6-14-26 Should You Be Zealous for God? (Numbers)

Join Pastor Ken as he continues in his series through the book of Numbers.

Transcript

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So I became a Christian at the age of 10 at church camp, and I came home and I started reading my Bible. And it didn't take me long to realize that I was a sinner, that I didn't do things the way that I was supposed to. The Bible talked about loving even your enemies, and there were kids at school that I hated. It talked about honoring your father and your mother, and sometimes I disobeyed, and sometimes I talked back, and it talked about telling the truth, and I didn't always tell the truth when it came to my parents and getting in trouble and such. What age were you when you realized that you didn't live up to God's calling? And have you noticed that as time goes, as you grow older in life, the things that are temptations change as well. By the time I was done with high school and went off to Oklahoma University, the temptations were wine, women, and song, or more accurately, beer, girls, and rock and roll that were getting me in trouble. And Israel discovers as they approach the land and as they approach to the life that they are to establish there, their temptations change as well. So look with me at Numbers 25, beginning with verse 1. And please stand as you're able for the reading of God's word. Numbers 25, 1 through 5. While Israel was staying at Sheteim, the people began to have sexual relations with the women of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people aid and bowed down to their gods. Thus Israel yoked itself to the Baal of Peor, and the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel. The Lord said to Moses, Take all the chiefs of the people and impale them in the sun before the Lord, in order that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel. And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Each of you shall kill any of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. This is the word of God for the people of God. Please be seated. So Israel reaches the edge of the promised land, and there they find themselves wrapped up in idolatry and immorality. Now think about this, folks. We saw last time that God has just won a huge spiritual battle for them. He has turned Balaak's desire to have Balaam curse them into a blessing. And Balaam has spoken these incredible blessings about how God's going to provide for their future and God's going to take care of them and God's great things for them. Have you ever had one of those spiritual highs? Maybe you go to a Christian concert and all the people are singing and you're very excited, or maybe it's a great worship service and you feel very moving, or maybe it's an incredible prayer session, or sometime that you really feel God is there, and then you go outside and the devil sneaks up on you? Well, that's exactly what happens to Israel. And they fall for what will become the same old temptation. As the scripture says, they sit down to eat and rose up to play. And this sin of Baal Peor, Baal is the name of the God, Peor is the place, becomes an infamous part of their history, a great failure according to the scriptures. In fact, let's look at a few of the verses to talk about this. Hosea 9 10. Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel, like the first fruit on the fig tree, in its first season I saw your ancestors. But they came to Baal Pior and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved. Psalm 106, 28. Then they attached themselves to the Baal Pior, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. And even in Revelation 214, the letter to Pergamum, but I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and engage in sexual immorality. We didn't look at this passage, but the scripture talks in Old and New Testament about the fact that Balaam can only do what God tells him. He ends up blessing Israel, but then he goes and advises Balak, this is how you trip him up. You tempt him with food, with drink, with women, and that will cause them to fall. Does it still work? Well, think about this. How many compromises are people willing to go through for that boy that you really like or that girl that you really like? You know, I'm like many of you, I spoke to Liz Blue in the face about marrying somebody that shared your faith. And what I got from a response was, but we are so in love. Everything's gonna be fine. It's no problem, Dad. No time at all. Well, this isn't working very well. Well, we can't agree on that. Well, you know, we fight about this faith thing. Well, they don't want to go to church, uh, on and on and on. And it becomes, guess what? The problem that God told us it would be. This is Israel's last rebellion in the wilderness. It's the last part of the wilderness generation that God has already said is not going to enter the land, and they've been wandering for 39 years. It's the last part of that older generation that dies out. Or we should say maybe gets wiped out. The next chapter is the second census, and that census includes only the younger generation that will go in and take the land, with three exceptions: Moses, Joshua, and Caleb. Now, in response to this sin, God tells Moses to impale