"Phineas' Zeal"

Good morning. Can you hear me? Okay. Good morning all. My name is Kunle, and for those of you who don't know me, I'm one of the elders here at Trinity.

Some of you here already know me, and know me enough to know a few things that I like, but I'm guessing only very few of you know just how much I love watching murder mysteries.

There's a reason you don't really know this. This is clearly not the kind of information that one volunteers during the eldership process, so again, it's no mystery that it is a mystery to some of you, but now at least you all know.

But if you have watched as many of these mysteries as I have, then you know that there is a general formula that most of them follow.

Often the opening act is the hook, a single puzzling scene or short series of scenes that ultimately culminates in the murder of one of the people present.

And over the course of the episode, you are slowly fed information and disinformation about several characters and their motivation that helped illuminate what happened in the opening scene that led to the crime.

Often a few additional murders and a lot more mixed information later, and you end at the closing scene where for some strange reason, all the suspects gather together and the detective brings all the pieces together, usually in a way compelling enough to make the murderer confess or at least make it readily obvious who they are and what their motivation is.

A particular example of this is one by one of the most famous mystery writers, her name is Agatha Christie, and it's called Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

Where in the opening scene, depending on the version you've watched, a lady comes across a man on the beach who looks as if he's fallen off the nearby cliff.

As she approaches, he opens his eyes, turns to her, and instead of asking for help, says in a melodramatic whisper,

Why didn't they ask Evans?

And then just as dramatically, he dies.

And then this leaves the discoverer with the question, as well as you the viewer, who is Evans?

Who are they?

And what question were they asking?

And why didn't they ask Evans?

And of course, why is that the most important question for this dying man?

Okay, I know at this point, some of you, your question is not, wait, is this a sermon or is this an ad for BritBox, which contains most of these British murder series that I like?

Why are we talking about murder mysteries?

Well, perhaps it's because the passage that we're about to look at, I think, shares a number of the same hallmarks.

At first read, it is deeply enigmatic, and in a few areas, it is partly troubling.

But my hope is that as we go through it together with the Lord's help, its message for them and thus for us will become clearer in a way that drives us to the Lord in confession, prayer, and praise.

But before I get into it, I recognize we are in August in a college town.

And so today, and as you all know, over the next several weeks, we'll have people visiting.

So I think it may be worth recapping where we've been for context on today's passage.

So for those of you who are new this summer, we've been journeying through the book of Numbers.

And it's a book that traces the journey of the Israelites from the fruit of Sinai to the mouth of the promised land as they stand ready to take possession of it.

Along the way, we have seen them rebel, grumble, and complain repeatedly against God and against Moses.

And several times, they have been judged or punished for their rebellion.

Their rebellion is recorded in, their rebellion recorded in Numbers 14 was a high watermark and resulted in God judging them,

decreeing that they will wander 40 years in the wilderness, and all of them older than 20, save Joshua and Caleb, will perish and not see the land.

Where we are now in the narrative is the 40 years are done, and they are once again at the mouth of the promised land.

They have even already begun to experience some of what God had in store for them with victories over the Amalekites and the Amorites.

These victories had already begun to inspire fear in the hearts of the enemies.

And the last two weeks, we explored the interesting story of one of them, Balak, the king of the Moabites,

who in his fear invited Balaam, an acclaimed prophet for hire, to curse them.

And as we discovered, he was unable to.

Three times, he was commanded by God to bless them instead, frustrating Balak's aims.

We leave Israel now at the end of the chapter, securing the promise of God's faithfulness and desire to bless them and bring them into the land.

We also leave Balak and Balaam at the end of chapter 24, parting ways as though Balaam,

having fulfilled what God sent him to do in chapter 22, was content to eschew the rewards of Balak and obey the Lord instead.

So with that, I'll read chapter 25 and ask the Lord for his help in unpacking it for us.

Because there is some continuity with the prior passages we have looked at,

I will actually begin slightly earlier at the end of chapter 24 and read up to verse 15.

So let's begin from verse 25 of Numbers 24.

Then Balaam rose and went back to his place, and Balak also went his way.

And while Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.

These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor.

And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

And the Lord said to Moses,

Take all 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.

And Moses said to the judges of Israel,

Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.

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 in the entrance of the tent of meeting.

When Phinehas, 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 man of Israel into the chamber and pierced the both of them,

the man of Israel and the woman through her belly.

Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped.

Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were 24,000.

And the Lord said to Moses,

Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest,

has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel,

in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them,

so I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy.

