We read God's word this evening in Numbers chapter 25. Numbers 25. We're going to read the whole chapter, and the narrative is our text. Numbers chapter 25. And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods. And the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baal Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal Peor. And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand. And he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. And those that died in the plague were 20 and 4,000. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say, behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel. Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Selu, a prince of the chief house among the Semionites. And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Chazbi, the daughter of Zer. He was head over a people and of a chief house in Midian. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, vex the Midianites and smite them. For they vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cosbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, their sister, which was slain in the day of the plague for Peor's sake. Beloved of God, it might come as a bit of a surprise to you to know that Balaam has his fingers here in what we read in Numbers chapter 25. Children, do you remember who Balaam is, the sorcerer, and who Balak is, the king of Moab, who hired him? Balak, the king of Moab, has seen the Israelites defeat many kings already, and now sees that he and his Moabites are next. And in a desperate attempt to defend himself, he hires Balaam, the sorcerer, to get God, so he thinks, to turn on his people and to curse his people therefore Balaam thinks he will be able to defeat this people who are sustained by the hand of their God. Three times Balaam makes the attempt, all three times God turns his cursing into blessing. After the third time that Balaam blesses instead of Curses, we read this in Numbers 24, and Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together, and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times, and therefore now flee thou to thy place. He fired him and said, go. So that we read at the very end of chapter 25, 24 rather, just before our chapter, and Balaam rose up and went and returned to his place and Balak also went his way. And that seems to be the end of the history of Balaam and Balak. And then you read through chapter 25, and it seems to be new history disconnected from what is previous. There's no mention of Balaam at all in the chapter. But then you keep reading in the book of Numbers, and you get to chapter 31. And there is where we learn that Balaam is still very much in play here Chapter 31, verse 16. Behold these, referring to the women of Midian, behold these caused the children of Israel through the counsel of Balaam to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor. And there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. And Revelation 2, verse 14 says the same. Balaam is behind what we read in Numbers chapter 25. Apparently, what must have happened, something like this. Balaam walked away, as we read at the end of chapter 24, but he's still mulling this whole thing over. And remember, Balak had offered him a massive amount of money if he could get this job done. And Balaam is still thinking about how he can possibly get this job done enough to get that money. And as he's mulling this over in his mind, a light bulb turns on for Balaam. Maybe I can't get God to forsake his people, but maybe I can get the people to forsake their God. That would accomplish about the same thing that Balak wanted to accomplish anyway. It would prevent Israel from destroying him. And so he must have come running back to Balak and told him his idea. Balak, you have to understand something. Jehovah, the God of these Israelites, He's a holy God. He's not like any of the other gods that we worship or that any other nation worships. And as a holy God, He calls His people to be holy. He has them live a way of life that is utterly different from any way of life that any of us live. It's a life of self-denial and consecration to all that is good and right. I think they're vulnerable here. Let's show them a different way. Let's show them a different life. Let's show them all the pleasures that we enjoy. And perhaps we will be able to get them to forsake the life that they're living with their God and even possibly we can start to assimilate them into Moab and Midian. And that's how Numbers chapter 25 was born. Be that as it may, we don't want Balaam to steal all of the focus tonight, do we? As you read along in the chapter, the attention falls upon the faithful priest, Phinehas, doesn't it? And God's use of him to preserve his people. You've probably heard the children's song, Dare to be a Daniel. Well, tonight we're going to think about daring to be a Phinehas. By necessity, then, in the direction of the passage itself, the main applications tonight are going to come to us as men in the congregation. Men daring to be a Phinehas. Whether we are old men or middle-aged men or young men or even boys in the congregation, the text is a charge to us as men And though we're not so much going to learn anything new that we didn't know about what it is to be a man of God, the text is a call to carry out what we do know with urgency and zeal for the Lord God of hosts. And if we are not, it