Do you want to be a zealot? (Numbers 25)

How you would like to be remembered?

Maybe they would say, ‘she had faith, like Abraham’, ‘he was kind, like Boaz’, ‘she was loyal, like Ruth,’ ‘he held on to God, like Job’, ‘he was passionate, like Peter’, or ‘he was a great encourager, like Barnabas’.  But what about Phineas?  Would you like to be seen as a zealot?

Zeal gets mixed press these days.  We talk about people with misguided zeal.  We might think of a terrorist as being zealot.  Indeed, on a surface reading it looks like Phineas is a terrorist.  Zeal looks unbalanced and dangerous.

I hope to show you that Phinehas’s zeal is worth imitating.

We should want to honour God with our eyes and our bodies (1-4)

What an irony that straight after God causes Balaam to bless the people they run headlong into scandalous evil.  They were a people not counting themselves among the nations (23:9), yet now they are behaving as the worst of the nations.  God had described their tents as lovely (24:5), and now they engage in filth.  Balaam could not bring a curse upon them, but they stir God’s anger up themselves.

We are told later that the plan to seduce the Israelite men was Balaam’s (31:16).  Presumably he was still seeking money from, Balak, the king of Moab.  Perhaps he said to Balak, ‘their God won’t let me curse them, but what about getting your women to seduce them?’  The worship of Baal of Peor involved sexual rituals.  The men were happy to indulge in sex and sacrifices.  Balaam would later pay for his wicked scheming with his life (31:8).

The Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel.  The Lord told Moses to take the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.  The leaders had failed to correct the people’s idolatry and endangered the whole community.  Leadership comes with increased responsibility.  James writes, ‘not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly’ (James 3:1).

A woman asked John Piper if God could ever feel such anger against people who are in Christ.  He explained that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Jesus is our chief whose death has turned away God’s judicial anger from us.  One thing that He never feels towards us is contempt.  Yet we can grieve the Holy Spirit.  While those who do not have a relationship with Jesus cannot please Him, we can.  If we are capable of pleasing Him then sadly we are capable of disappointing Him.  This story shows us how seriously God takes sexual sin.  We should want to honour God with our eyes and bodies.       

We should pray, ‘Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours’ (5-9)

The Bible commentator, Iain Duguid, points out that Moses doesn’t seem to want to obey God’s command to execute the tribal chiefs.  Instead, he says to the judges of Israel, ‘each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor’ (5).  It seems that Moses doesn’t even carry out this more limited punishment.

The people weep at the entrance of the tabernacle.  Maybe they are devastated at the sin that has infected their camp.  We sometimes sing, ‘break my heart for what breaks yours.’  May we see the awfulness of sexual sin and idolatry for what it is!  Meanwhile a plague of God’s judgement is sweeping over God’s people.

Then something shocking happens.  ‘And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting.  When Phineas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the young man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly.  Thus the plague of the people of Israel was stopped.  Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand’ (6-9).

There is debate about where this couple are having sex.  Were they having sex in a family tent near the tabernacle?  Some think that they were having sex in the tabernacle itself.  They seem to flaunt their relationship in from of the people who were at the entrance to the tabernacle.  Certainly the this is an outrageous act of rebellion in or around the tabernacle. 

It is important to realise that Phineas was not a vigilante.  He was not simply talking the law into his own hands.  This is not like someone bombing an abortion clinic or murdering a vocal enemy of God’s people.  Phineas, the grandson of the High Priest, was a part of the Levites who were reasonable for guarding the sanctuary against defilement.  We are not told exactly where the chamber was where the man from the tribe of Simeon and the Midianite woman were having sex but it seems to be in or near the tabernacle compound.

Are we zealous?  When we see evil vividly portrayed before us on the news are we moved to weep and pray?  Are we a people zealous for good works (Titus 2:14)?  Are we moved to action when we see the homeless on our city streets?  Do we advocate for the unborn, and tell those living in the shadow of abortion of the God who loves to forgive?  Do we speak up for the migrant and those discriminated against?  Do we seek opportunities to tell a wicked world about the one who gave His life for our sin?  

Let our godly zeal be a legacy to those who follow us (10-18)

The final verses of this passage tell us who the main players in the story were and how their actions affected those who came after them.  We live in an individualistic society where we think that what we do is no one’s business but ours.  That is not how the Bible sees things.  We are interrelated.  We are parts of families.  We should be connected to a church.  What we do affects others.  We can see that lived out all around us.  The sins of the fathers and mothers have consequences for the sons and daughters.  The godly zeal of the mothers and fathers can bring blessing.  Indeed, we are inheritors of the blessing of our older brother, Jesus.

Because Phineas cared about the honour of God and was willing to act, God gave to him a covenant of peace, and his descendants a perpetual priesthood.  The name of the man who was killed was Zimri, from the tribe of Simeon.  When it comes to the census later in the book of Numbers we will see that their number has dramatically fallen.  Perhaps they suffered most in the plague.  The woman, Cozbi, was the daughter of a tribal chief of Midian.  Moses is told to strike down the Midianites.

What we do affects those connected with us.  What you look at on a screen might not just pollute your mind, it may affect the whole spiritual climate of our church.  Bitterness and unforgiveness are never simply private sins.  Likewise, we can bless generations to come by laying a foundation of love and good deeds.  You might remember me mentioning a woman called ‘auntie Emma’ who was a matriarch in the last church I served.  When I met her in a nursing home and saw that her dementia-filled mind was bursting with love for Jesus, I believe I saw one of the reasons why the church had a legacy of kindness and grace.  There is a lovely old proverb that says, ‘a healthy society is one where old men plant trees that they will never see ripen.’  Let our godly zeal be a legacy to those who follow us!

Conclusion

‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

You know how we know that zeal is a good thing?  We know that zeal is a good thing because the opposite of zeal is apathy.  Apathy has nothing to commend itself to us.

There is one greater that Phineas.  Like Phineas he was zealous against sin.  But instead of piercing the sinner he was pierced for the sinful.  It wasn't their death that stopped God's judgement but his.  He wants his people to be holy, as he is holy.  But we can't become holy apart from him.  We can't change in our own strength.  So we look at him.  We delight in what he has done for us.  We strive for in the power of his spirit to change.      

May it be said of us, ‘they had godly zeal, just like Phineas.’