Numbers 25:11-13, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace; and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’ “
The men of Israel had joined themselves with the women of Moab and were seduced to offer sacrifices to Baal. Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron caught a man of Israel with a Moabite woman and put a javelin through both of their bodies. This action squelched the plague God had sent among Israel that had already killed 24,000 individuals. As a result, God made a covenant of peace with Phinehas “because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.” There are some who have a dangerous zeal for their religion. This zeal is focused more upon a form of religion that is foreign to God. Paul warned the Christians in Rome, Rom. 10:1-3 “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. Like Israel of old they substitute the worship of God for a worship designed by men for their own pleasure. Such misplaced zeal ends in tragedy.”
“Zeal” defined is “to seek or desire eagerly.” It is always accompanied by an action. When Jesus went to the temple and saw the money changers and the merchants selling animals for sacrifice, John quoted Ps. 69:9 “ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE HAS EATEN ME UP” and applied it to Jesus. As a result of His zeal for the Lord’s house He drove out those things that defiled the temple.
The Lord has always desired men to be zealous toward Him like Phinehas. Today we often become too complacent in our service to God. The zeal and fire becomes lost in the concerns of our life. Read what the apostle Paul wrote to Titus, “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works”, Titus 2:13. Notice especially the latter part of verse 13, His people are a redeemed and purified people “zealous of good works.” Does this describe our relationship with God? In Revelation 3, the Lamb warns the church in Laodicea, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent,” Rev. 3:19. We must have the kind of zeal in our relationship with God to be ready to repent if we have transgressed His will just as the church at Laodicea learned that being lukewarm is totally unacceptable to God. Yet even today many Christians have developed a lackadaisical attitude in their service to God. Let it not be said of us that we have the same lukewarm attitude as those at Laodicea, but that we repent and become zealous in our service to God in all things.