the leaders who have allowed their people to go astray. Moses says, Go out and kill the ones that have committed idolatry. Neither one of them are done. And as usual, it sounds like a very harsh judgment. But this is their first encounter with Baal. Baal will become the chief rival of the God of Israel. He will be the number one temptation for hundreds of years to come. To the time of Amos and Hosea and all the way through their history until they're destroyed by the Babylonians. That desire to go back and forth. And part of it is that they reach settled land, and the people of the land say, This is how you grow crops here. You have to rely on the rain, and Baal is the God who gives you rain. He is the God of fertility. You see, in Egypt, it's the flooding of the Nile that brings the water that's necessary. You don't rely on the rain. In the wilderness, God has provided directly, but now they come to a point where they are told, you have to participate in this or your crops will not grow. And the temptation is to adopt a new religion as they settle into the land. The temptation is to adopt the ways of the people there. The temptation is to give up their unique relationship with God and their unique faith and to compromise it. And the results will be incredible destruction. We know the scourge of cancer. We know that in order to stop cancer, you burn, cut, and poison, basically. Radiation, chemo, and surgery. We know the destruction that illegal drugs have caused in our country. We know the numbers of young people that have overdosed and sometimes not so young people, and all the destruction that's come from that. If you had the chance to eliminate cancer or illegal drugs, how far would you go to do so? This is an opportunity, it seems, to eliminate the temptation that will be generations to come. But neither God's plan nor Moses' plan are done. So let's pick up the story in verse 6 and following. Just then one of the Israelites came and brought a Midianite woman into his family in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the Israelites, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phineas, son of Eliezer, son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, he got up and left the congregation. Taking a spear in his hand, he went after the Israelite man into the tent and pierced the two of them, the Israelite and the woman through the belly. So the plague was stopped among the Israelites. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Phineas, son of Eliezer, son of Aaron, the priest, has turned back my wrath from the Israelites by manifesting such zeal among them on my behalf that in all my jealousy I did not consume the Israelites. Therefore say I hereby grant him my covenant of peace. It shall be for him and for his descendants after him a covenant of perpetual priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites. The name of the slain Israelite man who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri, son of Salu, head of an ancestral house belonging to the Simeonites. The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cosby, daughter of Zer, who was the head of a clan, an ancestral house in Midian. The zeal of Phineas stops the plague as it begins there. How far is too far when it comes to dealing with sin? We're told that this Israelite leader, the son of a leader, comes in with what's basically a Midianite princess and marches right by them as they weep and pray, marches to sin. It's as if they had a parade and they were running around outside in public in the kind of dress that you would only have in your bedroom and demonstrating all kinds of things right in the face of people. Oh, yeah, that happens, doesn't it? See, I remember as a young college student from Oklahoma Baptist University, growing up in a little town in Oklahoma, that I was dating a woman from New York City, from Long Island, and I went out to visit her and her family that summer, and we took a tour of New York City, and we ended up at one point in Greenwich Village. This is 1983, folks. And a pride parade came by. And as a boy from Oklahoma and Oklahoma Baptist University, I could not believe what was worn, or should I say, not worn, on the street of New York City. Now I know everybody has their God-given right to sin. We all have that, and we all do it, right? We all have areas that we sin and that we fail, and we have choice in that we have to deal with the consequences, or hopefully the grace of God that goes beyond those consequences. But then you get to that point of how much is too far. See, one of the groups that I remember very clearly because I was like curious about what's this about, and they were explaining what they were about was a group, I got to get this right, called Nambla, North American Man-Boy Love Association. Their position was you should be able to get rid of all the pedophilia laws and have sexual relations with a child no matter how young that you wanted to. Most of them ended up in jail. Read about the group sometime, but they were carrying banners and things, proclaiming that this should be allowed in the United States. How far is too far? This couple goes marching right by, and Moses seems strangely passive in this situation as the leader. But remember, Moses also