THEN STOOD UP PHINEHAS

Pastor James J. Barker

Text: NUMBERS 25:1-18; PSALMS 106:28-31




INTRODUCTION:


1.     One of the great heroes of the Bible is Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, and the grandson of Aaron.

2.     Unger’s Bible Dictionary says Phinehas “first appears in Scripture history at the time of the licentious idolatry, where his zeal and action secured the cessation of the plague that was destroying the nation (Numbers 25:7-11).”

3.     For his holy zeal, Phinehas was commended and rewarded by the LORD (Numbers 25:10-13; Psalm 106:30, 31).

4.     Phinehas is mentioned a few other times in the Bible. In Numbers 31:6 we see that he was part of the expedition sent by Moses to destroy the Midianites.

5.     In Joshua 22, we read that Phinehas headed up the party dispatched from Shiloh to talk to the men from the tribes of Reuben and Gad, after they had built their altar near the Jordan River.

6.     The last time Phinehas appears in Scripture is in Judges 20:28, though he is referred to a few more times, most notably in Psalm 106.

7.     Phinehas was a leader among the Israelites.  At the time of this incident in Numbers 25 he was the heir apparent to the position of high priest.

8.     I would like to stress this because some have misinterpreted the events of Numbers 25.  Phinehas was not a vigilante.  He was a faithful servant of God.

9.     In order to properly understand what happened we need to remember that Israel was a theocracy and Phinehas was probably one of the judges appointed by Moses to execute those guilty of committing whoredom with the Moabite women (Numbers 25:1-5).

10. Phinehas was the son of Eleazar, the high priest.  Phinehas was commended by God (Numbers 25:10-12).

11. Putting this unusual incident in the proper perspective, Barnes Notes says the act of Phinehas “was an extraordinary deed of vengeance, justified by the singular atrocity of the crime which provoked it; but it does not confer the right to every man to punish summarily any gross and flagrant breach of Divine law committed in his presence.” 

 

I. THE SIN OF ISRAEL

1.     This sin was very grievous and “the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel” (Numbers 25:3).

2.     This sin was so grievous that “the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel” (Numbers 25:4).

3.     This sin was so grievous that “those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand” (Numbers 25:9).

4.     This sin was so grievous that many women and children had to be put to death (cf. Numbers 31:8-20).

5.     This sin was so grievous that it is referred to several times in both the OT & the NT.  Although Balaam’s name is not mentioned in Numbers 25, we know from Numbers 31:16 that he was responsible for corrupting the children of Israel.

6.     The king of Moab had hired Balaam, the false prophet, to curse the people of Israel, but he could not curse them.

7.     However, Balaam had another devilish idea.  He advised the Moabite and Midianite women to seduce the men of Israel at a Baal ceremony on a mountain peak called Peor (“Baal-peor”). 

·        In Numbers 31:16 this is called “the counsel of Balaam.”

·        In II Peter 2:15 it is called “the way of Balaam.”

·        In Jude 11 it is “the error of Balaam.”

·        In Revelation 2:14 it is “the doctrine of Balaam.”

8.     Note the progression: it goes from bad counsel to the wrong way to a grievous error to false doctrine.  In the Bible, immorality and false doctrine often go hand in hand.

9.     Hosea 9:10 the LORD says that what happened at Baal-peor was shameful and an abomination.

10. First Corinthians 10:8 says, “Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.”

11. Despite what they teach in the public schools, and despite what they teach on television and in the movies, God hates fornication.

12. These days we are literally being inundated with filth.  I went to the CVS drug store to buy some birthday cards.  I could not believe all of the dirty and salacious birthday cards!  I walked away from there feeling like I needed to take a bath!

13. Then I went to the cash register and there were all these sleazy magazines about adulterous movie stars.  Beloved, the world is getting more and more wicked.  We need to get further and further away from the filth of this world because it defiles and corrupts.

14. Phinehas understood this.  Do we?

15. Numbers 25:1 tells us that Israel “began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab” (Num. 25:1).

16. Not only were they engaged in immorality, they participated in the demonic and depraved Baal worship of the Moabites, which were basically nothing but religious orgies (Num. 25:1-3).

17.   The false prophet Balaam discovered that Israel could not be cursed but they could be corrupted.   Allow me to make an application.  In Scripture, the church is called the body of Christ.  It is called the bride of Christ. 

18.   Ephesians 5:25 says, “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.”

19.   Balaam tried to curse Israel but he couldn’t.  But he was able to corrupt them.  The church cannot be cursed but it can be corrupted.

20.   When a church service resembles a nightclub, that church has been corrupted.  When church members look like the world and dress like the world and talk like the world and act like the world and live like the world and think like the world – they have been corrupted.