is a rebuke to us, a call to us to return to the right path as godly men. And if we are generally, it is an encouragement to us to walk in the way of a godly man to be zealously obedient in the place that God has put us in an age where the devil is still using Balaam's and Balak's to seduce the church away from God. Let's take that up tonight under the theme dare to be a Phinehas. We'll notice first the situation, second the stand, and third the result Phinehas is Work is in the second point. We have to understand the situation first before we look at it. The situation, and then the stand, and then the result. You can almost imagine. Balaam and Balak discussing this new plan that Balaam has. Perhaps Balak responded with something like this. Interesting idea, Balaam. But how are we really going to draw these people away from their God? It's not as though there's no close connection between them and their God. God has delivered them out of the land of Egypt with mighty plagues. He's led them across the Red Sea and He's caused that Red Sea to come crashing down upon Pharaoh's armies and destroyed them. He's brought them through the wilderness and all the way to the land of Canaan. The word is that he promises to give them the land of Canaan. How are we going to cut them off from their God and assimilate them amongst us? And perhaps they go back and forth with various thoughts and ideas until, of course, they land on what they perceive to be the answer. Lust. Lust will do it. And Israel abode in Shittim, verse one. And the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. Smear them with sensuality. You understand, of course, that these are two camps that were not all that far away from each other, about to go to war. And you understand that it was a purposeful planned thing to send the Moabitish and Midianitish women into the camp of Israel. That's what Numbers 31 verse 16 tells us. Behold, these women caused the children of Israel through the council of Balaam to commit trespass. Send the girls into the camp. to seduce the men who are in the camp. These girls were likely temple prostitutes in the service of Baal Peor. Baal Peor is the name of the idol god that Moab and Midian serve. All of the people groups in this area at this time served Baal, among other false gods. But each nation had its own version of the Baal. And so you have here Baal Peor, which simply means Baal from Peor. And in Judges 3, verse 3, we read of a Baal Hermon, Baal of Hermon. They all had their little differences. between them. And so we're given a name in connection with the place. Baal from Peor was the idol god of fertility. And the worship of this idol god included every form of excess, drunkenness, feasting, and especially fornication with temple prostitutes. And that would be the hook. That would be what would enslave them. But the goal, you understand, was more. That was stage one. These girls were to go into the camp and they were to seduce the Israelite men, and then, They were told to call the men to bring themselves and their families out of the camp and over to the Moabite Midianite camp and there to celebrate a feast with them. And that's what they do. Verse two, after they get them to commit fornication with them, these girls called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods. Hey, we have a festival to bail going on right now. Why don't you come and join us? It's pretty much like the festivals you have to Jehovah. We all have festivals. You do, we do. Ours are just a whole lot more fun. There's more of this going on right there at the festival. Oh, wives, children. It doesn't matter. Bring your wives and your children. That's what we do. It doesn't matter. Bring them along. Yeah, of course, you'll probably want to bow down to Baal, perhaps, when we do. You don't have to really believe it if you don't want to. But come on, it'll be a good time. And they did. Verse 2, and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. Until finally we read, in verse three, that Israel joined himself to Baal Peor. And again in verse five, joined unto Baal Peor, a strong, strong word. If used in the covenant of God, it's a covenant word, a word of bond, a word of union. indicating a certain commitment, ties made, formed to highlighting here the spiritual fornication on top of the physical fornication. Their hearts began to go away from Jehovah. and away from the covenant life that Jehovah had given to them. And their hearts began to go after Baal and the way of life that Baal offered to his people. What kind of life is this? Look at these people, they said, as they engaged in this feasting and all of this excess. This is the life. These people have no shame. They just do this. They're so uninhibited, whatever they feel, whatever they desire inside, that they just do it. It all just comes out and nobody seems to care about it. This is astounding. This is life. What is the life that Jehovah and his covenant has for us in comparison to this? Jehovah is holding us back and their hearts went after Baal. and the life that he offered, and they joined themselves to Baal Peor. Is not this, beloved, the progression of sin as it takes hold, as it induces a spiritual apostasy, a falling away, whether in an individual's life, or in the life of a home, or in the life of a line of generations, or in the life of a church, or the life of a denomination. Walk willingly in the way