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Podcast
Phineas And Jealousy Of God
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt, and today I'd like to talk a bit about Phineas and the Jealousy
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of God.
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Remember the name Phineas?
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I didn't.
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There are actually two guys named Phineas in the Bible.
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One's a good guy and one's a bad guy.
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I'm going to be talking about the good Phineas mentioned in Numbers chapter 25.
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He's one of the good guys in the Bible who gets very little mention in our sermons and
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lessons.
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Phineas was the grandson of Aaron, Moses' brother, the high priest.
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Aaron had four sons.
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The first two, Nadab and Abihu, were killed when they offered strange fire before the
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Lord in the wilderness.
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After Eli, God declared the end of the line of Aaron's son, Ithamar.
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The line finally ended when Solomon forced Ithamar's descendant Abiathar into retirement
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because he was part of a coup to make Adonijah king.
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This left only the line of the high priest and the high priesthood coming through his
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son Eliezer, who is the father of Phineas.
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The day we're looking at is in the 1400s BC, while Moses was still leading Israel before
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Joshua took them into the land, Israel was camped at a place called Shittim opposite
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Jericho east of the Jordan River.
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Here's what happened, Numbers chapter 25, verses 1 through 8.
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While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters
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of Moab, for they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate
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and bowed down to their gods.
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So Israel joined them to Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry against Israel.
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The Lord said to Moses, take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight
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before the Lord, so that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.
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So Moses said to the judges of Israel, each of you slay his men who have joined themselves
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to Baal of Peor.
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And behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his relatives a Midianite woman
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in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel
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while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting.
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When Phineas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the
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midst of the congregation, took a spear in his hand, went after the man of Israel into
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the tent, and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through the
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body.
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So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked.
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That's a close quote from Numbers 25, 1 through 8.
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Well this was not just about sex.
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This was about using sex to worship Baal of Peor, one of the gods of the Moabites and
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the Midianites.
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Apparently this was set up by the advice of a conflicted prophet, Balaam, in Numbers 31.
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The plan was for the Moabite women, the word for they is feminine, so the women is how
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we conclude it's the women, of Shittim, to invite the men of Israel to a sacrifice of
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their gods, which included having sex as part of the worship.
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It seems that both hetero and homosexual fornication was often a part of the worship of the nations
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surrounding Israel.
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Because the leaders did nothing to stop it, God told Moses, take all the leaders of the
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people and execute them in the broad daylight before the Lord.
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While this was being carried out, an Israelite man staged a blatant public protest by taking
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a Midianite woman into a tent in Israel in front of everybody for sexual relations.
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The Israelite man who did this had a leadership position of some sort where he was told his
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name was Zimri, the son of Selu, the leader of a father's household among the Simonites
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from the tribe of Simeon.
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The woman was the daughter of a prominent Midianite.
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Her name is given to, its name is Cosby, the daughter of Zer, who was the head of the people
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of a father's household in Midian.
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So this was not just about sex.
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It was an attempt to defy the commandment of God and the judgment of God.
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The central issue was whether Israel would worship the Lord exclusively or should they
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be allowed to worship other gods as well.
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This is when Phinehas stepped in.
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He arose from the midst of the congregation, took a spear in his hand, and went after the
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man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through the man of Israel and the
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man of Israel and through their bodies.
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Now at this point, suppose you stop reading and ask the question, how would you expect
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God to respond to this situation where Phinehas has just murdered two people because of their
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religious and sexual preferences?
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If you expected God to be tolerant, compromising, gentle, permissive, or patient with the couple,
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you'd be wrong.
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If you expected God to criticize or judge Phinehas for his intolerance, being judgmental
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and committing murder, you'd be wrong.
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The next question is, what does it tell us about God and how should we apply this to
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our situation?
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Well, I know things are different now.
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We're in the age of grace.
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We're not the nation Israel.
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We're not Levitical priests.
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We can't go around murdering people when they defy God's commandments and committed
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altering.
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So, what's the takeaway here?
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God explained in Numbers 25, 11, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest,
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has turned away my wrath from the sons of Israel and that he was jealous with my jealousy
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among them so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in my jealousy.
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What made Phinehas the hero in the situation is that he was jealous with God's jealousy.
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Not only was God's jealousy good, but it was good for Phinehas to share in it by being
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jealous with God's jealousy.
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God's jealousy is his exclusivity, a theological point being that God is exclusive, not inclusive.
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He will not tolerate adherence to another god.
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The Canaanite worship of Baal, in this case Baal of Peor, the Ashtoreths, Molochs, fertility
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cults and all just a string of mystical ideas from the imagination of the men who exchanged
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the truth of God for a lie.
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The same is true of all of today's man-made religions.
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God's always exclusive.
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When Jesus was baptized, God said, you're my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
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When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, God said, this is my son, my chosen one, listen
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to him.
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Exodus 20, verse 3 says, you shall have no other gods before me.
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Jeremiah 5, 7, why should I pardon you?
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Your sons have forsaken me and sworn by those who are not gods, declares the Lord.
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John 14, 6, Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
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No one comes to the Father but through me.
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Acts 4, 12, Peter said, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name
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under heaven that's been given among men whereby we must be saved.
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First Timothy 2, 5, Paul wrote, for there's one God and one mediator also between God
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and man, the man Christ Jesus.
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Well, as a conclusion, there's something we need to keep in mind about God.
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He's a creator, not a creature.
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He's real, not some mystical idea, or a string of mystical ideas known as religious tradition
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conjured up in the mind of man.
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And God will not tolerate whatsoever his people giving any credence to the world's religious
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ideas.
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Well, thanks for listening.
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If you'd like my paper on Athenaeus and the Jealousy of God, it's available on our website,
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relationalconcepts.org.
