Numbers 25
by Pastor David Groendyk

Balaam finishes his final oracle regarding the star to come from Jacob, the scepter to rise from Israel, Jesus Christ, who would crush the enemies of God’s people, and we see Israel at the very same location turning to idols. The ESV Study Bible puts it this way, “The juxtaposition could not be more stark between the most exuberant visions of Israel’s future and their present blatant infidelity to the law and the covenant.” This is a horrible case of apostasy committed by the nation of Israel at large, flying in the face not only of Balaam’s grand prophecies but also the fact that Israel was literally on the brink of the Promised Land.

As Israel had been living at Shittim, they began to whore after the Moabites and the Midianites. However, as if prostitution wasn’t bad enough, the people of Israel were not merely yoking themselves with prostitutes but with foreign gods as well. This chapter indicates that Israel was taking part in cultic prostitution, that is, prostitution committed as an act of worship which was quite common among the foreign nations around Israel. Idolatry and adultery are bound up together in this chapter. Thus, God demands justice to be done, both in calling Moses to put to death those who were guilty but also in sending a plague upon the people which would eventually killed 24,000 of them. But just as God and Moses are executing their punishment and as the rest of the people are gathered together weeping and mourning for this crisis that’s happening, one Israelite man named Zimri actually takes a Midianite woman into the tent of meeting as a brazen act of idolatry and adultery. This makes Phinehas’ blood boil. He picks up his spear, follows the couple into the tent, and pierces them both through in one motion. Phinehas’ one act ends the judgment on the people.

Phinehas is commended by God in this chapter for his jealousy (v. 11). In this way, he mirrored God’s own character as a jealous God (see Ex. 20:5 or Deut. 32:21). Gordon Wenham says, “Because Phinehas executed the sinner, expressing so clearly and visibly God’s own anger through his deed, that anger was turned away.” He made atonement for the people (v. 13). Normally in the Old Testament we see atonement being made when an animal is sacrificed in place of a person, but in this instance God’s wrath is actually poured out on the sinner himself. But more than representing God’s character, Phinehas also embodies what a true Israelite should’ve been—someone zealous for God’s glory and his own holiness.

But what does this chapter teach us about jealousy and zeal for the Lord? Zeal for the Lord is concerned first and foremost about the glory and worship of God. Wherever God’s name is not being hallowed and his covenant is being brazenly broken, we must feel a sense of jealousy about it. But notice that Phinehas’ jealousy and zeal are focused within the church. When we think of being zealous for the Lord and people robbing him of glory, I would wager we tend to look at all those sinners outside the church in society. Phinehas looks inside the church, and so does Paul (see 2 Cor. 11:2), and so does God himself (see Ex. 20:5 and Ex. 34:14). The zeal of the Lord working out in our lives should look like guarding the church against idolatry, lovingly pursuing wayward believers when they sin, and keeping our own lives free from sin and temptation as much as we can. Apathy and lethargy look like not caring about your fellow brother or sister, or even assuming that they’re good without putting in the work to know their lives. If we want to imitate Christ and follow his own zeal, we must be zealous for the holiness of God’s church. We must watch ourselves and watch our brothers and sisters, lest God’s wrath fall upon us for wandering away from him. How can you put this zeal of the Lord into action? Perhaps start with your close friends in the church. How can you help your friends pursue holiness and how can they help you pursue it?