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The Beginning of the End
Israel was showing off his sin in the sight of the congregation, as
if to defy the vengeance of God and make fun of the judges of the
nation. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the high priest, got up, and
seizing a javelin “went after the man of Israel into the tent” and
killed them both. So the plague was stopped, and the priest who had
carried out the divine judgment was honored in front of all Israel.
Phinehas Made an Atonement for Israel
Phinehas “has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel,”
was the divine message. “He was zealous for his God, and made
atonement for the children of Israel.”
The judgments given to Israel destroyed the survivors of that
huge group who nearly forty years earlier brought upon themselves
the sentence, “They shall surely die in the wilderness.” During their
camping on the plains of Jordan, “of those who were numbered
[226]
by Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the children
of Israel in the Wilderness of Sinai ... there was not left a man of
them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun”
(
Numbers 26:64, 65
).
God had sent judgments on Israel for yielding to the attractive
temptations of the Midianites, but the tempters were not to escape
the wrath of divine justice. “Take vengeance on the Midianites
for the children of Israel,” was the command of God to Moses;
“afterward you shall be gathered to your people.” One thousand men
were chosen from each of the tribes and sent out under the leadership
of Phinehas. “And they warred against the Midianites, just as the
Lord commanded Moses, and they killed ... the five kings of Midian.
Balaam the son of Beor they also killed with the sword” (
Numbers
31:1-8
).
Such was the end of those who plotted evil against God’s people.
When people “gather together against the life of the righteous,” the
Lord will bring upon them “their own iniquity, and shall cut them
off in their own wickedness” (
Psalm 94:21, 23
).