In this account, Phinehas drove a spear through Zimri and Cozbi and was honoured by the Lord for his zealousness for God’s honour.
The setting was before Israelites entered the Promised Land. Isralites men were seduced by Moabite women and sexual immorality was rife. God send plague to the Israelites and 24,000 died because of that. Zimri brought a Midianite women into the the Israelites assembly and Phinehas killed both of them and was honoured. Phinehas stopped the plague as a result.
Israel worshipped other gods as a result of seduction from Moabites women and God’s anger burned against them.
Lessons Learnt:
1) Sexual sins is ever present. It was there then. It is present also at our age. man’s nature has not changed all this time. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)
2) Phinehas was honoured when he was zealous for God’s honour. We should also learn to be zealous of God’s honour in our daily actions. Learn to be angry because God’s name is disdained.
3) God was angry and send a plague. Sometimes disasters happen because of people’s sin, especially when God has shown His graciousness and people take that for granted. God has shown His mercy to Israelites and yet they still sin against him again and again. A stiff necked people as Israelites.
4) We should be careful who we relate to especially those who are close to us. Israelites related to Moabite women and they pulled them over to worship their god. Ungodly companionship pull us away from God.
5) Phinehas actions were extreme. He killed for God’s honour. Exodus 20:13 the ten commandments says you shall not murder but Phinehas has killed someone. He has broken the ten commandment to honour God. How do we explain this? To me, it just shows God’s honour should take important precedence in our life. It should matter greatly to us. It also show us that we should not follow rules because they are rules. We should place God’s honour above the rules. For men’s chief end is to glorify God. It also shows that Zimri’s actions were punishable by death and probably he broke the first commandment Ex 20:3 You shall have no other gods before me. If anybody has other opinion, please comment.
Hi Thai Shin, thanks for your effort to publish this blog. You work is very much appreciated. Thanks again. :-)
By: sy on June 29, 2008
at 3:16 am
Hi Thai Shin, great blog. I’m going to add it to my Blog Roll. One thought about Phinehas. I don’t believe he broke the sixth commandment: Thall Shall Not Kill. The sixth commandment is a prohibition against premeditated murder, not a prohibition against all kinds of killing. A government agent who legally executes a law-breaker would not be in violation of the sixth commandment–if the execution was justified. Phinehas was able to do an extreme thing such as kill, but was able to do it with a clean conscience. Once again, great blog!
By: mattsummers on June 29, 2008
at 11:57 am
Hey TS,
Incidentally, someone was talking to me about this topic this week or the last week. So we are in sync!
I also agree with mattsummers. Exodus 20:13 says “you shall not murder”. Murder is killing with an evil intent (e.g. greed, vengence, etc). This is in contrast with “you shall not kill”. E.g. if a soldier is in God’s army, he would have been duty-bound to kill during a war.
We may not have all the details in Phinehas’ case, but it is safe to say that since Scriptures declare that God was honoured by his zeal, what he did was acceptable.
Great blog!
kw
By: kw on July 3, 2008
at 10:05 am
Thanks Kong Wah & Matt for your feedback, I guess what constitutes murder will depend on the definition of murder. You have defined murder according to the law as in US law or Sinigapore law, what about God’s law? Maybe we should look at the bible for the answers ( Just a suggestion and I have no ready answers, all suggestions welcome)
By: thaishin on July 3, 2008
at 3:45 pm