Therefore say, behold, I give to him my covenant of peace,

and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him

the covenant of a perpetual priesthood,

because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.

The name of the slain man of Israel,

who was killed with the Midianite woman,

was Zimri, the son of Salu,

chief of a father's house belonging to the Simeonites.

And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cosby,

the daughter of Zer,

who was the tribal head of a father's house in Midian.

I will stop here.

Bow your heads with me and let us pray.

Lord, your word says, if any of you lacks wisdom,

let him ask God who gives willingly without finding fault.

We come to your word today.

May you illuminate it before us.

May we see where this passage reflects our hearts,

and may it lead us to turn to you in repentance.

And may we see where it reflects you,

your holiness, justice, mercy, and grace.

And may it lead us to prayer and praise.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right.

So in keeping with the mystery motif,

this passage presents not just one,

but multiple mysteries.

A mini-series, if you will.

But thankfully, I love British mysteries,

so their series are typically short,

like three or four episodes.

I was thinking, what if I loved Law and Order?

We will be here the whole day.

So for those of you taking notes,

we will examine this passage in three broad mysteries.

First, the mystery of Israel's apostasy.

Then, the mystery of God's anger.

And finally, we will look at the mystery

of Phineas' intervention.

So let's begin with Israel's apostasy.

On the surface, it doesn't look mysterious at all.

Like I mentioned in the summary I gave earlier,

we've seen them rebel multiple times against the Lord.

So rebelling against the Lord's commandments this time

feels like yet one more dog-bites-man story.

The passage also highlights that the apostasy began

with their men committing sexual immorality

with the Midianite women,

and then progressing ultimately to bowing down to their idols.

And here again, we see a story quite familiar to us as well.

As a pastor once remarked,

you talk to a young man who seems to be experiencing serious doubts

as he all of a sudden begins to question

the fundamentals of the faith.

And more often than you'd want,

you realize there is no grander mystery behind it

than a desire to sleep with or moving with his girlfriend.

There is often very little distance

between persistent, willful sin and apostasy.

But in this case,

the mystery of the apostasy of the Israelites goes a bit deeper,

especially when you realize that chapter 25,

rather than starting a new act in the story of the Israelites,

is instead a continuation of chapters 22 to 24

of their interaction with Balaam.

Like a good mystery writer

who doesn't reveal all the clues at once,

we only discover later in chapter 31

that it was Balaam who spearheaded the seduction of the Israelites

with the Moabite women.

Now we get to understand

why Balaam was so desired by Balak in this endeavor

and why he earned the big bucks as a prophet for hire.

He combined spiritual dark arts with deep, dark cunning.

Rather than going away,

as it seemed at the end of chapter 24,

fully in awe of the God of the Israelites,

he chose instead to co-opt them.

Perhaps he may have told Balak,

if we can't curse them,

we can bring them under the power of our own God

by luring them to worship him instead,

thus making them subject to him.

Or even worse,

he may have come to understand

that given the covenant they had with their God,

the only way they could fail

in their quest on the promised land

was if they broke the covenant they had with him,

their God.

There is a lesson here for us as the body of Christ.

Jesus said to his disciples

that he will build his church

and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.

In the unward march of the kingdom of God,

supernatural forces are no match

for the power of the resurrected Lord Jesus

that goes with his church.

The enemy knows this

and instead aims to use insidious means

to attack the body.

More churches have been broken

by jealousy, division, and sin

than by any supernatural act of evil.

And this passage is a reminder to beware.

But the author is not done.

He also records that this seduction

happened in a place called Shittim,

which is short for Abel Shittim,

which was his full name,

as we discover later in chapter 33.

Shittim was the word for acacia,

or the acacia tree,

a precious wood that came to be used

for much of the temple's furnishing.

Abel Shittim in turn means stream of acacias,

suggesting that the place they encamped

was a luscious, wooded, forested place

in stark contrast to the desert

that they had been journeying through

over the past several years.

Now the outline of their seduction

comes into much clearer focus.

After a long trek,

40 years in the wilderness,

they come to this luscious oasis

where they are met with people

who look beautiful, well, and prosperous,

enjoying pleasures they had been forbidden

by the laws of their God.

Slowly they are enticed.

Perhaps the people tell them,

your God was only a God of the desert.

His power does not extend here.

Perhaps that's why you spent so long in the desert.

He couldn't actually bring you into this land.

You are not in Kansas anymore.

To prosper in this land,

you need to ditch those desert ways

and be like us, the sophisticated ones.

Do we not see ourselves reflected in this,

brothers and sisters?

