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.
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,
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.