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
At first they probably didn’t think about worshiping gods;
They were just interested in the fornication aspect of it
Before long you can imagine they started attending local feasts and family celebrations that involved idol worship
Soon they were in over their heads
Absorbed into the practices of the pagan culture
Their desire for fun and pleasure caused them to loosen their spiritual commitment
As a side bar, this teaches us a lesson
Have you relaxed your standards in order to justify your desires?
In doing this, partaking in activities with these temple prostitutes
The Israelites yoked themselves to the false God of the Moabites and Midianites
Referred to as Baal-Peor
This was a violation of the first commandment
“You shall have no other gods before me”
Ball was the most popular god in Canaan
Represented by a bull, symbol of strength and fertility, he was the god of the rains and harvest
The Israelites were continually attracted to Baal worship
In which prostitution played a large part
This was a tremendous violation of God’s Law
They broke the number one rule
The rule that all the others hang on
This atrocity of course angered the Lord
He ordered Moses to put to death the heads, or chiefs of the people
In punishment for this sin
The test implies that these chiefs were grossly neglect in their duty by failure to prevent this sin
They were to be executed
Hung up before the Lord against the sun
They were possibly stoned to death first and then hung
Corpses exposed to the sun as a public display of the consequences of disobedience
Pretty gruesome, but it was a vivid picture of why one should obey God
The passage goes on to say
Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-Peor
This command was not the same as the previous command to execute the chiefs
It pertained to all w ho were guilty of going after Baal-Peor
This was serious business
And it just got worse from there
Read verses 6-9
The text here infers God sent a plague upon Israel in judgment for their sins of immorality and idolatry
Representatives of the congregation gathered at the door of the Tabernacle
In mourning because of the sin and its punishment
And even among all of this sin, death and mourning
One man, Zimri, blatantly continues to violate the Lord’s commands
Zimri brought into camp a Midianite woman
It even implies that Zimri may have taken this woman into the Tabernacle itself
Enter our hero, Phinehas
The only son of Priest Eleazar
Phinehas had seen enough
He was mad as he could be, and not gonna take it anymore
II. Evaluate the Situation
In hero stories, the hero often sees a situation and evaluates what needs to be done
Some heroes like Inigo Montoya from my intro spend their whole lives planning and anticipating what to do when the situation arises
Others on impulse quickly survey the scene and take immediate action
That is what Phinehas did
And when Phinehas saw the violation
The taking of this Midianite woman into his tent
He rose up from the congregation
Implying he was among those mourning before the Tabernacle
He rose up, took a javelin, or a spear, in his hand
And went after the man into the tent
And thrust both of them through
He evaluated the situation
And he took immediate action
I want us to focus on a few words in this verse
Numbers 25:7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;
First lets focus on Phinehas our hero
His name in Hebrew means mouth of a serpent
With mouth meaning particularly speech
Phinehas wasn’t afraid to stand up and speak out against evil
He stood firm for righteousness
But another small word that we overlook in this verse is the word hand
In the Hebrew there are actually two different words for hand
One is KAPH, which means curved or hollow, the palm of the hand
It often refers to the sole of a foot, or a paw of an animal
Even a spoon or bowl
It is very passive referring to the palm of the hand
This is not the word used here
The Hebrew word used here is YAD
Which means strength, power
It is a powerful word, used to show strength and might
As in the hand of God is upon someone
An example of that use is found in Ezra 7 “as the hand of Jehovah his God was upon him”
God’s hands, bringing aid, giving strength and power to His prophet
Phinehas took his spear in his hand in a mighty show of force
His hand was a picture of the strength and power of God
And our hero goes forth to
III. Eradicate the Abomination
To eradicate means to destroy or get rid of something completely
In the history of the story of Batman, do you know where the villains wind up?
Arkham Asylum
Batman prides himself as not being an executioner
Once a villain like The Joker, The Riddler, or Scarecrow are captured, they are sent to the Asylum
Presumably eradicating the problem
But somehow they seem to always escape
To torture the people of Gotham City once more
Phinehas didn’t make the same mistake
He takes his spear and runs them both through
In this he was not acting from a petty spirit of fleshly anger
It was a judicial act of Divine justice
To purge Israel’s camp from sin
We read in v 13 “he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.”
The terms zealous and jealous are identical in the Hebrew text
They refer to the manner on which Phinehas acted to vindicate the holiness of Jehovah
What he did averted God’s judgment
Because of this, his decedents would become the high priests of Israel
The Lord made a “covenant of perpetual priesthood”
This promise will extend even into the Millennial kingdom
Phinehas’ actions halted the plague which took 24,000 lives
That was more lives than were lost during the plague that came about from the worship of the golden calf during Moses’ time on the mountain receiving the 10 Commandments
Phinehas left no doubt
He completely eradicated the abomination
IV. Evidence of a true Hero
It is hard to find a true hero in movies or literature nowadays
Erle Stanley Gardner tells about his early days as a writer of Western stories:
“When a writer is writing at three cents a word, he is painfully conscious of the number of words.
In fact, when I was typing my own stories.
I had an adding machine device connected to the space bar of my typewriter, so that every time I hit the space bar it registered a figure on my word counter.
“Without my realizing it, my heroes developed a habit of missing the first five shots, only to connect with the last bullet in the gun.
At one time an editor took me to task for this.
How did it happen that my characters, who were chain lightning with a gun, were so inaccurate with the first five shots?”
I told the editor frankly ‘At three cents a word, every time I say bang in the story I get three cents.
If you think I’m going to have a gun battle over while my hero has got 15 cents’ worth of unexploded ammunition in the cylinder of his gun, you’re mistaken.’
There is no doubt though that Phinehas was a true hero
It is clear from Phinehas’ story that some anger is proper and justified
Phinehas was angry because of his zeal for the Lord
But how can we know when our anger is appropriate and when it should be restrained?
Ask these questions when you become angry:
Why am I angry?
Whose rights are being violated, mine or another’s?
Is the truth, a principle of God, being violated?
If only your rights are at stake
It may be wiser to keep angry feelings under control
But if the truth is at stake, anger is often justified
Although violence and retaliation are usually the wrong way to express it
Phinehas’ case was unique
If we are becoming more and more like God
We should be angered by sin
Evidence of a true hero are found throughout this story
A true hero evaluates the situation
Decides what proper action to take
And eradicates the evil deed
Are you angered by sin?
Do you see sin going on around you
But don’t do anything about it?
As Christians we should be willing to stand up for truth
Make a stand and speak out against the evil in this world
The atrocities and violations we see every day
Things like the homosexual movement
The push for same-sex marriage
The Pro-choice, or a more accurate term Pro-death movement
The push to eliminate God and Christian values from society
While propping up and praising other value systems such as Islam and other ways of life
Political correctness I believe is destroying our country
We are all about celebrating diversity as long as we don’t point out each others differences
Political correctness is threatening our very doctrinal beliefs we hold dear as true Christians
We are moving ever so quickly towards the day when we will not be able to speak the truth of God’s Word openly
Does that bother you?
Do you want to be a hero?
Then stand up for God’s truth
Become active in efforts to promote His truth locally, statewide, nationwide
We as Christians should have a stronger voice politically
Speak God’s truth with your vote at the ballot box
There is a drive right now to make Izard County wet
Do something about it
Be like Phinehas, take the power and strength God has put in your hand and be a hero for God
And God will bless you just like he did Phinehas
Obtain hero status with the Lord
