“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned My anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous as I am for My honor among them, so that in My zeal I did not put an end to them. Therefore tell him I am making My covenant of peace with him. He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.’”
- Numbers 25:10-13 (NIV)

Tucked away in a generally unread portion of the Bible, God records the story of the Israelites being seduced by the Moabites. The Moabites enticed the Israelites and conned them into worshipping the Baal of Peor and commit heinous sexual acts with Moabite women. God’s anger burned against the Israelites and a plague broke among the people. Moses told Israel’s judges to execute all of those who have joined in worshipping the Baal of Peor. Despite this, an Israelite man flaunted a Midianite woman in front of Moses and the entire assembly of Israel as they are weeping for their sins. When our hero, Phinehas of Eleazar, sees this outrageous display, he grabs a spear and stabs the spear through the woman and the man, killing them both. After that, the plague was lifted – not before killing 24,000.

Imagine. We are suckered into doing so many stupid things when we listen to the lies that are whispered in the ears of our soul. Worse yet, even when we know it’s wrong, we brazenly let God know that we don’t care about His standards, nor are we afraid of the judgement we face. Crazy.

And yet God is so zealous for the honor of His name that He would punish sin, so that He would not be defamed. He delights in those who are also zealous for His name’s honor, who would take drastic measures to make sure that He doesn’t get slanged or scorned. He doesn’t need our help for it – He certainly can take care of everything – but there’s something that glorifies Him greatly because His creation stands up to defend His name.

I wonder how zealous we are for our own honor. I remember listening to Tommy Nelson’s exegesis of Song of Solomon, and his emphasis on the importance of our reputation, or name. A man with a strong reputation brings honor to the woman he pursues, and a woman with a strong reputation brings honor to the man who pursues her. Our reputation can often prejudice someone for or against us before we even meet them. I would venture to guess that most of us want to have a good reputation, one that people respect and honor, one that strengthens friendships and doesn’t alienate people. But how many of us are willing to be zealous for someone else’s reputation?

As I ponder this question, I keep going back to the phrase that God says of Phinehas – “zealous for the honor of his God”. I haven’t looked at the Hebrew or any commentaries, but let’s look at it using inductive study methods. The word zealous connotes strong emotion, almost irrational passion. Zealots are pretty focused on whatever they believe. It’s hard to dissuade them from anything else. Phinehas was strongly passionate about God’s honor. This honor is probably closely tied into God’s reputation, the way He is known and considered among the nations. When someone is honored, they are held in high esteem for some reason. It seems like Phinehas was strongly passionate for God to be held in high esteem. And why was this important? Because this was Phinehas’ God that was being dishonored. When someone very close to us gets hurt, we are often hurt with them. I remember one time when my sister got hurt by a guy who was being a jerk to her. I remember the pain she felt, and the pain I felt because she was hurt. I became zealous for her honor and wanted to go punch that guy’s lights out (though that probably wouldn’t have been a bright idea – pun intended). It’s probably the kind of emotion that Judah and rest of Jacob’s sons (minus Joseph because he was sold off already) felt when they found out that their sister had been raped by the King of Shechem’s son. I think that this zeal was what Phinehas felt when he saw this punk of an Israelite strutting his stuff with some pagan girl who was accomplicit in hurting and defiling and essentially raping God’s bride. Whoa. I’d be pretty mad too – probably mad enough to kill both the guy, the girl, and everyone who was like them. Thank God for grace and for salvation.

Anyways, I expound on all of this to bring my thoughts back to this idea of the Great Romance. This story’s mostly about God’s reputation – okay, the whole Bible’s about God’s reputation. But in application, I see some important parallels between Phinehas’ zeal for God’s honor and how we ought to respond to God’s lead and how we ought to treat each other.

1. First of all, are we that zealous for our God’s honor? The more I consider this passage, the more I realize that I don’t care that much about God’s reputation. I let people talk trash about my Savior, my Friend, my Lover all the time. I don’t even attempt to defend Him, let alone take offense whenever He is being ridiculed. Do I dare speak up to say hey, stop talking that way about my God? We’re comfortable enough telling people to stop ridiculing our family, our friends, our boyfriend/girlfriend, but what about our God, the Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe? I feel like Peter after he realized his denial of Christ. Ouch.
2. Secondly, are we that zealous about other people’s honor, to the point where we lay down our own reputation and honor to defend someone else? It’s a bit more instinctual and natural to defend our friends and family; we’re even comfortable defending our ideologies and politics. But what about those who are always marginalized? What about those who are just plain difficult to love? What about those who disrespect us, or those who even torment us? Can we be zealous for their honor as well? Jesus is.
3. Finally, I realized why this zeal was so evident in the love relationships I see with my friends. I’ve often asked myself, “Self, why is it that guys are so prickly when other people tease their girlfriends?” Or, “Self, why do women automatically deny slander against the men they love?” And from meditating on this passage, I see that the reason for this behavior is because zeal is inextricably linked to love. That’s why God says, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (Romans 12:19). He is zealous for us, because what the world thinks of us (Christians) is what the world thinks of Him. We are now linked to His reputation; because of this, how we live is infinitely important in Kingdom work. Every little action of ours affects people’s perceptions of God, as Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5). Scary.

I could go on and on, but this is just a smidgen of what God’s been showing me recently. I’m floored by the intense emotion that God feels for me, and that I am created to feel for Him and for the rest of His creation. Dare I love people as He loves them? Dare I love Him as a reflection of His love for me? Lord help me, I want to.