Gap

The LORD brings us to different physical and spiritual places. He has us ascend to high places, and descend to low places. He brings us to dry places, and to well watered places. What we learn and do in those various places changes us, and brings change to those places.
This is a story about God's people who were brought to a low place. That place was called Shittim, or the Acacia Grove (Num. 25). By its Hebrew meaning, it is a place of thorns, scourging, flogging. In that place, there were also people of idolatry, the Moabites and Midianites, and their false god, Ba'al Peor, "lord of the gap". This gap can mean a low place, or opening, between mountains. The gap of this name can also refer to a wide opened or gaping mouth, like a mouth opened wide in terror, or opened wide to swallow up.
It is at this place of thorns and scourging that God's people began to join with the women of Moab, and also joined (fastened, be bound, attach) themselves with the false god that the women worshipped, Ba'al. In Ba'al worship, when one is in difficulty and distress, one cuts himself to draw blood, and in severe situations, even offers his oldest child to be burned in fire in order to appease Ba'al, and receive a remedy to the distress. Since Israel was in the spiritual place of acacias or thorns, we can assume that in joining themselves with Ba'al, their blood and their children were offered to Ba'al at this place of distress (Ezek. 20:6). We can also assume this kind of activity was going on because the LORD became extremely angry, and a plague (judgment) of death broke out. Moses told the leaders or judges among the people to execute all who had joined themselves to Ba'al, so that the anger of the LORD would be turned away from Israel. There was great weeping in the presence of the LORD, as the resulting plague that broke out upon them took 24,000 lives.
In the middle of this ongoing plague and weeping, a young man stood in front of Moses and all of Israel with one of these women of Ba'al worship. He was the son of the leader of the tribe of Simeon. Simeon, in Hebrew, means to hear and obey. The young man's name was Zimri ("my music, sing psalms, sing praise, play instruments"). His leader father was Salu, which means "weighed in a balance". Salu had not obeyed by delivering his son for judgment. The woman was one of the Midianite ("strife, brawling, contention, discord") women who had brought Ba'al worship to the Israelites. Her name was Cozbi ("my lie, liar, vain, deceive, proven liar"). She also was the child of a ruler of the Midianites.
Phinehas, a priest of Israel, took a javelin and sent it through Zimri and Cozbi. The javelin ran through Cozbi's belly ("to malign, pierce, perforate, stab with words, to curse"). From within her came "piercing with curses" in her worship of Ba'al, and she, in turn, was pierced by the javelin. When Phinehas pierced these two people with the javelin, the plague of judgment was stopped. The name Phinehas in Hebrew means "mouth (break in pieces) of brass (serpent, snake, fleeing serpent, enchantment, divination)". He destroyed the root of the evil Leviathan spirit (Isa. 27:1) that had come into the middle of the Israelites with their worship of Ba'al Peor. As a result, the LORD promised Phinehas a covenant of peace, and for his descendants, an everlasting priesthood (Num. 25:12-13). If Phinehas hadn't come forward, all of the Israelites would have been destroyed by the plague (Num. 25:11).
Looking back a short distance of time just before this all happened, a seer, Balaam, had been brought to this very place of Peor for the purpose of cursing God's people for the Moabite King, Balak:
"So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks the wasteland (wilderness, desolation, to ruin, solitary).  Num. 23:28
Sacrifices were made by Balak at this place at Peor to try to bring the curse against God's people (Num. 23:29-30). Balaam was unable to curse Israel, but he did instruct Balak how to destroy Israel by putting the women of Ba'al among them to tempt them away from their God, YHWH (Num. 31:16, Rev. 2:14).
When God's people are in the place of thorns, in the gap of Peor between high places, in the place which faces the desolate, solitary wilderness, it is a place where they are tempted by the enemy to turn to destructive, false alternatives for relief. Jesus was tempted in just such a place, and resisted the temptation with the Word of God (Lk. 4:1-13). He had not been taken to that place by the enemy, but by the Holy Spirit, and when He returned from that place, He came in the power of the Holy Spirit (Lk. 4:14). It is not a pleasant place to be, but it is a place where we have a purpose. Despite all the best laid plans of the enemy, evil can be rooted out and driven out, and in its place, a covenant of peace, and an everlasting priesthood can be established. Let us pray for and encourage one another.

Our Father will bring us to spiritual gaps and acacia groves.

"Embrace This Place" by Among Thorns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgQeTqvR0ic

"Come Holy Spirit" by Among Thorns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uoCoIR-1SE

"Breath of Life" by Among Thorns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ragzYfChorY