Recently, I was reading through Psalm 106 and the story of Phinehas caught my attention.
“Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. They provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed. And that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever” (Psalm 106:28-31 ESV).
As I read these verses I could not fully remember the story, so I traced back to Numbers chapter 25 for the whole version.
“While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD kindled against Israel. And the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the LORD that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.” And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor” (Numbers 25:1-5 ESV).
The Israelites yoked themselves to Baal of Peor. They joined in worshiping and sacrificing to the Midianites gods, and the anger of the LORD kindled against Israel. The LORD instructed Moses to take out those that had yoked themselves. The LORD wanted to turn His anger away from Israel, but in order to do so, action was needed.
“And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of the meeting. When Phinehas the son the Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand. And went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand. And the LORD said to Moses, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealously among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealously” (Numbers 25:6-10).
Phinehas took on the jealously of God. He was showing zeal because he was provoked to anger by their behaviors.
“Therefore say, “Behold, I give to him my covenant pf peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel” (Number 25:12-13 ESV).
“Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law” (Psalm 119:53 ESV).
“I am burning with anger because of wicked people, who abandon your teachings” (Psalm 119:53 GWT).
Phinehas was burning with anger because of the wickedness of the sexual immorality among the people. He was stirred to stand up and intervene. He, also, did not just take out two random people, but he took out two influential people. The Israelite man he killed was Zimri, the leader of the Simeonite family. The woman was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, who was the tribal head of a father’s house in Midiain (1 Corinthians 10). Paul tells us not to indulge in sexual immorality like those in Numbers 25. He says twenty-three thousand fell in a single day, but in Numbers 25 it says twenty-four thousand died. From this we know twenty-three thousand died because of the plague and the other thousand were those that the judges killed, but the two Phinehas killed stopped the plague. He took out leaders-giants!
Last week, my pastor was talking about being a giant killer. She told the story of David and Goliath. After David defeated Goliath, he cut off his head and carried it in his right hand. Can you imagine what that looked like? A young boy carrying this giant head in his hand. After the service, we were at dinner and I was hungry and thinking about how I could not wait to get the food in my belly. My pastor started talking about the service and she said, “Cut off the giants head.” But my ears heard, “Cut off the chickens head.” We laughed about it, but we are called to cut off giants’ heads not little chicken heads. Phinehas could have killed other people, but these two individual were bold in the rebellion. He cut off the head of sexual immorality.
We have a giant called sexual immorality in our land, and how are we going to cut its head off?
One afternoon, I was walking the Green Way, which is a walking trail that stretches across the city I live in. My friends and I walked past some kids playing football. I heard one of them say a sexual comment to another boy about a girl that was there. These were middle school aged kids, and their words were so perverted it made me cringe. Later in the week, I was scrolling on Facebook and saw a video and it was titled, “The Next Generation.” Out of curiosity, I clicked on the video to watch it. The video consisted of seven-year-old children grinding on each other. I was so shocked by their ‘dances moves’! They were dirtier than any prom/club dance I have ever seen. My spirit started to burn with anger! I said, “NO! Not my generation! We will walk in purity and holiness!”
I started asking God for strategies to take this giant in our land.
“How can a young man keep his ways pure? By living according to the word of God” (Psalm 119:9 ESV).
In the Word of God, what is sexual immorality? The Hebrew word is Zanah which means; to commit fornication, commit adultery, seduce, engagement in prostitution, involvement with false gods or foreigners, sexual activity.
Humanity has a misunderstanding about sex. We can say sexual immorality is only in the world, but it has crept into the church. I heard a story about a young woman who was dating a deacon’s son. The young woman and the wife of the deacon were talking about her relationship with her son. Sex and marriage were brought up in their conversation. The mother encouraged this young lady to have sex before marriage to ‘try it out’ to see if she liked it. When I heard this, I was blown away. I also heard that people are encouraging others to masturbate because it does not involve anyone else, so it is not wrong.
I want to bust your bubble like mine was busted. For a long time, I thought sex was only intercourse, but I was wrong. Whether it is oral sex, hand sex, intercourse, masturbation, it is sex! Any sexual activity outside of a marriage relationship is sexual immorality. And just because you are married does not mean sexual immorality cannot occur. I have heard many stories about spouses addicted to pornography, this too is sexual immorality.
In my personal life, the enemy has fought me hard with sexual temptations. Through my own experience, I learned if I do not practice self-control and resist these temptations then I cannot lead a whole army of pure and blameless ones to cut off the giant’s head. My actions will disqualify me if I participate in sexual immorality.
There was a time in my life where I was faced with a decision. I was dating a guy and we disagreed on physical boundaries. To some people, what we did would not even get close to a line, but for me it was different. I have a desire to be pure and blameless before my God. One night, one of my boundary lines was crossed and I instantly felt the conviction of Holy Spirit. I left that night upset about what took place. The next day I asked the guy I was a dating a question. He was a leader of a high school small group so I asked, “If one of your high school guys came to you about physical boundaries would you tell them this was okay?” He responded, “Yes, I believe it is ok because I do not feel any conviction.” At that moment, my heart was broken and I disconnected because I realized I did not want to yoke myself to that. However, the temptation to compromise and override the Holy Spirit was there. It took me some time before I ended things with him. He was a good guy that loved Jesus, but our convictions were different. I chose not to bow to the temptation. Now have I bowed to other things, absolutely? I am not going to lie and say I am perfect and never committed any type of sexual sin because I have. However, I am thankful for a loving, forgiving, and merciful God that we serve. He forgives us when we repent and restores back to us what was lost.
I wanted to share these stories to shed light on sexual immorality and encourage you to take a stand like Phinehas and cut off the giant’s head! How are we going to take the giant out?
2 Timothy 2:22 says, "So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."
We must know the Word of God and meditate on it night and day. I encourage you to read Psalm 119. We must know the Truth because the Truth will set you free.
Matthew 5:8 says, "Blessed are pure in heart, for they shall see God."
It does not matter what those around you are doing. You take a bold stand in pureness and holiness knowing you will see God.
Lastly, Philippians 1:9-10, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more; with knowledge and discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”
Arise Phinehas and take out the giant in our land!