21.   Israel’s immorality and idolatry brought down the wrath of God (Num. 25:1-5).

22.   We ought to hate sin the same way God hates sin.  In many circles today those who hate sin are called legalistic and judgmental and Pharisaical, etc. 

23.   Phinehas did not worry about what others thought.  He was more concerned about what God thought.  First Chronicles 9:20 says, “And Phinehas the son of Eleazar was the ruler over them in time past, and the LORD was with him” (cf. Numbers 25:10-13; Psalm 106:30, 31).

24.   God hates immorality.  Israel’s sin was even more horrible because the Israelite men were committing fornication with heathen women and bowing down to their heathen gods (Num. 25:1-3).

25.   The LORD told Moses to hang the fornicators “against the sun” (25:4); in other words in broad daylight where everyone could see.

26.   Immorality leads to many other terrible sins.  Once a person becomes entangled in this sin, he stops praying, stops reading his Bible, stops going to church (though he may keep going to a liberal church), and goes deeper and deeper into sin.

27.   Proverbs 6:32 says, “But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.”

28.   This wicked sin resulted in a “plague” in the camp (Num. 25:8).  The Bible does not tell us much about this plague, only that Phinehas’ swift judgment stopped it from spreading (cf. Ps. 106:30).

29.   This plague could have been some sort of STD.  Syphilis and gonorrhea are of ancient origin. Some of the first references to STD are found in Ancient Babylonia.  There is even a warning about them in the Code of King Hammurabi.

30.   The so-called “sexual revolution” is nothing new.  One thousand years before Baal-peor, wickedness prevailed in the days of Noah.  Over 400 years before Baal-peor, there was the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah.  The preacher said in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “There is no new thing under the sun.”

II. THE ZEAL OF PHINEHAS (NUMBERS 25:7, 8).

1.     Penitent Israelites were weeping before the door of the tabernacle (25:6b).  They were weeping over the grievous sin of their brethren and over the judgment of God.

2.     While they were weeping before the door of the tabernacle, one lascivious Israelite named Zimri (cf. 25:14) shamelessly and audaciously brought a Midianite woman named Cozbi (cf. 25:15) into his tent for the purpose of fornication (25:6).

3.     When Phinehas saw this he quickly sprung into action (25:7, 8).

4.     Psalm 97:10 says, “Ye that love the LORD, hate evil.”

5.     Proverbs 8:13 says, “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil.”

6.     There is a strange type of popular Christianity that teaches it is not right to hate sin.  I once heard a woman on a Christian radio station say she loves the devil!

7.     Phinehas did not love the devil!  He loved the LORD!  And he demonstrated that love by getting up, and taking his javelin and going after the man of Israel and thrusting both him and his girlfriend through with his javelin (Num. 25:7, 8).

8.      The story of Phinehas provides many lessons for us.  We are not to go around and turn fornicators into shish-kebabs, but we should have his zeal.  Like Phinehas, we are to obey the Bible. 

9.     And the Bible says, “Put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (I Cor. 5:13).

10. Ephesians 5:3 says, “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.”

11. Hebrews 13:4 says, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

12. There are many, many other Scriptures.  No matter how wicked this world gets, and no matter how weak and worldly churches get, the seventh commandment is still in the Bible: “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Ex. 20:14).

13. Psalm 106:30 says, “Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed.”

14. We need more men like Phinehas. 

 

III. THE COVENANT OF PEACE (NUM. 25:12, 13).

1.     There is an erroneous notion that peace is the absence of war.  For example, many people seem to believe that if we can just pull our troops out of Iraq we will have peace.

2.     But the terrorists will not allow us to have peace.

3.     Phinehas did not receive God’s blessing for looking the other way.  He received the blessing because he stood up “and executed judgment” (Psalm 106:30).

4.     Then the plague was stayed.

5.     Then God commended him for his zeal (Numbers 25:11).

6.     Then God said, “Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace” (Num. 25:12). 

7.     The reward given to Phinehas was that his descendants would enjoy everlasting possession of the priesthood (Num. 25:13).

 

CONCLUSION:


1.     In Revelation 2:14, our Lord tells the church at Pergamos, “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam” (cf. Numbers 31:15, 16).

2.     The doctrine of Balaam gets into churches and destroys them from within.

3.     It is the doctrine of allowing sin in the church (cf. I Cor. 5).  It is the doctrine of mixing with unbelievers (cf. II Cor. 6:14—7:1).

4.     Let us ask the Lord for the zeal of Phinehas.



| Customized by Jun Gapuz |