In Numbers 25 & 26, Balaam was not able to bring a curse onto the Israelites but recommends they battle them spiritually instead. The men are seduced and enticed by the Moabite women and in turn they worship the false gods of Moab. They fall for it and the plan works. God gets angry and a plague falls on the Israelites taking out 24,000 people. A grandson of Aaron acted in His zealous faithfulness to God and killed one of the Simeon men who was sinning and the woman he was sinning with. God rewards his zealousness for God and stops the plague. Almost all of the previous generation has now passed on leaving the generation that is promised to enter the Promised Land. They recount to establish how the land they are about to enter should be split up. The current generation has been born and raised wandering around in the wilderness and they are about to receive the long awaited promise. The only two that remained steadfast and faithful in their trust to God from the previous generation were Caleb and Joshua. They are the only two who outlasted all the complainers and gripers of an entire generation of people. God rewards the kind of passion that faithfully and firmly trusts in the Word of God no matter what the circumstances around us may look like.