As I mentioned earlier,

I suspect many of you new folks

are settling into New Haven from near and far

as you begin a new chapter of your education

or your career.

Some of you have come from backgrounds

steeply rooted in faith in Jesus.

And this is your first time

in a culture quite alien to that.

You thought you believed in God

as the only path to life,

to the life you aspire to live,

and had seen this belief reinforced

by the community and family you grew up in,

only to come to the city

and find many who do not similarly believe

and yet sin to be living that same life.

And this begins to plunge you into crisis.

This, by the way, is not just a test for the newly arrived

or the newly believing.

The psalmist in Psalm 73 also found himself seduced

by the prosperity of the wicked.

It was only when he returned to the house of the Lord

that his perspective got reset

and was able to acknowledge the blessedness of faith in God.

Dear brother and sister,

therein lies the antidote.

Should the culture around you tempt you to forsake the way?

Don't attempt to journey alone.

Find a community of faith

where, like the psalmist,

you can again discover perspective

in the presence of the Lord.

The story now quickly moves on

to the second act and mystery,

which is that of God's anger.

Again, like the...

...people,

more than any of the plagues before

where the number of those who died was recorded.

And for emphasis,

and this we discover in the 1 Corinthians 10 passage

that was read earlier,

essentially all these people died in a single day.

This was a little over 1% of the population.

To put this proportionally in our context today,

it's as though a virus was announced in the U.S. one morning

and the next day,

the entire population of Connecticut was dead.

Secondly,

the atonement God demanded was equally severe.

That was that all the leaders of the people

be hung and impaled for all to see.

As far as I can recall,

this punishment was never issued again in Israel.

Most people were put to death by stoning.

This is especially significant

as we recognize that in this culture,

being impaled or hung on a tree

was a visible sign of God's curse,

as it says in Deuteronomy 21.

And that God commanded people

who died to be buried quickly

that they may not defile the land.

So why this level of anger from the Lord?

Well, we see it more clearly later

in the narrative

when God commends Phineas for his actions.

This is a point we will return to in a little bit.

But God commends Phineas

for being jealous with his jealousy

so that the Israelites were not consumed

by God's rage.

We see now the anger was thus qualitatively different

from the other incidents

because it was not just a response to rebellion,

but an anger provoked by jealousy.

But why jealousy?

What's going on?

As we read scripture,

we come to see that of the many typologies

that characterize God's relationship

with his chosen people,

one of the most dominant ones

was that of marriage,

with his people being the bride

and he their husband.

Several passages allude to this.

For example, Isaiah 54,

where God calls himself their maker and husband.

In Ezekiel 16 and 23,

where God describes their relationship

as one in which he found

and nurtured Israel and married her

when she came of age.

In Jeremiah 3 and 31,

where he describes, like here,

the violation of their covenant

in marriage terms.

This event, then, in Numbers 25,

is in many ways

the archetypal example

of unfaithfulness.

It is also the first time

we meet the Canaanite deity, Baal,

that will become the one

with which they will repeatedly

become unfaithful

to their maker and husband,

the Lord their God,

throughout their time

in the Promised Land.

This unfaithfulness

is actually further highlighted

in an interesting pun

on the name of the deity itself.

In Hebrew,

the verb form of the word for Baal

is also the root

for the word to marry,

with the word in other contexts

actually meaning husband.

The word for yoke,

used earlier when it says,

Israel yoked itself

with Baal, Peor,

is also a word

with sexual undertones behind it.

The mystery of God's anger

at the event at Peor

now becomes fully evident.

Their sin of sexual immorality

and idolatry

is an exact picture

of their spiritual state.

Adultery against the Lord,

their husband,

with another

who wants to take his place.

And the rage of God

is the response

of a jilted lover

who finds the wife

of his youth

in bed with another.

Hearing again lies

another lesson for us,

brothers and sisters.

What often feels like

trivial sin in our eyes

is nothing less

than idolatry

and spiritual adultery

in the eyes of the Lord

deserving his wrath.

No wonder he beseeches

like he did

in Ezekiel 33

to turn back,

to turn back

from your evil ways

for why will you die,

O house of Israel?

Do you sense

the Lord's call

to repent today?

Turn, brother.

Turn, sister.

before it's too late.

The series now pivots

to the final episode,

which is a mystery

of Phineas' intervention

and atonement,

which,

to adapt

the famous

Churchillian phrase,

feels like a riddle

wrapped around an enigma.

But this time,

hopefully the author

has convinced you

that there is often

an underlying clarity

to the story,

which we will soon see.

