear that Zimri and Cozbi were killed in the same way and at the same time. These details give us an idea of the sin that they were committing, as well as why the death penalty was invoked on this occasion.
The positioning and the ability to thrust the spear through both bodies, the man’s first and then the woman’s, suggests that they had involved themselves immediately in sexual intercourse upon entering the tent. They were impaled on the spear from the middle of his back through the woman’s stomach while in the tent shrine , a sarcastic Hebrew pun. The term for “tent” here is a Hebrew hapax legomenon, sometimes translated “woman’s quarters,” 673 is thought to be related to an Arabic term for a domed tent shrine. 674. (Dennis R. Cole, Numbers: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (The New American Commentary), 441 (Kindle Edition): Nashville, TN: B&N Publishing Group)
Notice how the gravity of the sin is explicated by the public nature of their transgression. It was while Moses was still speaking in the sight of the congregation (i.e., publicly), condemning this very sin, that Zimri and Cozbi enter into “the tent” and engage in this act of ritual fornication.
What is this “tent” that is under discussion?
It is probably a reference to the Tabernacle, which was the focal point of Hebrew worship and represented the dwelling place of God with His people!
The question is: Into what tent did Phinehas follow the Israelite? It could be the tent of Zimri’s family, a marriage canopy (Milgrom’s view), some other tent, or most serious of all, the “Tent of Meeting,” the Tabernacle. If it was the latter, that would have been the most egregious of Zimri’s sins. It would also explain Phinehas’s action—he was chief of the sanctuary guards. And it would explain why God rewarded Phinehas’s taking the law into his own hands by killing the Israelite man and Midianite woman. This is also the view of Richard Elliott Friedman: The qubbãh is a tent, as Rashi understood. Moreover, as my teacher Frank Cross discussed, the qubbh is known in the pre-Islamic Near East. It was a tent used to house sacred objects, and, like the biblical Tabernacle, it was made of red leather. Since this episode begins precisely at the entrance to the Tabernacle (the Tent of Meeting; verse 6), it certainly appears that the qubbh here refers to the inside of the Tabernacle. So, then, not only did Zimri adopt Midianite gods; not only did he likely engage, as did other Israelite men, in Midianite sacred prostitution; not only did he bring his Midianite sexual companion to the tent in front of Moses and the community; but he also likely engaged in sexual intercourse in the Tent of Meeting of the Holy Tabernacle. (Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Numbers: God and Man in the Wilderness, 468 (Kindle Edition): New York, NY: Regnery Faith)
The public nature of the sin compounded the offense tremendously. Not only had Zimri and Cozbi committed these sins, but they had done so in view of the congregation, in direct defiance of Moses’ words, and inside the Tabernacle itself.
Several Old Testament passages discus public sin in detail (Deuteronomy 13; 17:2-7; Joshua 7; Psalm 51; Ezekiel 22; Isaiah 1; Amos 2-5; etc.). The recognized Jewish scholar, Maimonides, expounded a great deal upon these topics. He points out that as public the sin, so public the repentance needs to be. Sins committed against God alone, should be privately confessed with repentance. Transgressions against another person need to be repented of and confessed to him/her. Finally, sins committed that bring a public reproach upon God and His people need to be publicly repented of as a sign of repentance. Further, as part of repentance, restitution needs to be offered (when possible and appropriate).
In fact, we could paraphrase and say (based upon Maimonides’ learned understanding of the Old Testament Scriptures) that the less a person’s sin affects others, the more private his repentance need be. And the converse of this is also true: the more a person’s sin affects others, the more public that repentance needs to be.
Of course, Jesus Himself points out and acknowledges these same truths (Matthew 5:23-24), and we see this being practiced in the early church as well (Acts 19:18; James 5:16). All sin may be forgiven (Ezekiel 18:23), but public sin adds other dimensions that need to be carefully considered and prayerfully addressed.
Can you think of any other examples of public sin in the Bible?
What lessons can we learn from those accounts?
Lord, thanks for Your saving blood that makes redemption from all sin possible. We praise You! Amen.