What Does It Mean?

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest has turned my anger away from the Israelites by being as zealous among them as I was. So I stopped destroying all Israel as I had intended to do in my zealous anger. [Numbers 25.10-11]

I don't think I dare try to accurately analyze the implications of the verses above, but I could not help but make a couple of observations.

Moabite women, using sex as bait, persuaded Israelite men to worship Baal.

This made God angry.

Phinehas got as angry as God and, in public view, went into an Israelite man's tent and killed him apparently as he lay upon a Moabite woman engaged in sexual contact. So forceful was the penetration of Phinehas' spear into the man, that it impaled and killed the woman also.

Because of Phinehas' zealous act of justice, God stopped a plague upon Israel that had already taken the lives of 24,000 people. (just for understanding's sake, that would be roughly 80 modern 18-wheeler truckloads of dead bodies - 1,800 tons of flesh)

It apparently appeased God when Phinehas matched God's level of anger. So pleased was God that He made a permanent special covenant of peace with Phinehas and his descendants.

I am thinking just now of several places in the Bible where God said, "Be holy because I am holy." (Old Testament and Jesus too). Really what does that mean?

Father, I am not sure what lesson there is to learn from Phinehas' act of righteous indignation. I am furthermore unsure what significance it has in light of the Cross of Christ. But there definitely seems to be an important connection between Your holiness and Your people being holy like You.