Let's start

with the enigma.

After God gives

the command,

we find the congregation

lamenting before

the tabernacle,

presumably in sorrow

over the command

God had given.

The couple

find out their names

as Zimri and Cosby.

They then walk

in full view

of everyone

into a tent

to commit

their immoral act.

This, again,

is really quite puzzling.

Wouldn't they,

or at least Zimri,

if not Cosby,

have been aware

of the command

issued by God

for the execution

of all those

who were involved

in immorality

with the Midianites?

Otherwise,

why did they think

people were weeping

in front of the tabernacle?

And if they were aware,

why did they choose

to be so brazen?

One possibility

was that Zimri

was so confident

in his position

and his authority

that he thought

no one would dare

execute him

for his sin.

Remember,

he was the son

of one of the chiefs

of the Simeonites.

So perhaps,

like those in authority,

they think

they are above the law.

However,

this doesn't seem

satisfactory,

especially as we know

Moses enjoyed

such unrivaled authority

among the people

since the events

of the rebellion

of Korah.

Unless, of course,

this was no mere

immoral act

and there was more

to it

than meets the eye.

To see this,

again,

it is helpful

to know

that the worship

of Baal

as a fertility god

often involved

sex with priestesses

or prostitutes.

Hence, again,

we see the intertwining

of immorality

and idolatry

in the opening

verses of the chapter.

These acts

occurred in the place

of worship,

often in a sacred tent

where the priestesses

dwelt.

In that light,

it may be easier

to see the public nature

of the act

of Zimri and Cosby

as representing

the formal consummation

of the yoking

of Israel

with Baal of Peor

through a fertility rite

performed in a tent

for Baal's worship

by a representative

of the Israelites,

which was the son

of the leading house,

and a representative

of the Midianites,

which was Cosby,

who we learn,

again,

from the passage,

was the daughter

of one of the kings

of Midian.

So now,

what had begun

as individual sins

is now about

to be formally ratified

by representatives

of the people?

While there is some debate

as to whether

the tent

where this act happened

was actually

the tent of meeting

in front of which

the people

were lamenting,

it's more likely

that it happened

in another tent,

but another tent,

no doubt,

that was close to it,

occupying a central position

in the camp

similar to the tabernacle.

You can imagine,

perhaps,

in Zimri and Cosby's

telling,

the plague,

rather than being

a punishment from God,

maybe it was a result

of them not officially

rejecting God

for bail.

Maybe the plague

came from bail,

and then they needed

to do this act

of public consummation

to declare their

allegiance to him,

and thus,

in their twisted view,

attempt to stop

the plague.

I think it is

the recognition

of this supreme act

of public defiance

that causes Phineas

to rise and walk

into the tent

and spear them both,

most likely

in the course

of the act

of consummation itself,

given the way

the author coyly

describes the event.

But anger alone

does not justify

an action.

Remember the apostle

who caught up the ear

of those who came

to arrest Jesus,

presumably in his defense,

and was still rebuked

by Jesus.

So here comes the riddle

in our puzzle trifecta.

Was Phineas justified

in executing them,

or was it a vigilante action

that just happened

to be ex-post justified

by God?

A few things

in the passage

say otherwise.

First,

the decree

had already been given

by God

that the leaders

of the people

involved in immorality

with the Midianites

should be executed.

With God

as the Supreme Court

and the lawgiver,

there was already

a legal basis

for his action.

Second,

the leaders of Israel

were meant

to do the execution.

And as high priest

in waiting,

Phineas surely

was also a leader

and thus had

the authority

to carry out

this act.

Even more specifically,

the act occurred

like I described earlier

in the vicinity

of the temple

which the priests

and Levites

were meant to guard

and prevent

the Israelites

from defiling them

as God commands

and as Pastor Matt

taught us

in Numbers 18

several weeks ago.

Thus,

Phineas in this act

was also doing

his duty

of keeping

the temple

from being defiled

or the tabernacle

from being defiled.

And finally,

as I noted earlier,

after God

commands Moses

to execute

the leaders

of the people,

presumably the leaders

of the people

caught in the sin,

we find the people

lamenting the judgment

that God had issued

instead of carrying it out.

But while they are

lamenting this command,

what do you think

is happening

in the meantime?

People are dying

in the camp.

Remember,

the plague had broken out

and only stopped

after the intervention

of Phineas.

Thus,

in the period

while they were lamenting,

people kept dying.

