Why the Messiah has so much zeal for the LORD’s house. And why we should too (Numbers 25; John 2)

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The swift, deadly action taken by priest Pinkhas/Pinchas (Phinehas) (Numbers 25:1–9) just preceding the Torah reading פינחס Pinchas (Numbers 25:10–30:1) is often misinterpreted as “vigiliantism” via the equivocation form of sloppy thinking.

The use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself.
“Equivocation,” New Oxford American Dictionary, accessed July 28, 2022

Just because the actions of Pinchas have similarities on the surface to those of a vigilante doesn’t mean they are remotely the same. A big caveat is that Pinchas was a priest of Israel, and the cavorting couple was doing so in “the tent,” i.e., the Tabernacle, the place where the Presence of the LORD dwelled.

Prophetic parallels: Pinchas, Eliyahu, Yeshua haMashiakh

There are several parallels between Pinchas the priest, Eliyahu (Elijah) and Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ).

All three of them were “zealous” for God’s sake, not their own.
All of them were given an eternal office or priesthood by God. Numbers 25:13 records that God saw what Pinchas had done and granted his descendants the High Priesthood.

Yeshua, as we are told in Hebrews, hold the eternal office of High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:5–7; 6:19–20). Some sages took this granting of the “eternal priesthood” to mean Pinchas lived forever and reappeared as Eliyahu. Others that Eliyahu came in the spirit of Pinchas.

Speaking of “coming in the spirit” of another, Yeshua tells us that John the Baptist was the one who came in the spirit and power of Eliyahu. Eliyahu was taken up to the heavens in the presence of his disciple, Elisha. Yeshua also ascended into heaven in the present of His disciples.

Pinchas the priest stepped in, when no own else could, and defended God’s honor.

Eliyahu is portrayed in the TaNaKh¹ as a prophets of prophets and has a prophetic connection to John the Baptist. He passed his mantle to Elisha and we also read in this Torah portion that Moses is preparing to pass his mantle to Joshua.

A mantle is not just an exercise in authority passed on from one generation to the next but also a lesson in how to wield that authority. Moses got in trouble with God because he did not glorify God in the eyes of the people.

Unfortunately, as time went on, the people didn’t want a leader who had a friendship with God, but a leader like the nations who had who wielded authority with brutality. The people were not rejecting Samuel but God Himself as their leader (1Sam. 8:4–9). Samuel warned them of the consequences of such a request (1Sam. 8:10–18).

Leaders should understand that they are not the builders of the Way of the LORD, but merely the caretakers of the road. When they try to make their own path, in contradiction to the path that God laid out, problems inevitably result.

God warned that if we don’t pass on knowledge of Him to the next generation, that He will forget them, because they have forgotten Him. This can easily happen in a family, community or nation that refuses to retain the knowledge of God in their own lives or inculcate it in the next generation.

The stakes are extremely high, and this is why the Torah tells us that we are to teach Torah to our children throughout the day, every day (Deut. 6:6–9).

God longs for the hearts of the children towards their fathers and the fathers towards the children. Passing on legacy is very important, but in the West, this duty of passing on the legacy of the family from one generation to the next has been sorely neglected to the point that most of us know little to nothing about what our forefathers and foremothers believed and how they lived.

Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.
Isaiah 2:2–4 NASB

Yeshua and His apostles quoted from Deuteronomy more than any other book of the TaNaKh. When the Word of God is internalized in a community, they don’t attack each other. Instead, they create a community and help each other. In this Isaiah passage, instead of going to war, those on the Day of the LORD are all in the same pursuit of helping everyone.

It’s no quaint thing that agriculture is featured in this prophecy. Farmers understand, unlike urban people, that they are not the masters of their destiny. They are, in many ways, at the mercy of nature, even if they have the perfect fertilizer mix, irrigation, etc. they can get caught off guard by a deep freeze, a hail storm, or a plague of locusts. There’s always a curveball that comes along and derails and reorients your plans.

How resilient are you? When the wildfires came through Sonoma County in the past few years, many people lost everything. When the pandemic came, we were forced to isolate from each other. There’s so much anxiety and depression the world today partly because people don’t know who they can trust.

Our ancestors in faith were thrown in prison and destroyed financially, but they put their trust in what does not change. They had firm faith in God.

The LORD had already commanded that the words Moshe was speaking be written on stones in a ceremony on Mt. Ebal (Deut. 27:1-8).

The connection between the Ark and the book of Deuteronomy was very important. The Ark contained the 10 commandments, which teach us who God is and the book of Deuteronomy teaches us what God has done for us.

Later in Israel’s history, they are concerned about the Temple than about Who lived there and why He was there.

The book of Deuteronomy was supposed to be placed right next to the Ark in the Tabernacle yet at some point, it was displaced to the point that it was lost and not found again until the reign of Josiah, David’s 11th great-grandson. It was forgotten in some closet for many generations.

“Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the LORD. “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. “And now, because you have done all these things,” declares the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you did not answer, therefore, I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim.”
Jeremiah 7:11–15 NASB

Yeshua quoted this passage several times, and the full context is important.

On the outside, the Temple was beautiful, but on the inside, the Temple was a den of pagan debauchery and the priests had their backs toward their Boss (Ezekiel 8). Would you turn your back on your earthly boss if he were addressing you? If you would respect your boss enough not to treat him that way, how much worse is it when a priest turns his back on his Boss then turns their face towards the sun, disrespecting the Creator of that creation? When His ambassadors, the priests, turned their backs on Him and engaged in false worship, the people naturally followed them into idolatry and sin. The wayward priests kept the facade of the priesthood but not the heart of it.

In Exodus and Leviticus, the Tabernacle was established as God’s dwelling in the middle of His people. What good is the building if the mission of the building is no longer relevant and no longer serves the purpose it was built to accomplish? That’s why the Temple was destroyed twice and the people tasked with serving there sent into exile twice.

Summary: Tammy