The Zeal That Atones: Phinehas and the Plague Text: Numbers 25:6-9
Introduction: A Culture of Flaunted Sin
We live in a time of celebrated rebellion. Our culture does not merely tolerate sin; it parades it down Main Street, gives it a corporate sponsorship, and demands that you not only approve but also participate in the revelry. To refuse is to be branded a hater, a bigot, a troglodyte. We are told that the highest virtue is a limp-wristed tolerance, a non-judgmental posture that calls evil good and good evil. This is the spirit of Baal Peor, resurrected with rainbow flags and diversity statements.
The scene in Numbers 25 is not some dusty, irrelevant artifact from a primitive culture. It is a snapshot of our own moment, cranked up to eleven. Israel was in a state of corporate crisis. God's judgment was already falling upon them for their whoredom, both spiritual and physical, with the Moabites. A plague was raging. The people of God were weeping at the entrance of the tabernacle, mourning their sin and the consequent wrath of God. It was a moment for sackcloth and ashes, for repentance and holy fear.
And into this solemn assembly, a man named Zimri, a prince in Israel, brazenly marches a Midianite princess, Cozbi, right past Moses and the elders, and into his tent to commit fornication. This was not a sin of weakness, committed in a dark corner. This was a defiant, public, in-your-face act of contempt for God, for His law, for His people, and for His judgment. It was a press conference for wickedness. Zimri was declaring that his personal desires trumped God's covenant, that his autonomy was sovereign. He was, in short, a perfect modern man.
What is needed in such a moment? Is it a committee to study the problem? A dialogue about cultural sensitivity? A call for more weeping? The weeping was necessary, but it was not sufficient. What was needed was holy zeal. What was needed was a man who feared God more than he feared men, a man who loved God's honor more than he loved a quiet life. What was needed was Phinehas.
This passage is hard for our soft generation. We are allergic to righteous wrath. But we must understand that God's holiness is not a suggestion. His covenant is not a negotiation. And when sin is flaunted in the face of God, a holy God requires a holy response from His people. The action of Phinehas here is not a warrant for vigilante justice, but it is a permanent and bracing lesson on the nature of true leadership, covenant faithfulness, and the kind of zeal that turns away the wrath of God.
The Text
Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought near to his brothers a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting. And Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, so he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body. Then the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. So those who died by the plague were 24,000.
(Numbers 25:6-9 LSB)
The Brazen Provocation (v. 6)
We begin with the shocking act of rebellion in verse 6:
"Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought near to his brothers a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting." (Numbers 25:6 LSB)
The word "behold" tells us to stop and pay attention. This is not business as usual. This is an outrage. The man is Zimri, a Simeonite prince, and the woman is Cozbi, a Midianite princess. This was a high-profile, political statement. It was a strategic alliance with the enemies of God, sealed with sexual union. This was not just personal sin; it was public treason against the covenant Lord of Israel.
Notice the audience: "in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation." He wanted to be seen. This was performative rebellion. He was daring the leadership to do something about it. He was mocking their tears. While the faithful were prostrate in repentance, Zimri was strutting in rebellion. He was communicating that the judgment of God, which was actively consuming the people, did not apply to him. He was above the law. He was an autonomous individual, and his sexual and political choices were his own business.
This is the spirit of our age. It is the spirit that says, "How dare you judge me?" It is the spirit that redefines sin as a personal identity and then demands public validation. Zimri was not just breaking the law; he was challenging the very authority of the Lawgiver. He was doing it while the people were "weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting." Their grief was the backdrop for his arrogance. This is the essence of high-handed sin. It is sin that has thrown off all shame and all fear of God. It is a direct assault on the throne of God.
The Zealous Response (v. 7-8a)
While the rest of the congregation was paralyzed by weeping and shock, one man acts. Verses 7 and 8a describe the decisive intervention of Phinehas.
"And Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, so he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body." (Numbers 25:7-8a LSB)
Phinehas is identified by his lineage. He is the grandson of Aaron, the high priest. He is a man in authority, a priest of God. His action is not that of a private citizen taking the law into his own hands. It is an official act of a covenant officer upholding the honor of God. The priests were charged with guarding the holiness of God's house and His people (Numbers 18). When the civil magistrates, the judges of Israel, were slow to act on Moses' prior command to execute the idolaters (v. 5), Phinehas, as a priest, steps into the breach.
