Psalm 106:28–31 (ESV) — 28 Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead; 29 they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them. 30 Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed. 31 And that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever.
Phinehas would tell us five things:
1. Phinehas says MIXTURE IS A TEST!
- God trained Israel for 40 years to be completely EXCLUSIVE.
- They were his HOLY PEOPLE
- Mixture is a test of what’s in your heart!
- Mixture is a test of your maturity.
- Mixture can defile
- Romans 12:2 (NLT) — 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
2. Phinehas says IMMORALITY IS A GATEWAY.
- The Israelites had morals, standards of living.
- God’s way is HIGHER and BETTER.
- What’s so bad about immorality?
- 1 Corinthians 6:18–20 (NLT) — 18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
- We see that there is a spiritual component to immorality.
3. Phinehas says IDOLATRY IS BETRAYAL.
- What seems like a carnal engagement is a spiritual entanglement.
- They were “yoked.”
- Psalm 106:28–31 (ESV) — 28 Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead;
- To every sinful act, there is a spiritual component. It may seem like you are only engaging your flesh, but you are actually entangling spiritually.
- Perspective - God sees Himself as married to us, in covenant with us
- God is jealous and will not share us.
- He will not share his glory.
- He will not share his people.
- He will not share his standards.
- Decide to have nothing to do with the gods of this world.
4. Phinehas says PRIDE IS THE ROOT.
- Part of the biggest grievance of this whole story is the way the man was so flagrant in his sin.
- We need not be ok with flagrant and unrepentant sin in the church.
- 1 Corinthians 5:1–2 (NLT) — 1 I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.
5. Phinehas says ACTION IS NEEDED!
- While the elders were sitting around talking, Phinehas acted.
- Many talk, few act.
- It’s time to act in your life.
- You are Israel
- There are parts of your life that you’ve allowed to have mixture, immorality, idolatry.
- We need to put those things to death today!
- Romans 8:13 (NLT) — 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.
- Galatians 5:24 (NLT) — 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.
The promise to Phinehas is what is so rewarding:
Then the LORD said to Moses, 11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest has turned my anger away from the Israelites by being as zealous among them as I was. So I stopped destroying all Israel as I had intended to do in my zealous anger. 12 Now tell him that I am making my special covenant of peace with him. 13 In this covenant, I give him and his descendants a permanent right to the priesthood, for in his zeal for me, his God, he purified the people of Israel, making them right with me.”
- If we act - We will save the land
- If we act - We will be friends of God
- If we act - We will start a legacy in our family
- If we act - We will have a relationship with God