of unrepentant sin, so that the hooks come in. And this is how it will go, apart from the repentance that God grants to His children. As one gives oneself over to some form of lust, there can be an enslavement to that sin. John 8 verse 34, Whoever commiteth sin, is a servant of sin, a slave of sin, says the Lord Jesus. Whoever continues unrepentantly committing sin becomes a slave of that sin. It doesn't have to be sensuality, but often it is for men, and increasingly for women in this day. But something with which to hook a person Something that is a good creation of Jehovah God that was made good and that is used rightly in his sight in a right way But that now is taken and twisted and perverted and made to be used in a way that God did not intend for it to be used Alcohol Money Pleasures, things, vacations, popularity, sports, clothes, food, academics, some cause, the pride of one's own intellect, power, influence, politics, being at the center of things, something, anything that allows one to escape the stresses of life for a time. And then, beloved, when the hooks are in, then the appeals begin. This could be your life. Why do you have to feel ashamed about this? They don't feel ashamed about this. This could be your life. You could give yourself over to this way of life. There are people that live this way. that just do whatever they desire to do. So uninhibited, so shameless. And other people around them commend them for it. This could be your life. And perhaps the giving of oneself more and more to that slowly but surely. And undercover, at first, everything still looks squeaky clean on the outside. But a giving of oneself more and more over. to that sin and the drawing of oneself more and more out of the camp of God's people, into the camp of the world as more and more time is spent with the world and with its idols and in pursuit of what the world is pursuing. And finally, it breaks through even the plastered outside nice-looking external cover as there's no heart in it any longer, and spiritual disciplines are lax, church attendance starts to wane, until finally it can be said, this one has joined himself to Baal Peor. Something, of course, that cannot happen unto utter destruction for one of God's elect. But that can happen, even for one of God's elect, for a time, until there is repentance, and with grave consequences. And something that can and does happen to those in the sphere of the covenant, but who are not in the covenant, and something that can and does happen organically, in a family, in a line of generations, even in a church, beware. And if and when it does happen, don't think, beloved, that it just sort of happens. That there's no conscious being intentionally purposing to cause this to happen, wanting it to happen, working day and night to make it happen, because there is. The evil one himself loves nothing more than to seduce out of the church into the world. To seduce the church into amalgamation with the world. And we ought not ever be ignorant of that. Of course, the Israelites were ignorant for quite some time about what was happening. Even going back to the history of Balaam and Balak and the attempt to curse Jehovah God, the Israelites had no idea that any of that was going on, that there were plots and plans for their own destruction being enacted upon them. It all happened in their ignorance. And even this that is happening now in Numbers 25, they don't really know that this is a planned and purposeful thing. I don't know under what pretense the girls came into the camp of the Israelites, but whatever it was, they did not know that this was some plot seeking their destruction. But we ought to know. These things are written for our advantage, for our understanding, And we ought to understand that every single day the evil one is plotting this kind of thing. How do I seduce them out of the church into the world? God finally exposed the plot and plan of the Moabites and Midianites to the Israelites in verses 17 and 18 of our chapter. This is the first time they understand. For they vex you, God speaking, for they vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor. Israel, what was going on here was sleight of hand. What was going on was seduction. This was planned and this was purposed to give you the offering of a life that looked oh so pleasurable, but that hid all of the consequences from you that would destroy your life in this life and for eternity. There are times, beloved, when the devil attacks the church with direct confrontation, like he attempted to do through Balak and Balaam in the previous chapters. In our day and age, that would be direct persecution. Persecution. And all the while, whispering into the ear of the church, your God is cursing you. That's why this is happening. God is cursing you. But he knows that there's times when that won't work. And he takes the other tack, the tack that is happening here, and that is to subtly seduce them. by attempting to get them to become slowly but surely more and more like the world. Not all at once, bit by bit. To turn up the stove on the frog in the pot of water just bit by bit until he hardly even knows that he's being burned and it's too late. Who can doubt that this is the plan and purpose of the evil one. in Western nations and in this nation and has been for a long time. Amalgamation is the name of the game, beloved, it's seduction. Get her to forsake