The Story of Mixed Marriages

Numbers 25:1-15 and 31:1-21

On television, Beth saw a Donahue about men and women of different religions who had intimate relationships. After the show Beth went into the kitchen where her mother was sharpening some knives and asked her, "Does God mind it when people of different religions get married?"
"Let me tell you a story about that, Dear One," her mother said.
And this is the story she told:

One day the Israelites arrived at a place called Shittim and started to treat Moab's daughters like people who let men put their penises in them for money. Pretty soon, Moab's daughters asked the Israelites to make sacrifices to their gods. The Israelites ate and bowed down to Moab's daughters' god, Baalpeor. This made God really mad.
God said to Moses, "Take the people's heads off and hang them up in front of me toward the sun. That way I won't be angry."

"Wow!" said Beth, "God really gets mad when men pay foreign women for sex!"
"No, no, Little One," said Beth's mother. "God isn't upset about that. He's man because the women have told the Israelites about the religion of Baalpeor and some of the Israelites have converted."
"I get it," said Beth.

Moses did what God said to do. He told the judges, "Kill every man who worshipped Baalpeor."
After that, one of the Israelites brought a Midianitish woman home with him right in front of Moses and everyone who was crying at the temple entrance. When Phinehas, Aaron's grandson, saw them, he got up, took a javelin, went into the Israelite's tent, and stabbed the javelin through the man and the woman while they were having sex. That made God stop killing people, but 24,000 people were already dead.
Then God said to Moses, "Phinehas made me feel better by being so angry so I decided not to kill everyone in a jealous rage. Tell him that I promise to be peaceful to him and his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and other children, and they will all be priests because of what he did."

"I see," said Beth. "God was mad at the men who had sex with women from Midian."
"He was also mad at the people of Midian for letting the Israelites be led astray," said Beth's mother. "Listen to the rest of the story and you'll see."

Soon after that God said to Moses, "The Israelites should get revenge against the Midianites."
Moses agreed with God, so he told the people, "Get weapons and organize yourselves so we can go to war with the Midianites. A thousand soldiers from each tribe should be enough."
When they were ready, Moses sent to 12,000 men to war along with Eleazar the priest who had holy things and a trumpet.
There was a big war and the Israelites killed all the Midianite men. That includes the king and other important men of Midian.
The Israelites took all the Midianite women and children captive and stole the best of their cows and their sheep and their other stuff. Then they used fire to burn all the cities and castles.
When they were through, the brought all the people they had captured and the animals and things that they had stolen to Moses and Eleazar and the Israelites.
Moses and Eleazar and the Israelite princes went out to meet them.
When they met, Moses got mad at the army's leaders and said, "Why did you let all the women live? Look, they made the Israelites do things that God didn't want them to do so God had to kill lots of us. So kill all the boy children and kill all the women who are old enough that someone might have ever put a penis in them. Keep the women children that nobody has ever put a penis in for yourselves."

Beth thought about this for a moment. "Boy, what a complicated story," she said. "I guess God does mind when different kinds of people get married. If a man wants to be with a woman who isn't like him, then he's going to have to take her prisoner before someone puts a penis in her, isn't he?"
"That's right, Dear One," said her mother. "I bet they would
never have told you about that on the Donahue show, now would they?"
Then Beth smiled and hugged her mother. All her questions had been answered.