Excusing God - Is God on Trial?

I was reading in Numbers a day or two ago, studying Balak and Balaam.

Then in the following chapter, chapter 25, I came across the story about the Israelites forsaking their real God for the make-believe pagan deities of Moab -- just after God's great demonstrations of His love and mercy to them in turning Balaam's curses into blessings -- and after all the great things God did for them in leaving Egypt!

Can't they remember anything?

While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the LORD'S anger burned against them (Numbers 25:1-3).

So God told Moses to command the leaders to kill those who participated in the pagan worship and "expose them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the LORD'S fierce anger would turn away from Israel."

Then an Israelite man brought a foreign woman to his family "right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting."

So while his family and countrymen were repenting of their sin and asking God's forgiveness, a man walks up with a pagan woman, right in front of them, and flaunts his disobedience.

The text records that "when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear through both of them--through the Israelite and into the woman's body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000" (Numbers 25:6-9). 

I was curious about my own reaction to this story and so I told it today at Bible study and watched the women's faces as I got to the part about Phinehas and I asked them their feelings at that moment.

I was curious: would they wince and turn away? Would they feel a need to explain why God was so strict in His punishment? Would they try to defend God? Was it like "God in the hands of angry sinners?"
In other words, would they react like I do when I come across stories like this?

Yes.....

We talked about it. We looked at Psalm 139.

If only you would slay the wicked, O God! ... They speak of You with evil intent; Your adversaries misuse Your Name.
Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.

David had it right. We must hate what God hates if we are truly on the road to holiness. We must be offended just as He is when He looks upon man's evil. We must be angry when our people promote sin. We must not look away and pretend ignorance.

When we are not offended, as God is, when we witness sin and when we do not react against evil as He has told us to, then we are not aiming for holiness.

Come to think of it, when we are not on the road to holiness, isn't it because we just don't want to be on that road? Isn't it a definite choice? There is a toll on that road.

We went back to Phinehas.

The LORD said to Moses, Phinehas son of Eleazar 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 that 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).

We read about his birth in Exodus 6:25. He was Aaron's grandson and Moses' nephew. What we know most about him is that he was "zealous for the honor of his God."
And God richly blessed him and his descendants...it's easy to trace because when we turn to Ezra, chapter 7 we find out that Ezra himself was a direct descendant of -- Phinehas.
Ezra "was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted him everything he asked, for the hand of the Lord was on him" (Ezra 7:1-7).

Could anyone be better qualified to lead the Israelites from their exile in Babylon back to Israel than Ezra -- from the line of Phinehas?

God always keeps His covenants!

Prayer: That we see evil as God sees it -- that we hate evil as God hates it --that we show our hatred of evil even as God shows it.

Is this what our nation needs? It saved the Israelites from God's wrath. Might it do the same for us?