The verse belongs to Israel's national apostasy at Baal-peor, when the people joined in idolatrous and licentious worship, placing themselves on the level of idolatrous nations and kindling the wrath and anger of the Lord. After the command to slay those joined to Baal-peor, one man committed a public wrong in open defiance of Israel's sin by openly bringing a Midianitish woman before Moses and the weeping congregation. Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron, acting in obedience to God's command, thrust the Israelite man and the Midianitish woman through in the tent, and the plague was stayed after twenty-four thousand had died. The verse itself only introduces the Lord speaking to Moses after these events and does not give the substance of what is said, which follows afterward.
In that message God declares how He regarded the killing: that Phinehas, by acting zealously for God and for His sake, turned His wrath away from Israel so that He did not consume Israel in His jealousy. Because Phinehas was zealous for his God and made an atonement for Israel, God gave to him and to his descendants and seed after him His covenant of peace, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. The chapter draws a clear difference between those who disobeyed and followed Baal-peor, who were destroyed, and those who remained faithful to the Lord, who lived.
The facts are to be repeated from time to time lest they be forgotten, for they happened as examples and are written as admonition for those upon whom the ends of the world have come, so that whoever thinks he stands will take heed lest he fall, trusting that no temptation but what is common to man will take hold and that God will make a way of escape.
The verse belongs to Israel's national apostasy at Baal-peor, when the people joined in idolatrous and licentious worship, placing themselves on the level of idolatrous nations and kindling the wrath and anger of the Lord. After the command to slay those joined to Baal-peor, one man committed a public wrong in open defiance of Israel's sin by openly bringing a Midianitish woman before Moses and the weeping congregation. Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron, acting in obedience to God's command, thrust the Israelite man and the Midianitish woman through in the tent, and the plague was stayed after twenty-four thousand had died. The verse itself only introduces the Lord speaking to Moses after these events and does not give the substance of what is said, which follows afterward.
In that message God declares how He regarded the killing: that Phinehas, by acting zealously for God and for His sake, turned His wrath away from Israel so that He did not consume Israel in His jealousy. Because Phinehas was zealous for his God and made an atonement for Israel, God gave to him and to his descendants and seed after him His covenant of peace, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. The chapter draws a clear difference between those who disobeyed and followed Baal-peor, who were destroyed, and those who remained faithful to the Lord, who lived.
The facts are to be repeated from time to time lest they be forgotten, for they happened as examples and are written as admonition for those upon whom the ends of the world have come, so that whoever thinks he stands will take heed lest he fall, trusting that no temptation but what is common to man will take hold and that God will make a way of escape.