has a Midianite wife, and the Midianites are connected to the Moabites as a tribe at this time. Maybe that had something to do with it. But Phineas, we're told, burns with zeal and takes action. You know when one spear thrust kills both of them, exactly what they were doing when he came to find them. And there's a debate, though, about where exactly they were doing it. The Hebrew says in the kupa, which becomes the little canopy for a marriage in a Jewish wedding, but here it seems to mean one of the rooms, one of the chambers, if you will, of the very tent of meeting, the desert tabernacle. They marched right into the sanctuary and started having relations right there in front of God and everyone, as they say. Now, some scholars say, well, maybe this was some kind of fertility rite that's supposed to bring the rain. And you notice Psalms talks about offerings for the dead. Others say, well, maybe this was supposed to be some kind of thing to placate the spirits of those that have gone before to stop the plague. Whatever it is, Phinehas takes decisive action. Now the rabbis say Phineas went too far. At least some of them do. That he has taken up a kind of vigilante justice that made himself judge, jury, and executioner, and that you can't abide with that approach in a community that it has destructive forces. By the time of Jesus, there was a group called the zealots. I'm sure you've heard of those that were plotting destruction against Rome. They were assassinating both Romans and Jews that cooperated with Rome. They later led a rebellion that ended up destroying the second temple and the city of Jerusalem and leading to tens of thousands of death. And the zealots, in their very name, embraced the zeal of Phineas, who killed the wrongdoers in the name of God. Perhaps Phinehas is excused that he is a Levite, and the Levites are supposed to respect and defend the sanctity of the tabernacle. But remember what part of the situation in those days is that you don't have a police force. There's no official police. When somebody kills someone, their family takes vengeance, and he has literally put himself at great risk because these are two important families, one in Israel and one in Midian, and he has offended both of them. But what's interesting is God's response. God makes a covenant with Phineas for a perpetual priesthood. There are only five covenants with individuals in the Old Testament between God and somebody there. You guys able to name those? Number one's with Noah, that God puts his rainbow as a symbol of his grace into the sky and promises not to destroy the world by flood again. The second one was with Abraham, the covenant of seed and soil. I'll give you many children, I'll give you this land. The third is Moses, Mount Sinai, where he makes a covenant between God and the whole people. The Ten Commandments are a part of that. The fourth is with King David, to have somebody on the throne that becomes the messianic promise. And the fifth one is here with Phineas. Of course, we know the most important covenant is the one that comes in the New Testament between Jesus Christ and his people that he has claimed by his sacrifice. But God protects Phinehas and He blesses his decisive action here. He recognizes it's done for the greater good of the community. It puts an end to the plague that is happening among them. It stops the wrath of God. They don't have to execute the leaders or all those that are participating. But the question for us is: should you be zealous for God? Should you be zealous in the way that Phineas was? Paul was zealous for God. He was there when they stoned Stephen to death. He wanted to put to death this whole Christian movement. He wanted to stamp it out in the name of God. He was on his way to Damascus, breathing threats and destruction when Jesus met him along the way. And his whole life changed at that point. He found he was fighting against God when he thought he was being zealous for God. And he writes to the Romans years later about the zeal of his current people, his birth people, the Jewish people, and how that is playing out. And listen to what he says in Romans 10, 1 through 4. Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not based on knowledge. Not knowing the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God's righteousness. For Christ is the culmination of the law, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. From the moment he met Jesus, Paul became zealous in spreading the gospel. He found out that zeal is great when it comes to God if it's focused in the right way, if it takes the methods that Jesus calls us to take. His zeal was to serve God and to praise him. And he spent the rest of his life reaching out, even to those who persecuted him and attacked him, reaching out again and again and offering them the message of Jesus Christ. See, zeal is often great in improving our own walk with God. As that song we just sang was about seeing him more clearly and listening to his word and following him. It's great when we apply it to our own life. It gets a little destructive sometimes when we focus our zeal on improving somebody else from the outside or forcing them to be somebody else. Let me tell you the story of two pastors growing up in a little town. One was