Defending God's Honor
Numbers 25-27 Phinehas did a hard thing. He chose to do what was right in order to defend God’s honour. Israel had sinned by worshipping pagan gods promoted by women the Israelites had been told to avoid. God was angry and the punishment took the lives of 24,000 people until Phinehas stepped in, made a decisive move, and the angel of death removed his hand from God’s people. “ The Lord said to Moses, ‘Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for he was zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them. Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites’ ” —Numbers 25:10-13. My curiosity bump is working overtime as I read this passage. The Lord told Moses to punish the leaders of those who had committed the sin (25:4). Moses t...