ZEALOUSNESS 
Numbers 25

Jesus found businesses in the temple that were not of God. “And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.” (John 2:14) Jesus decided to clean the temple by kicking out all that did not represent God. The word of God made us realize that we are the temple of God. As a temple of God, what transpires in your temple and what needs to be cleansed? After kicking out all that needed to be kicked out of the temple, the disciples “…Remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” (John 2:17).By virtue of the disciples’ response, it is evident that, until the zeal of God eats up a believer, then the possibility of having a clean temple is almost impossible. When there is zeal for God, He will move for us and have His place in our life. To be zealous for the temple of God will require a non-compromising stand in condemning and terminating every act that is not acceptable as God’s business but acceptable to the world. Once on the journey to the Promised Land, the children of Israel provoked the anger of the Lord by joining to Baal of Peor while they were facing the wrath of their sin, “…One of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.” (Numbers 25:6) The point here is that, they had not gotten over the consequences of one sin when another one came up and added onto them. In response, “…Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; 8 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.” (Numbers 25:7-8) Phinehas action, provoked God and God spoke to Moses, “…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…” (Numbers 25:11) Phinehas could not sit back and compromise with wrong doing while the move of God was present. Phinehas went forward with a demonstration of his zealousness for God. As a result of Phinehas’ action, God responded to Phinehas’ zeal by speaking through Moses, “…Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace; 13 and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God…’” (Numbers 25:12-13) God is the Rewarding Rewarder of those that seek Him with their all.

Prayer for today: Ask for His zeal to eat you up.