her God slowly but surely, even in his name, under his banner, and they'll still think they're fine when they're not until finally it's too late and they're ours, they're a part of us, not a part of him. Be wise to his wiles. Understand his beguilements. And understand, too, that this evil one has upon the earth still his belics and his belums, people who also intend, purposely, consciously intend this amalgamation of the church into the world. Does it just so happen that every form of media is flooded with seduction? It doesn't just happen. This was planned and purposed, and not only by the devil, it was planned and purposed by men who are consciously, willingly enacting plans to destroy any concept of a Christian marriage and a Christian family in society. And what is the effect? You tell me. What do you see? Amalgamation of the church into the world? Is there any amalgamation of this church into the world? Amalgamation of families, homes into the world. Is there any amalgamation of homes and families here into the world? Amalgamation of individual lives into the world. Is there any amalgamation of your life, of my life, into the world? So that the question hangs over the text at this point, doesn't it? But where are the men? Where are the men of Israel? The true men? Where are the godly men responsible to resist worldliness to lead Israel in truth and right? Where are the heads of homes? Where are office bearers in Israel? Are they so seduced themselves? Are they so given over themselves? Are they so joined to Baal Peor? And the question hangs over the church of today. Where are the men There are godly men here, praise the Lord for it. But we must still face the question, even here too, where are the men? Are men standing up and plunging the spear into their own zimri and qazbi within themselves, first of all? standing up in their homes, in their families. This is not the way that our family will go standing up in the church. This is not the way the church will go standing up even in their corner of society. Where are the young men? Are they so seduced? Are they so given over? So joined to Baal Peor? Young men, are we learning? to strike the spear into the Zimri and Qazbi within ourselves, preparing to lead a wife, preparing to lead a home someday, truth and godliness. Apparently, to speak in a foolish manner, God was asking the same question. As he calls for such men to stand up here in Numbers chapter 25 and calls especially for the office bearers to stand up in the church with zeal for the Lord and for his covenant to put an end to this madness in Israel. Verses three through five, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. God told Moses to gather all the chiefs, that is, all the judges, the elders of Israel. All the tribes of Israel had their own elders, ruled over the tribes. And God told Moses, gather all the elders together before you, Moses. And then we read in verse four, God says to Moses, take all those heads, those elders of the people, and hang them up before the Lord. And at first reading, you might think Moses' job is to hang the elders up before the Lord and exercise the Old Testament form of church discipline on the elders themselves. But that's not the intent of the passage. We know that because of what Moses does in carrying out the command of God in verse five. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor. Moses told the judges, the elders, go back to your tribe and to kill every man who has been a part of this matter of Baal-peor. So apparently what God was telling Moses in verse four was to take all the elders, gather them all together, and tell them to go back and hang them, hang the ones who have done this, the offenders, up before the Lord against the sun, and discipline them, exercise church discipline in its Old Testament form, slay them. Apparently, many of the elders of Israel did do this. And yet at the same time, apparently there were some who did not, or who were slack in doing it faithfully. Because we read in verses eight and nine of a plague that came into the camp, a plague that ultimately killed 24,000 Israelites, verse nine, and those that died in the plague were 20 and 4,000. First Corinthians 10 verse eight refers to this history and tells us that 23,000 out of the 24,000 were killed. in one day, neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand." So because some of the elders were not exercising church discipline as they had been called to do, God was basically saying, I have to do it then. I have to take up the slack. He sends in the plague to kill those remaining who had been engaging in this sin. Now further, It becomes plain as you look at it a little more closely that many, if not most of those who died in this plague were from one tribe of Israel, the tribe of Simeon. There are two numberings of the people in the book of Numbers, which is why it's called the book of Numbers, of course. The first numbering is all the way back in Numbers chapter two. And the numbers for each of the tribes is listed there. And the numbers for the tribe of Simeon is listed there as 59,300, 59,300. The second numbering of the people in the book of Numbers is in chapter 26. So the chapter after our chapter, and therefore right after the plague had consumed many of the Israelites. And when you read that in Numbers 26, While for all the rest of the tribes, the numbers stay pretty close to the same. For the tribe of Simeon, there's a very deep drop. From 59,300 down to 22,200. That's in 26, chapter 26, verse 14. 