Phinehas! Rock Star in the Wilderness

Phinehas! Not one of the more ‘well known’ rock stars like David, Elijah or Noah, but a rock star none the less. And what a testimony to the faithfulness of our God. God’s promise to Phinehas was dramatic, awesome and generational!

Remember the story in the wilderness when the people began to sin with the neighboring Moabites? They were told NOT to fraternize with the locals or else they would suffer the consequences. The Message Bible tells it like this: “It started when the Moabite women invited the Israeli men to their sex-and-religion worship. They ate together and then worshiped their gods. Israel ended up joining in the worship of the Baal of Peor.” (Numbers 25:1-8)

And God saw their disobedience.

And God sent a plague.

The plague was moving swiftly throughout the camp and folks were dying by the thousands, 24,000 to be exact. As the people were weeping and crying to the Lord, out of the shadows comes Phinehas, the hero of the day. This quiet priest comes tearing out of the tabernacle with javelin in hand! Running swiftly though the camp he comes to the tent of Zimri and drives a spear through the heart of both Zimri and Cozbi daughter a Midianite tribal chief.

And the plague stopped.

And the King of Creation took notice.

“Because Phinehas was zealous (a burning passionate jealousy on behalf of someone deeply loved) for my honor, tell him that I am making a Covenant-of-Peace with him. He and his descendants are joined in a covenant of eternal priesthood.” (Numbers 25:11-13)

This act of passion, zeal and honor moved Phinehas from a ‘behind the scenes’ priest to a ‘You can always count on me’ kind of guy.  Can we say ‘Rock Star!’

• When Moses sent the army to war who carried the holy articles and the signal trumpets in his hand?
• When the leaders of Israel had to figure out what was going on across the river with the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, who went as mediator to decide to embrace them or kill them?
• When Israel had major issues with the tribe of Benjamin who made the decision to go to war?
• And who was trusted to be over all of the gatekeepers, because the Lord was with him?

You guessed it! Phinehas. Everyone recognized the wisdom and the ‘Hot Line’ Phinehas had with the Lord.  ‘Rock Star!’

We see the passion, character and wisdom Phinehas must have walked in. And it was this passion that released immense blessings to his generations. In looking down his family line we find names such as Zadok, David’s 24/7 worship priest; Azariah, Solomon’s priest in the first Temple; Ezra, exiled priest assigned to rebuild Jerusalem; Eleazar, who was trusted to weigh the silver and gold in the temple. In Arthur Burk’s book Generational Blessings, he states that today, 4000 years later, you can find descendents of Phinehas ministering before the Lord in the nation of Yemen. Now that is what I call generational blessings!

Father, Let our hearts so burn with passion, honor and love for you that our children, grandchildren and following generations run in pursuit of Your holiness, Your fire and Your extravagant mercy and grace! You are the covenant keeping God who shows mercy to a thousand generations!