Zeal for the Father
Okay, I’m in an
“aggressive theology” kind of mood today.
The story of Phinehas always gets me riled up. It gets me riled up because it evokes a side
within me that I keep suppressed far too much.
But I keep it suppressed because it just isn’t all that acceptable in
today’s modern America. Of course, when
I see why I keep it bottled up I get riled up even more.
Here’s the deal. Phinehas is given praise because he has
enough guts to go out and do something about the fact that the Hebrew people
are once more whoring about with other things than God. In this story we see Phinehas rising up and
driving a spear through a man and woman who are violating the Hebrew way of
life. The Midianite woman is leading the
man away from God, and Phinehas steps up and drives a spear through them both –
killing them. But you need to realize
something else. God sees Phinehas’ zeal
and applauds. He sees Phinehas’ zeal and
rewards it.
A Rabbit Trail
Ever wonder how often
this passage gets preached on Sunday morning?
For those that use the Revised Common Lectionary – I’ll give you a
hint. It’s never read on Sunday morning
as part of the lectionary at any point. Regarding
a non-worship setting, how many of us have ever done a Sunday School lesson on
this passage? Not very often. I’m willing to bet that unless you have
undertaken a full reading of the Bible, you’ve never even heard this story.
The question is …
why? What is so wrong with this
passage? This story is not a very
comfortable message to give. It’s not a
story that we can talk about in polite company very well without the
possibility of someone getting the wrong idea.
So we bury it in our Bibles – secretly hoping and praying that the
subject will never come up.
We don’t even list it
among the readings in the Revised Common Lectionary. Don’t worry, we don’t list many readings in
the RCL, so Numbers 25 isn’t alone. Here
comes the rabbit trail. On a
verse-by-verse analysis, over 90% of the Old Testament (excluding the Psalms) are
never read in churches using the RCL. Among
the Psalms, almost 50% of the Psalms are not read. With respect to the New Testament, almost 50%
of it is never read. Even among just the
Gospels, over 36% of the Gospels are never read. Overall – because the Old Testament is so
large and underused, the reality is that in churches that use the Revised
Common Lectionary a person only going to church will hear just under 23.4% of
God’s Word over the span of the 3-year cycle.
Less than ¼ of the whole Bible is ever proclaimed from our pulpits.
Why? Largely, we do this so that we don’t have to
deal with it from the pulpit on Sunday mornings. We do it because a “visitor coming into our
midst might be shamed by what they hear.
Or perhaps it is us who might feel ashamed if a visitor comes in and
hears this story from our pulpit.
I’ve also been in
churches where there Revised Common Lectionary isn’t used. To be fair, I don’t think the scenario is any
better. In churches where the pastor
picks the readings, the readings tend to cycle through the pastor’s favorite
passages. My guess is that this results
in about the same statistic. For people
in those churches, I’d encourage you to ask your pastor how much of the Bible
they’ve actually preached upon.
Back to the Story
Here’s the sad thing,
though. Do you know what this story is
about? This story is about the subtle deception
of God’s people through lifestyle influences.
I believe this story is precisely what most American Christians need to
hear today. Sure, we don’t need to run
out, grab spears, and run them through people who are being led astray. I’m not saying we should do that. But I am saying that it would do us good to
see the serious issue before us about our culture being led astray from God
piece by piece!
This story is actually what
most American Christians need today! If you look
at the scriptural witness, what you see is that the Midianites are doing what
other armies of the nations could not do.
Other armies marched out against the people, but when God opposed them
the armies could not stand against the might of the Hebrew people. So instead the Midianites fight subtly. The Midianites engage in a whole different
kind of war: a cultural war.
They say to the
Hebrew people, “Come and join our feasts.
Come and participate with our luxury.
Come and experience our way of life.”
It’s the subtle call of one culture dominating another. This story is all about cultural war. Here’s the truth: without someone like
Phinehas the culture of the world would have won over the culture of the Hebrew
people!
Without someone like
Phinehas today, the worldly American culture will win, too. Listen to the call of our culture. “Sit in front of the TV. Stop being in meaningful relationships with
other people. Use Facebook in such a way
as it demonstrates a self-centered life that is all about glorifying you. Play video games that are inherently
desensitizing your brain to violence and the effects of anger. Listen to music whose lyrics subtly cause you
to lose focus on godly living.”
Conclusions
Do I need to continue
any further? Do you see what the
Midianites were doing? Through cultural
warfare, the Hebrew people began whoring after things that were not of
God. Are we any different? Look at most Christians today. Are we not engaged in a cultural war that
most of us are admittedly losing? How
difficult is it in today’s day and age to not whore after things that are not a
part of God’s directive will!
What is worse is that
because stories like Numbers 25 are challenging and difficult to hear because
of someone’s radical action … we bury the very message we desperately need to
hear. The Midianites are among us like a
plague, and most of us are losing the war without even realizing it.
Again, I’m not
advocating we go out and drive spears through people who tempt us into sin; but
I am saying at the very least we need to get serious about the fact that we are
in a cultural war. We cannot continue to
turn a blind eye to the disastrous effects of living in a “me-centered” culture
and think that we will come out with our faith intact. Phinehas was no fool. I guess this blog post pretty much puts me in
league with Phinehas, too.
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