22,200. And then you add to that the fact that we read in verse 14, that Zimri, who brought this Midianitish prostitute into the heart of the camp so boldly, was the son of Salu, a chief among the Simeonites. And from this we can conclude, beloved, that the elders over the tribe of Simeon were not doing their job. And the plague was coming in and it was consuming, especially the Simeonites because of it. And of course it was that lack of church discipline in the tribe of Simeon that emboldened Zimri. So that this man from the tribe of Simeon, with no shame, brings this Midianitish woman right through the heart of the camp. He marches her right past the tabernacle. Moses sees it. There's a great congregation of Israelites, probably in the thousands, by the tabernacle, all weeping and praying in repentance for what Israel has done. And this man, with no shame, takes her right past and goes into the family tent and commits the act right there in the middle of the day. Lack of church discipline always emboldens Sin. What do you think was going through the minds of those elders of Simeon? They heard from the mouth of Moses the command, knew it was from God. Well, in the case of Zimri, he's the son of one of the chiefs. I don't know if we can really touch him. He's the son of one of the chiefs. What's going to happen if we take the son of one of the chiefs and hang him up before the sun as God says? Or maybe some of them were doing it themselves. Or maybe some of them were simply slack and just sort of thought to themselves, well, hey, I know this man. He's a pretty good bird after all. He'll probably just get over it eventually. Just leave it alone. It'll take care of itself. Everything that an elder can be tempted with, if not careful. And the question continues to hang where are the men. When the office bearers are lax in the church, beloved, then the leaven spreads, and sin becomes bolder and bolder. When the men are lax in their homes, like Eli with his sons, sin becomes bolder and bolder. Zimri's feel safe in their sin, and can march with their sin right past dad, knowing he's not going to do all that much about it. that can march right past the elders, or don't care if the elders hear, because the elders are probably not going to do a whole lot about it anyway. And the question still is there in the text, where are the men? And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, He rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through her belly." There's one. There's a man in Israel. Be a little bit careful, beloved, with your thinking about this godly man, Phinehas, though. And don't start concluding in your mind that this Phinehas was some kind of rogue cowboy executing his own brand of vigilante justice here. Not at all. First of all, he was a priest in the office of priest. And second of all, he was carrying out an explicit command of God. God had commanded this. He was exercising the discipline that his fellow office-bearers should have been exercising, but were not. The example of Phinehas, in other words, is not a call for men to rise up and enact their own foolish opinions with a foolish boldness, as though they are the man of God for the situation, bypassing church order that God has ordained or anything else that God has ordained in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the example of Phinehas is that men of God in their place, in their roles that they have been given, whatever that is, in church, home, school, society, carrying out their God-given callings that God Himself has placed upon them with zeal for the Lord God of hosts, for the glory of His name. That's what zeal is. It is godly, passionate, consistent devotion to the glory of the Lord and the good of His Zion. And that zeal is attributed to Phinehas twice in the text. Verse 11, He was zealous for My sake among them. And verse 13, He was zealous for His God. God is jealous. God is jealous for His own glory. He's jealous over His own people. With the jealousy of a spurned husband, whose wife is with another. Phinehas, is filled with the same zeal. Literally in verse 11, it says, he was zealous, God says, he was zealous with my own zeal. God's zeal flowing through him. If David is the man after God's own heart, Phinehas is the man with God's own zeal. Will this dishonor of the name of God go on here? Will God's explicit commands go unfulfilled here? Will the evil grow in boldness unto all Israel, being consumed here, and filled with zeal for Jehovah Finnegan's acts? There were many godly people gathered at the tabernacle that day, beautifully, praying, repenting. It's a wonderful thing to read in verse 6. but only one man gets up and exercises his calling as God has given it to him with zeal for the Lord God of hosts. Fathers, in your home, if not you, then whom? You are given a calling, a place, a position, an office really, head of your home. Perhaps you have seen it progress in your own home, if you look at it honestly, looking back, and there's been sin this way and this way, and it's just ballooned more and more in this area of our home life, and it's always bothered you, but you haven't really done anything about it. Is it time to dare to be a Phinehas and to rise up in your home, and with a godly zeal controlled, but a godly