Numbers 25 - Zeal

This is a difficult chapter for me because it speaks to a side of God I struggle with, and this is righteous zeal.

⁶ Just then one of the Israelite men brought a Midianite woman into his tent, right before the eyes of Moses and all the people, as everyone was weeping at the entrance of the Tabernacle. ⁷ When Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest saw this, he jumped up and left the assembly. He took a spear ⁸ and rushed after the man into his tent. Phinehas thrust the spear all the way through the man’s body and into the woman’s stomach. So the plague against the Israelites was stopped, ⁹ but not before 24,000 people had died.

 ¹⁰ 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

 Phinehas acts  in God's anger and prevents further plague among the Israelites and earns a special reward for he and his descendents. For me, I struggle with this because it emphasizes God's righteous anger and I tend to eant to focus on God's love and forgiveness. The idea of killing someone for disobedience makes me uncomfortable but we see it time and time again, especially as God leads the Israelites to the promised land. God wants a cleansed people and environment that will not tempt and lead the Israelites astray.

But truthfully, we all have aspects of God that we have more difficulty relating to and may make us uncomfortable, but God is God and we need to work towards understanding all parts of God's character if we wish to operate as God's instrument and serve God.

The warning with this is to be careful to be absolutely sure about what God is calling us to do, particularly if it is going to cause conflict here on Earth. We would not want to find ourselves out of God's will, having showed anger or acted out in destruction, believing that we are acting God's part.

What aspect of God;s character makes you uncomfortable or struggle? Feel free to comment and share what you are thinking.

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