He "saw it." He did not look away. He did not pretend it wasn't happening. He saw the sin for what it was: an intolerable affront to a holy God. And seeing, he "arose." This is the language of righteous action. While others sat weeping, he stood up. He took a spear, an instrument of judgment, and he followed them into the tent, the very place of their sin. The Hebrew says he pierced them through her "belly" or "womb," a poetic and terrible justice, striking at the very source of the idolatrous fertility cult they were importing into Israel.
This was a violent act. It was a bloody act. And it was an act that God Himself would commend as righteous. Why? Because Phinehas was "zealous with My zeal," God says later (v. 11). His zeal was not a hot-headed, personal rage. It was a reflection of God's own jealousy for His name and His holiness. Phinehas loved what God loved (holiness, covenant faithfulness) and hated what God hated (idolatry, rebellion). This is the heart of true zeal. It is not zeal without knowledge, which is mere fanaticism. It is zeal that flows from a deep understanding of the character of God and the terms of His covenant.
The Divine Result (v. 8b-9)
The consequence of this zealous act is immediate and dramatic.
"Then the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. So those who died by the plague were 24,000." (Numbers 25:8b-9 LSB)
The plague stopped. Why? Because judgment had been executed. The public sin had received a public answer. Phinehas's spear made atonement for Israel (v. 13). This is a crucial concept. We tend to think of atonement only in terms of sacrifices on the altar. But here, an act of righteous judgment is atoning. It satisfies the wrath of God. It demonstrates to God that His people, represented by their priest, are on His side. They hate the sin as He hates it. This act of judgment purified the camp and turned away the consuming fire of God's anger.
The holiness of God had been vindicated. The public flaunting of sin had been met with a public execution of the sinners. This restored the moral and spiritual integrity of the covenant community. It showed that there are lines that cannot be crossed, that there is a standard of righteousness that will be upheld, no matter the rank or status of the offender.
The death toll is staggering: 24,000. The Apostle Paul cites this very incident in 1 Corinthians 10 as a warning to the church against sexual immorality and idolatry. He says these things happened as examples for us, "that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted" (1 Cor. 10:6). God is not mocked. What a man sows, that he will also reap. The wages of sin is death, and sometimes God makes the payment in a very public and terrifying way to remind His people that He is a consuming fire.
The Gospel of the Spear
Now, how do we read a story like this as Christians? We are not called to pick up spears and execute adulterers. The civil and ceremonial laws given to the theocracy of Israel have been fulfilled in Christ. We are not a nation-state with a sword to wield. But the moral principle here is eternal. The zeal of Phinehas points us directly to the zeal of a greater Priest.
Jesus Christ is the ultimate Phinehas. He saw the brazen sin of humanity, our high-handed rebellion against His Father. He saw us parading our idolatries in the very face of heaven. And He was filled with a holy zeal for His Father's house. We see this zeal when He cleansed the temple, driving out the money-changers with a whip. "Zeal for Your house will consume Me," the disciples remembered (John 2:17).
But His ultimate act of zeal was not to take up a spear against us. In a stunning reversal, He took the spear for us. He stood in the breach, not to execute judgment, but to absorb it. On the cross, the spear of God's righteous wrath against our sin, the plague that we deserved, pierced Him through. The Roman soldier's spear that punctured His side was simply the exclamation point on a judgment that had already been fully executed by the Father. He was pierced for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5).
And because of His atoning death, the plague of God's eternal wrath is checked for all who are in Him. His zeal made atonement. His blood satisfied the demands of justice. He is the great High Priest who, through His own sacrifice, turned away the wrath of God from us forever. God grants Him, for His zeal, "a covenant of peace" and "an everlasting priesthood" (Numbers 25:12-13), a priesthood far greater than that of Phinehas's descendants.
Therefore, our zeal as Christians must be patterned after the zeal of Christ. We are to hate sin with a holy passion, beginning in our own hearts and in our own homes. We are to be zealous for the purity of the church, exercising church discipline not with spears, but with the Word of God, for the restoration of the sinner and the honor of Christ's name. And we are to be zealous in proclaiming the gospel, the good news that the wrath of God has been fully satisfied in His Son. We do not offer the world a limp tolerance of their sin. We offer them the blood of Christ, which alone can check the plague of eternal death that is coming upon all who, like Zimri, parade their rebellion in the sight of a holy God.