zeal, strike a spear through that sin, for the glory of God and for the good of your family, and in love for both. Young men, perhaps you've seen in your own friend group, young women too, but especially young men. Perhaps you've seen in your own friend group an increase in the boldness of sin, and it's been bothering you, and you haven't dared to say anything about it, and it's getting worse and worse and worse. Perhaps it's time for you to stand up and say something and to put a stop to it. For the glory of God and for the good of your friends, and if they despise you, then they despise you, and God will be faithful and provide you other friends. Young boys, what about you at school, on the playground? Maybe sometimes there's bad jokes, or bad words, or maybe mocking one of the teachers, or mocking one of your fellow classmates who's not quite the same as you. And even as a little boy, you know that that's wrong, but you've been so scared to say something about it. It's time. It's time to say something about it. Next recess. I can't do this. I can't say these things. This is not right. For the glory of God and for the good of your friends. And office bearers in the church, I have absolutely no knowledge of anything that you are dealing with. as a council or consistory. This application is not the minister trying to get you to do something that I think you should do. It's a general application. And of course, we all understand that it takes much wisdom as an elder to know, does this case need patience, patient working with, Slowly, slowly. Or has this case come to a point where there needs to be a stand taken? There is a hard-hearted, unrepentant rebellion here that's been going on. And it's your decision to make together. But when you know it is the latter, then take your stand. and put a spear through the evil for the glory of God and for the good of His church. And for all of us men, is it not time to stop saying things to ourselves in our own mind like this if we are doing that, or to others Perhaps a wife. Well, this is just the way the men are. This is just what men do. They look at this stuff on the internet. They're men. What are you going to do? Men will be men. They drink. They drink to excess. It's just what men do. And it's time to stand up. and to put a spear through it here for the glory of God and the good of our families and the good of our own souls. Who dares to be a Phinehas? The result of Phinehas' zealous action was first of all that God stopped the plague Verse eight, so the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. Psalm 106 verse 30 says the same thing as it comments on this history. Then stood up Phinehas and executed judgment, and so the plague was stayed. The plague was stayed. Numbers 25 verse 11 says, because Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel, in my jealousy." And verse 13 even says that this priest, by taking care of these two fornicators, made a temporary atonement for the sin of Israel. The plague was stayed by faith and in the way of Phinehas's obedience. Israel was restored. Phinehas's own line, Phinehas is a Levite, Phinehas's own family line becomes the family of the high priest from here on out, verses 12 and 13. God's covenant is not destroyed. His covenant people are not consumed. God used this man to preserve His people. God will not forsake His people, nor will He allow His people to forsake their God utterly. Yes, 24,000 are killed in the plague, and how many more by the church discipline in the other tribes? But likely chaff. and reprobate within the sphere of the covenant. So that in the end, the church was purified and true Israel was brought closer to God. You can see that at the door of the tabernacle. God preserved and would not curse His true Israel. He restored her. He kept her. Would not allow her to be utterly amalgamated into the world, in part through the use of one zealous man. But a man, beloved, who must point us ahead to another zealous man. To one of whom it is written, zeal for God's house hath eaten me up. filled in a way Phinehas was not, with the desire for the glory of his God and the good of his Zion here below. One who was a priest, as Phinehas was a priest, one who took up not a spear, but a whip, and who turned Israel, true Israel, back to God, one who offered a sacrifice, a greater, a full sacrifice, a true atonement for sin, not by piercing others through, but by being pierced through himself upon his cross. For the sins of his church, Phinehas' sins included, an atonement that would stop the curse and that would bind the church to Jehovah and covenant love. I'm the only one who can teach the church through His enlightening word to see through the beguilements and the wiles and seduction of the devil that she stand within God's covenant in life. and the only one who can give strength to the men of God and His church, that Phinehas's arise even today, not zealous with their own zeal and mistaking their own zeal for God's zeal, but zealous with God's own zeal. May God give you and me to dare to be a Phinehas in our own place, in our own calling, whether seen or not seen, for the glory of God and the good of His Zion in such a time as this. Amen. Father, will Thou bless the proclamation of Thy Word to our hearts and to our lives, and strengthen us in faith and hope and love for Thee and for Thy people. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.