Hero Status

Hero Status

Numbers 25

What makes a hero?

Webster’s defines a hero as a person “of distinguished courage, moral or physical; chief character in a play, novel, poem, etc.”

One of my favorite movies is “The Princess Bride.”

One character of the movie, Inigo Montoya, fits the definition of hero found in the dictionary.

He has distinguished courage

He is a distinguished swordsmen, the son of a great blacksmith

He had dedicated his entire life to the study of swordplay in order to avenge the death of his father

His father was murdered by an evil 6 fingered man

That had a sword special made for him by Inigo’s father

The 6 fingered man killed his father over the price of the sword

Over the years he has dreamed of the day he would come upon the 6 fingered man

He knew what he would say to this man just before he ran him through with his sword

“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

Near the end of the movie, he finally finds his foe

Any intense sword fight ensues and the entire time Inigo keeps repeating those words over and over again.

“Hello, My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die”

Inigo is winning, so his enemy begins to try and bargain for his own life by offering gold and silver to let him live.

Inigo tells him to offer him whatever he asks, and the man replies,

“I’ll give you anything you want.”

And his request? “Bring back my father.”

Inigo became a hero, a man of courage, ambition and determination

In order to right the wrong that had been performed 20 years in the past.

His father’s murder was finally avenged

Heroes! We see them all around us in many forms

Many people look to sports for their heroes

One of my heroes growing up was the great Reggie White

The ruthless defensive lineman for the Philadelphia Eagles

He was a tremendous athlete

Reggie White was a 2 time NFL defensive player of the year The latest in 1998 at 36 years old

That’s old in the NFL

He was selected to 13 Pro Bowls

And was the Pro Bowl MVP in 1986

He forced 32 fumbles and recovered 21, two of which where returned for a touchdown

He ranks 2nd of all time in regular season sacks with 198

He sacked 75 different quarterbacks

Including his most frequent victim

Phil Simms 15 times

Reggie White also had a nickname, do you know what it is

The Minister of Defense

This came not only from his defensive presence on the field

But also from his presence off the field

Reggie White was not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

He was a licensed minister

And he let everyone know it

Much more impressive than all his stats he accomplished while with the Eagles, Packers and Panthers

Was his stats that last for all eternity

His sack numbers, forced fumbles and Pro Bowl selections can all be accomplished by other men

They do not last

His stats of souls won to Jesus though last forever

Everywhere Reggie went he touched peoples lives with the love of Jesus

Every team he ever played for had players on it that had been led to the Lord by this Minister of Defense

Reggie White has gone on to be with the Lord

No doubt receiving many rewards in heaven for his works performed on the everlasting field of life

We immortalize many people as heroes

Some are truly worthy of this title

While most, sadly, are not

The Bible is full of heroes

And this morning we are studying one of the lesser known heroes

Phinehas

We will be looking at three aspects of a hero

Our hero

Experiences the Violation

Evaluates the Situation

Eradicates the Abomination

Read Numbers 25:1-5

I. Experience the Violation

As with all superheroes in comics and movies

Their must be something that necessitates the need for a hero

For Superman it was the evil ways of Lex Luther

Spiderman the crime that permeated his city

Batman was avenging the terrible crime wave that reigned supreme over Gotham

That was responsible for the murder of his parents

Each hero in some way experiences a violation of some sort

So it is with our hero Phinehas

Israel remained encamped at Shittim for a considerable time

This is where they departed from in order to cross the Jordan river into the promise land

It was during their stay here that some of the men began to commit fornication with Moabite women

This was their final failure before the conquest of Canaan

The Bible doesn’t say how the Israelite men got involved in sexual immorality

We do know that sacred prostitution was a common practice among Canaanite religions