very much focused on serving God and sharing the gospel, and his zeal was applied towards his own life of trying to get closer to God and being more obedient. And the other one very much applied his zeal to the sin of everybody around him, or at least what he considered the sin of everybody around him. He was always pointing out and attacking and focusing on, well, you shouldn't do this and you shouldn't do that. And we had nicknames for him in the youth group. The one ended up being there 36, 37 years, a part of the community, blessing many generations. The other one got fired because we found out he was actually doing some of the stuff that he accused people of doing in his zeal to straighten them out. Often, zeal focused outward can lead to persecution and destruction. Some of the worst wars in Europe were the religious wars of the 16th and 17th century, when Catholics killed Protestants and Protestants killed Catholics, and one type of Protestant killed another type of Protestant until they devastated large parts of Germany and Central Europe and their zeal. Enlightened zeal is following Jesus in the ways that Jesus does it. I mean, think about this, folks. After what Paul did fighting against God, persecuting the people of God, Jesus could have sent a lightning bolt on him on the way to Damascus, but instead he sent a light and gave him a chance to turn around. He made him into the greatest, most productive disciple who wrote almost half the New Testament. When you and I sin, when we know in our heart and are convicted that we have broken God's law, God can smack us right then. He can wipe us out right then, but he gives us a chance to repent and to come back to him and to have forgiveness and grace to overcome even our guilt and shame. Christ on that cross could have incinerated the Romans that gathered around to watch his death, the people that accused him falsely, those that had condemned him to death, but instead he was willing to die for them that they might have life in his name. Love informed every step of his response to others. Sacrificial love informed every step, and you can never, never ever accuse Jesus of not being zealous about doing the Heavenly Father's will. In fact, when he was asked what the greatest commandment was, he gave him two for the price of one. He says, Number one, you love the Lord your God with all your heart and your mind and your soul, that deep zeal, devotion to serving. And glorify God. And then he went on to say but number two is you love your neighbor as yourself. It's great to be zealous for God, but you have to do it in a way that glorifies God and serves God and recognizes who we are and who our God is. We've been journeying through the wilderness. It's not always an easy journey to go back to the Old Testament and hear some of these accounts and read about what's going on and understanding that in light of our Christian faith. I knew a fellow and met him at some of the conferences. He wrote a book. His name is Dennis Olson called The Death of the Old and the Birth of the New. And we are at that point in numbers where the old generation has now passed away. Again, with the exception of three people. But only two get to enter the promised land. I'm going to head out to Hungary. I'm going to ask you guys to have a blessing on me and the Boons and our team pretty quick here. Jordan's going to be bringing the message on Father's Day. I hope you can come be a part of that. And then Tyler is going to kick off his preaching here on June 28th. Well, you know, his post-trial preaching, so to speak, his role as pastor preaching on June 28th. And then I'm going to come back and we're going to do one last sermon on the wilderness. And that is the passing of Moses, the transition from one generation of leadership to the next. I hope the journey has been something that you've learned from. Paul tells us in his letter that the things that happen to the wilderness generation are one of God's ways of teaching us how to be better servants, how to follow better, how to see God more clearly, how to relate to God, how to be the people of God in that movement of our lives. Because the movement from generation to generation continues as they were sharing about our new building. And it's important that we do our part in passing on that faith, passing on that message. Jesus Christ is alive. And because he lives, we can have life too. Will you pray with me, please? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your incredible love, for the mercy that goes beyond our actions to bring forgiveness when we don't deserve it. That teaches us that sometimes even when we think we're fighting the right way, we're fighting against you or encounter purposes to you, Lord. Help us to be in your will. Help us to be zealous for loving you and serving you. Help us to realize that our battle is not with flesh and blood, but is a rescue mission to bring people to you. Because it's so easy for us to get caught up in our own little battles, Lord. Help us to trust in you and experience the fullness of the grace that is able to claim all the promises that you have given us, knowing that you have a great future plan for your people. Help us to be your people. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.