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).
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).
How do we grow in
zeal? We grow in zeal as we mediate upon
the cross.
Jesus
bore our sins in his body on the tree.
He was pierced for our transgressions.
He became sin and took the punishment we deserve. He took upon himself our sexual filth and
idolatry. How awful for the one pure soul
who ever lived to bear the weight of our shame.
As the death of Zimri and Cozbi brought an end to God’s judgement, the
death of Jesus has turned God’s anger from us.
Therefore, there in now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. In him we inherit every spiritual
blessing.
Let
zeal begin with an inward look. We are
not our own, we have been purchased at a great price. What we do with our bodies matter to the one
who loves us more than any other. Let us
ask him to help us flee from sexual sin.
May we not seek to content ourselves with the idols of comfort, control
and indulgence. Let us ask him to content
ourselves in his goodness and love.
Let
zeal cause us to speak to our brothers and sisters in Christ. It may be that we need to speak to others on
God’s behalf. Before helping them deal
with the speck in their eye make sure that we are dealing with the logs in our
own. If someone has the courage to
challenge us about our behaviour let us not react angrily of defensively (even
if we think they may have misread the situation). Make sure that we are not legalistically
robbing others of their Christian freedom.
Let us speak to them in such a way that gives them no reason to doubt
our love.
Let
zeal change the way we look at the world.
May we not be unmoved when we see evil all around us. May it cause us to cry out to God in prayer:
‘Father, you will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ Let us be salt and light when we are surrounded
with decay and darkness. Let us speak of
the one who made us in such a way that our hearts will never be satisfied until
they are satisfied in him.
May
it be said of us, ‘they had godly zeal, just like Phineas.’
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