41 PINKHAS (mouth of brass); Num 25:10-29:40, John 15-17

[Bruce Bertram]

This section starts off with a covenant of peace or ‘perpetual priesthood’ between God and Phinehas (his name means ‘mouth of brass’), because Phinehas was zealous for God and stopped the plague caused by the harlotry with Moab when he skewered Zimri and Kozbi the Midianite. God had commanded the execution of Israel’s leaders involved in the harlotry, and Phinehas was right on top of the command. Interesting note: Moses had a Midianite priest for a father-in-law and a Midianite wife, but that family was apparently God-fearing. We move on to a new census taken of everyone over 20 in Israel. Compare the totals with those in Numbers chapter 2 for fun sometime. One interesting fact is that in spite of all the dying going on, the nation of Israel stays roughly the same size. In Numbers 27 God makes some adjustments for the daughters of Zelophehad who are going to lose the inheritance of their father who died in the wilderness but was not a part of Korah’s rebellion. He stipulates the succession requirements for who gets the land in the absence of a man’s son. Joshua is appointed as the successor to Moses in preparation for entry into the Land promised by God, then in chapters 28 and 29 God goes over the regular sacrifices for the appointed times or feasts, as well as the daily and new moon offerings. Note especially the sacrifices for the Feast of Tabernacles (15th day of the seventh month for eight days) which total 70 bulls – one for each nation. Israel was to do intercessory work for the nations of the world according to the numbering by God.

Jesus in John 15 through 17 gives the disciples a few final instructions and cautions before He is arrested and murdered. The figure of a vine and branches is used to illustrate abiding in Him and bearing fruit, and love for God and each other is couched in terms of hearing and doing all that God says. Abiding is like being a branch connected to the main part of the vine, where the branch receives all it needs and bears much fruit. So a disciple abides in the love of God by doing all that He commands. If we abide thus, then we can ask of the Father and He will give it to us.

12“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:12-13 NASB95)

We are friends of Jesus, and God, because we love Him and do what He asks. Jesus commands us to love each other in the same way we have been loved by God, and by Him.

Because of this relationship, the world will hate us just as it hates Him, because we are not greater than our Master. The world hated Jesus before it hated us, because they do not know the Father nor do they want to know Him. They hate Him without cause, which is foretold in the pages of the Torah that some of them hold dear. As Jesus outlines His coming departure, He gives words of hope concerning His return, and that in the meantime He will send a Comforter. While we are getting kicked out of synagogues and persecuted for His name’s sake, this Spirit of Truth will testify of Jesus.

7“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. (John 16:7-11 NASB95)

This Spirit of Truth, helper, or comforter will not speak of His own initiative but will take from Jesus and disclose it to His people. He will glorify Jesus and tell us things to come. Jesus reassures the disciples that though they will grieve soon while the world rejoices, their grief will turn to gladness. He answers aloud their unspoken questions concerning their misunderstanding of His going away, which confirms for them that He is indeed from God.

33“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NASB95)

In chapter 17 Jesus prays for the disciples, and by extension all of His people, that we may be one with Him as the Father and the Son are one. He speaks of His authority over all flesh, and His desire to be glorified with the glory He had before the incarnation. He asks not that the disciples be taken out of the world, but that they would be protected from the evil one as they are sanctified in truth and testify on His behalf to those who will believe in Him through the disciples word. As He makes His name known, He desires that His people participate in the oneness between Him and the Father, and to glorify the Father.

Shalom

[Bruce Bertram]

Phinehas; Numbers 25:10 - 30:1(29:40); 1 Kings 18:46 - 19:21; John 15 through 17

12“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14“You are My friends if you do what I command you. (John 15:12-14 NASB95)

There seems to be a theme of succession running through the parts of our narrative this week. Phinehas (Numbers 25:10-18) has a love for the Father expressed in zeal for His name, so much so that he skewers a couple of the leaders of the idolatrous fornication embroiling Israel at the time. For this, God assures him of a continuous place as a priest, and a succession of heirs that will keep his work going. This must’ve reassured Phinehas, because a family head is almost always concerned for his children’s welfare and continuation. The daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27:1-11) are also concerned about succession, particularly as it relates to inheriting. God gives Moses instructions on inheritance because of their correct concern for a loss of land just because their father had no sons. So succession of a sort is a part of the daughter’s problem.

