Unable to defeat Israel militarily, politically, or through the use of religion, Balak, under the evil counsel of Balaam (Num. 31:16; Rev. 2:14), induced Israel to fall into fornication and idolatry (vv. 1-3a). Fornication destroys the person of the God-created man, and idolatry insults the divine person of God. According to the record of the Bible, fornication and idolatry go together (Acts 15:29; 1 Cor. 10:7-8; Eph. 5:5).

God’s view of Israel, revealed in Balaam’s parables (chs. 23—24), is altogether positive; but according to their actual situation and condition in their adamic nature, the children of Israel were fallen and sinful, a people of fornication and idolatry. The situation is the same with the believers in Christ. On the one hand, in Christ we are a heavenly people (Eph. 2:6; Phil. 3:20a; Col. 3:1-3); on the other hand, in ourselves we are a fallen and sinful people, worthy to be judged by God (Rom. 7:18; Eph. 2:1-3).

The plague was a purification of God’s people, a sifting that dealt with the mixture among them (cf. Num. 11:4). Since the history of Israel is a complete type of the church (1 Cor. 9:24-27; 10:1-11), the mixture among the children of Israel is a type of the mixture in the church (cf. Acts 4:32-37; 5:1-11; 1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 2:17-21; 4:10, 14-15). God uses the failure and turmoil among His people to purify them from mixture. God also uses the frustrations suffered by His chosen and redeemed people as a means to humble them and test them in their journey with Him (Deut. 8:2). The punishment in this chapter was the last purification of the children of Israel before they entered into the good land.