Contrast Moses' response

here

with the reaction

in Numbers 16

when the plague

broke out

after the people's rebellion

from the incident

of Korah,

Dathan,

and Abiram.

Moses and Aaron

responded instantly.

Aaron took incense

from the altar

and stood between

the people

and the plague,

which stopped

when he did so.

The Bible recorded

that at that time,

14,700 people died.

No doubt,

the quick response

of Moses and Aaron

saved more lives.

Phineas' response

is thus further commendable

as he stayed

for the deaths.

One lesson for us here

is that sorrow,

weeping,

and wailing

is no substitute

for atonement

or action

when God's justice

or commands

are at stake.

This was true then

and is true

for us even today.

There is a further lesson

for those called

to be leaders,

especially leaders

of God's people.

When we fail

to act in judgment

in the face of sin

and wrongdoing,

there is danger

for the people

we lead.

And we know this

from the recent scandals

and crisis

in the church

that we have experienced

or seen

in our world today.

Thus,

the series concludes

with the mysteries

of the chapters resolved.

So it seems.

Israel is seduced

to idolatry

with bail

through sexual immorality.

God,

in his jealousy

for his people,

judges them

with a plague.

And Phineas,

in his role

as priest and judge,

atones for God's people

by executing

their representative sinners.

Plague is stopped.

The end.

Or is it?

As you know,

a hallmark

of the best

murder mysteries

is where you get

to the conclusion

and realize

that the puzzles

you have been working

through themselves

mask a deeper mystery

that brings them together.

This is not a murder mystery,

but as many of you know,

I love the Lego movie.

And near the end

of the original Lego movie,

you realize

that all you have been watching

points to a more fundamental story.

I don't want to give it away.

It's such a great movie.

You should watch it

if you haven't watched it.

But such is it

with this chapter.

This individual mysteries

together form the outline

of a grander mystery,

the threads of which we find

the author has been pulling on

as the Israelites journey

through the wilderness.

This grander mystery

is that of God's grace

in his relationship

to his chosen people.

For here at the foothills

of the promised land,

in the depth

of their apostasy,

the generation of Israelites

about to take possession

of the land

are confronted

with the reality

that this possession

was not due to their worth.

Anyone who thought

the earlier rebellions

in the desert

to be due

to the particular wickedness

of the hearts

of those who left Egypt

was quickly disabused

of that notion

by the events at Peor.

As several commentators

I read

spent time highlighting

how the apostasy

of the second generation

at the foot

of the promised land

mirrored that

of their parents' generation

at the foot of Sinai.

It's no wonder

then in his farewell speech

in the book of Deuteronomy,

Moses reminds them

that the Lord

did not choose them

because they were special,

but because he loved them

and kept the oath

he swore to their forefathers

that he brought them

out of slavery in Egypt.

Their choice

as his chosen people

was a choice of grace

and not one

based on their works.

Connected to this

is the second aspect

of this mystery

of God's grace.

How does a righteous

and holy God

dwell among sinful people

without destroying them

because of their sin

and rebellion?

And here again,

the answer resounds

as it has been

across the book

by providing for them

a mediator

who is able to stand

between them

and his wrath

and make atonement

for them.

We thus see that

Phineas' action

does not stand

as an isolated incident,

but continues

the long line

of atonement

that has repeatedly

saved the Israelites

from destruction

throughout their journey

in the wilderness.

A line that runs

from Moses at Sinai

and at Kadesh Paneah

to Aaron

at the rebellion

of Korah

and now to the atonement

of Shittim.

It is particularly poignant

because with Aaron dead

and Moses about to die,

the Israelites

may have begun

to wonder

who indeed

will be there

to stand in the gap

for them

as the Lord showed.

And the Lord showed,

I should say,

both in the action

of Phineas

and the promise

of an everlasting priesthood

that he gave to Phineas

after this action,

that he would always

provide that mediator.

Alas, however,

this provision,

as we all know,

will fall short.

And it is this recognition,

is in this recognition

that the deep resonance

we have seen repeatedly

with the book of Hebrews

as we have journeyed

through the numbers,

the book of numbers

comes to light.

For all its grace,

the old covenant

and its associated priesthood

was limited

in its ability

to fully mediate

the relationship

between a sinful people

and a holy God.

First,

because the problem,

as we now see

with the Israelites,

was not the law

or not with

a particular generation,

but with their hearts.

As Hebrews 8 reminds us,

quoting Jeremiah 31,

for if there had been nothing

with that first covenant,

no place would have been

sought for another.

But God found fault

not with the covenant,

but with the people.

