Torah Portion: Numbers 25:10-29:40

Pinchas (‘Phinehas’)

Phinehas (Aaron’s grandson) was commended by God for what seems a brutal act, at the beginning of our portion for this week. In what appears to be a violent rage, Phinehas thrust a javelin through an Israelite and the Midianite woman with whom he had formed a relationship.

Yet it was the means by which God was appeased and ended His judgment on the Children of Israel (a plague). Up until then God Himself had taken the lives of 24,000 Israelites. How are we to understand this story?

Purity for Israel

Throughout history the enemies of Israel, both physical and spiritual, have sought to destroy the identity of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At the time of Phinehas there was a subtle move whereby intermarriage with Midianites, who worshipped a foreign God, would have changed the identity of the nation. Succeeding generations of families who came from these mixed marriages would not have been pure (virgin) members of the Tribes of Israel, nor would they have maintained undivided allegiance to the One True God.

The same was true when Judah returned from captivity in Babylon at the time of Ezra (Ezra 9-10), when many Israelites married women from the Canaanites and other local tribes who worshipped foreign gods.

History is full of such examples, right up to our day. Yet God is still zealous for his people and will ensure that, in some way, the Tribes of Israel retain a remnant with undefiled identity for all eternity. These are the 144,000 sealed in Revelation 7, called ‘virgin’ in Revelation 14:4.

Purity for Yeshua’s Disciples

Does this have any meaning for the Christian Church? When Yeshua took away the curse of the Torah (Gal 3:13), a new way was opened whereby the Torah would be written on the hearts of his disciples. But this does not mean that compromise is now permitted.

It was a big moment in the time of the early Christian Church when the Council of Jerusalem was held (Acts 15). After much disputation, four “necessary things” were written into a letter to Gentile converts (Acts 15:22-19). These can be associated with what were termed the ‘Noahide laws’: things that Gentiles should do if their desire was to bind themselves to the God of Israel.

Though in our day these things seem a strange choice, they are associated with particular traps that satan could use to take disciples of Yeshua off-track to worship foreign gods: such as eating food sacrificed to idols, or having sexual relationships with those who could lure them away from worshipping the One True God.

Satan is still setting up traps to lure us off-track, which can often be seen in the compromises made among groups of Christians today. Indeed, in the entire world a system will be set up by the Anti-Christ to trap all whom he is able into worshipping satan himself. This is why there is a call echoing through the Book of Revelation that one day Yeshua’s disciples must “come out of her lest you share in her sins and receive her plagues” (Rev 18:4). Just as Israel was to remain pure, so must Yeshua’s disciples.

The Census

After the plague was ended at the time of Phinehas, a new census was taken of the Children of Israel. This reminds us of an old hymn fitting for times of growing temptation to accommodate the world in the Church: “when the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there.” May it be so for we who desire purity and are willing to stand in the day of temptation. Let us learn this from the zeal of Phinehas.

Author: Clifford Denton