Seder 121: Numbers 25---The Zeal of Phinehas

 The oracles of Balaam communicated the depths of God's commitment to the people of Israel.  The only thing that could separate the Israelites from the blessings of God would be a lapse in their commitment to God.  And Israel's commitment did lapse soon afterward.  In an event that was a sort of "golden calf incident" for the younger generation of the Exodus, the Israelites were lured into idolatry and adultery by the Moabites and Midianites (Num 25:1-6).  

We learn later that a trap was set, at Balaam's suggestion, to lure the Israelites into apostasy (Num 31:15-16).  Although Balaam grudgingly communicated the message God made him deliver, he apparently still wanted to somehow curse Israel.  

God told Moses to put to death those responsible for Israel's apostasy (vv 4-5).  The situation was serious, as one Israelite was openly committing adultery with a Midianite woman in the Israelite camp (v 6).  

Then Aaron's grandson Phinehas, whose father Eleazar was in charge of guarding the sanctity of the sanctuary (Num 3:32), took action.  Catching the couple in flagrante delicto, he ran them through with a spear (Num 25:7).  Honoring the zeal of Phinehas, God stopped the plague that he had sent (v 8).  Twenty four elephs died in the plague. (Remember that "thousand" is not necessarily the correct English translation for eleph.) 

Phinehas has been celebrated throughout Israelite history for his zeal on this occasion.  His quick action "was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever" (Ps 106:31).  He was a role model for the Maccabees (1 Macc 2:13-28).  

The apostle Paul admonished Christians to learn from what happened at Shittim (1 Cor 10:1-13).  We know that God's commitment to his New Covenant people is just as firm as his commitment to Israel (Rom 8:31-39), but we should not become overconfident (1 Cor 10:12). 

One question often raised in regard to I Cor 10 is Paul's statement in verse 8 that "twenty three thousand fell in a single day" at Shittim, in apparent disagreement with the twenty four thousand of Num 24;9.  There is no clear way to resolve this difference.  Some have suggested that of the 24 elephs who died in the plague, 23 died on a single day. This is possible, but we have no other witness to this detail.  The exact number who died in the plague has no bearing, of course, on the lesson Paul was communicating.  

The fact that the discrepancy has been preserved speaks to the integrity of the transmission of the text of scripture.  It would have been easy for a scribe at some point to remove the discrepancy, but that didn't happen.  

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on October 22, 2022, Kyle Kettering reflected on the zealous examples of Phinehas, John the Baptist, and Abraham.  Both Abraham and Phinehas had their believing loyalty "counted to them as righteousness" (Gen 15:6; James 2:18-26). We are called to the same kind of righteousness.  

Rob Wilson further addressed the subject of zeal in a sermon at Church of the Messiah on October 29, 2022.  How can one tell the difference between the godly zeal of Phinehas and one's personal zeal?  He mentioned several examples:

• Paul's zealous persecution of Christians before his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus (Phil 3:6).
• Zealous protestors who are willing to bomb abortion clinics.
• The zeal of abolitionists like John Brown.

We need to be sure of God's approval before undertaking zealous actions, Rob stated.