And he said,

the days are coming,

declares the Lord,

when I will make

a new covenant

with the people of Israel

and with the people of Judah.

It will not be like

the covenant I made

with their ancestors

when I took them

by the hand

to lead them out of Egypt

because they did not

remain faithful

to my covenant

and I turned away

from them,

declares the Lord.

Even when they had

good mediators

like Phineas,

like Moses,

like Aaron,

those mediators

were limited

by their finiteness.

As you come to see here

and the rest of the story

of the Israelites

in the Old Testament,

especially in the book

of Judges,

their relationship

with God

was repeatedly characterized

by a cycle of sin

and apostasy

met with God's judgment.

God,

in His kindness,

raises a mediator

or judge

to intercede for them

and deliver them.

They keep to His ways

while the judge

is still alive

and they return

to apostasy

after the judge

or mediator dies,

beginning the cycle

all over again.

This is like

another movie

I really like,

Edge of Tomorrow,

where the cycle

repeats over

and over and over.

So how does

a holy God

who loves His people

fix this?

He does this

by establishing

a new covenant

that does not just

address the rebellious behavior

but changes the heart.

And this new covenant

is mediated

by a superior priesthood

or mediator

that will be

truly everlasting.

For the passage

I just read in Hebrews

is sandwiched

between two other passages

that highlights the solution.

In Hebrews 8,

Hebrews 8:6

verse 6,

we are told,

as it is,

Christ has obtained

a ministry

that is as much

more excellent

than the old

as the covenant

he mediates

is better

since it is enacted

on better promises.

And afterwards,

again,

he says from verse 10,

for this is the covenant

that I will make

with the house of Israel

after those days,

declares the Lord.

I will put my laws

into their minds

and write them

on their hearts

and I will be their God

and they shall be

my people.

And they shall not teach

each one his neighbor

and each one his brother

saying,

know the Lord

for they shall all know me

from the least of them

to the greatest.

For I will be merciful

toward their iniquities

and I will remember

their sins no more.

Thus,

there is a new covenant

and a new everlasting mediator.

But there is one catch

as the writer of Hebrews

also points out.

Mediation requires atonement,

which implies sacrifice.

And while chapter 9 and 10

of the book of Hebrews

details this sacrifice,

it may perhaps be better

for us to return

to Numbers 25

and hear the gospel

preached from there.

Because from there,

as we saw,

God had decreed

that the atonement

for the apostasy

was to be the execution

of the heads

of the people

with their bodies impaled

or in other words,

hung on a tree

for his wrath

to be taken away.

Phineas fulfilled this

in part

by spearing

the people caught

in sin.

But Christ,

the greater mediator,

fulfilled this

by himself

hanging on the tree

and having a spear

run through himself

instead.

For he was wounded

for our transgressions,

he was bruised

for our iniquities.

The chastisement

that brought us peace

was upon him

and by his stripes

we were healed.

Christ,

like Phineas,

entered the tent

where we were caught

in sin

and instead of

impaling us

on the spear

of God's wrath,

ran the spear

through himself

that the covenant

of peace

that would have been his

as it was for Phineas

would come

to us instead.

T.S. Eliot

once said,

we must not cease

from exploring

and the end

of all exploring

is to arrive

at the place

where we started

and know it

for the first time.

When we started,

Balaam seemed

to be the connection

between this chapter

and the preceding ones

as his failure

to curse the Israelites

morphed into

his near success

in destroying them

through seduction

to apostasy.

The high point

seemed to be

Phineas' zeal

mediating

and averting

God's wrath

against his sinful people.

When we return to it,

however,

in light of the gospel,

a deeper unity

seems to emerge.

It's not found

in Balaam's approach

to harming the Israelites,

nor is it

in Phineas' intervention.

Rather,

it is in Balaam's

final prophecy

of the star of Jacob

and the scepter

of Israel

who was to come.

And it was not

in the zeal,

but in the atonement

of Phineas.

For both the scepter

and the atonement

together

point to the same picture,

the very picture

to whom all Scripture points,

which is Christ the Lamb,

who is also

Christ the King.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus,

we can never thank you enough

for your sacrifice

on our behalf.

May the truth

of your love

for those of us

who know you

warm our hearts

and spur us on

to love

and good deeds,

rejecting the sins

and pleasures

of this world

for the greater joy

and pleasure

of knowing you.

And may it melt

the hearts

of those who don't

know you

as they see

your mercy and grace

towards them

reflected in the sacrifice

you took

for all our sin.

We ask this

in your name.

Amen.