Sunday Morning Thoughts From the Pewside

Standing In the Gap with Zeal and Faith

Sunday Morning Thoughts from the Pewside:

I realize its been a long time since I have done one of these, mostly because I am usually so busy during Sunday mornings doing things like children’s church along with other things that I don’t get time to focus in on one particular thing that I took away from the day. I take away sooo many little things.

This past Sunday, however, I heard a message and was inspired and would like to share my thoughts from the pewside =)

We had a guest pastor come and speak, and he stated his topic was going to be “standing in the gap” with zealousness and faith. He asked us to turn with him to Psalm 106:28-31


28They ⁽A⁾joined themselves also to Baal-peor,
 and ate ⁽B⁾sacrifices offered to the dead. 
    

29Thus they ⁽C⁾provoked Him to anger with their deeds,
 and the plague broke out among them. 
    

30Then Phinehas ⁽D⁾stood up and interposed,
 and so the ⁽E⁾plague was stayed. 
   

 31And it was ⁽F⁾reckoned to him for righteousness,
 to all generations forever.

The pastor spoke specifically about Phinehas, who is mentioned in verse 30. Until this time I had never heard of Phinehas. So I listened intently as he explained the story behind the verse. He asked us to turn to Numbers chapter 25. Here we see the story of the Israelites approaching the last stop before entering the promise land. Pastors might say that this is the last opportunity for the enemy to trap the Israelites and ensure that they never reach their destination.

******This is paraphrased, Read the actually story in Numbers Chapter 25*********

From verse 1 onwards we can see that the Israelites are enticed by the Moabite women who live nearby and have fallen astray starting to worship Baal. The lord was angry with Israelites and speaks to Moses asking him to take action in verse 4.

While the people of Israel are weeping, one of the men from the Israelite tribe decided it would be a great idea to parade his sin around. He takes a Moabite women and walks with her in FRONT of the crowd, and takes her to his tent. Phinehas, seeing this takes a spear and goes inside and kills both the man and the woman. God sees his righteousness and stops the plague against Israel.

God then speaks of the Phinehas’s Zeal and willingness to do the will of God. He calls him into the covenant of the priesthood.

Going back to the passage in Psalms we can see that Phinehas is remembered for being the one to end the plague even generations after the incident. No one could forget how he stood in the gap.

Take home message:

Phinehas had it in him to stand up for something that was right. He saw sin, he stopped it immediately, he didn’t leave room for questions or concerns. This may be a tad gruesome and over the top for some readers but lets put it to light using present day settings. How many of us watch our fellow brothers/sisters/friends fall into sin causing an erosion of their family life, a church crumbling, a people coming undone and do nothing about it. This plague was a punishment from God and 24,000 people died! BUT one man was willing to stand up and do what was right and because of him the rest of the people were saved.

Dear readers we live in a generation that has turned away from God in so many ways. Sin can be found even in our local churches (the very house of God), how long do you think God is just going to stand by and watch? And lets say he has unleashed a plague? Are you going to stand in the gap with zeal like Phinehas? Are you going to be one that ends it. Let’s take serious consideration on our stance and what we are called to do.

Happy Thinking

Regina Roy

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