Moses has to provide for a successor also, and God picks Joshua (Numbers 27:15-23). The name Joshua means ‘salvation’ and is related to the name of Jesus. Like a branch from a vine (as Jesus eludes to in John 15), Joshua sort of ‘grows out’ of Moses, and continues the work Moses started with the nation of Israel. He is the one who brings Israel into the promised Land, and establishes them. Do a word search in your Bible for the name Joshua and you will find an interesting connection back to someone called The Branch (or shoot), which is, as we know, Jesus.

Jesus in John 15 through 17 is also concerned about succession. In these few verses He is packing in quite a few last minute instructions to His disciples before His transition to Heaven. These people are going to succeed Him in the work He started in the Garden of Eden, and He wants His successors to continue His work and improve on it. So He tries to drive home the basics for that work, such as the principle of ‘abiding.’ Abiding means to be so connected to Jesus that we are like a branch growing from a vine. Without abiding in Jesus, as Jesus abides in the Father, His successors cannot hope to do anything worthwhile, or anything that will last.

Jesus further defines this abiding relationship by love and obedience, in that we are to have the same love for each other as Jesus and the Father share. One mark of our love for the Father is doing what He/Jesus says. It’s not as if what Jesus and the Father says are separate things. They are the same (John 17:7,8). What was said in the Garden is what Jesus would have said. What God said on Mt. Sinai is what Jesus would say or did say. All the things that Jesus teaches in the New Testament (red letters or otherwise) were also things that God spoke of in the Old. There is no difference between what God says or what Jesus says, what God would do or what Jesus would do. In fact, all of the words of the whole Bible should be red, because they were all spoken by God/Jesus.

All of His words apply not only directly to the people spoken to, in the case of our John passage the apostles, but also to any other successor.

20“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; (John 17:20 NASB95)

These instructions are for those others of us that follow Jesus too (those who believe through the word of the apostles). In addition to abiding, then, what are some of the other instructions that are so important that Jesus spends His last hours making sure His successors know them? There are quite a few applications we can draw from the words, but below is a partial list I gathered.

1. You did not pick me, I picked you (15:16). (See also God’s picking of Joshua, Abraham, Jacob, etc.) The picking does not rest on any effort made by His disciples, but on the choosing of God. On the basis of this choosing you will receive eternal life (17:1-2). Therefore you can rest assured that you will not be separated from Jesus or the Father (17:12).

12Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12 NASB95)

See also Romans 8:29,30.
2. The world will hate you. They will hate you because they don’t know Jesus or the Father, and because they aren’t part of you and you aren’t part of them (17:14). They will even hate you for no reason at all, because they hated Jesus for no reason (15:20, 25). We are not greater than our Master (15:20) and what they did to Him they will surely do to us.
3. You will have difficulties (15:18-23). See also 2 Thessalonians 1:3-5. But peace and joy belong to us, because Jesus has overcome the world.

33“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NASB95)

13“But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. (John 17:13 NASB95)

4. You will have a helper called the Holy Spirit (14:16,17; 15:26; 16:7-10). He will speak only what He hears from Jesus and the Father, and will glorify both. He will guide you into all truth (16:13).
5. You can ask for whatever you want in the authority and power of Jesus, if you abide (15:7; 16:23-27) and it will be given to you. This doesn’t mean we get whatever we want, but that if we are in tune with God we will ask for what is in His will anyway. See James 4:3.
6. You will be kept from the evil one (17:15) and sanctified with the truth (17:17) of God’s Word.

Since we are the successors of the disciples, these things apply to us also. All people who do what God says are the successors of the disciples, and part of the same family. The things that Jesus is speaking are not just for the ears of the guys who walked around with Him in Israel for a while, but also for all of His successors, including you and me.

If we abide.

9“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. (John 15:9-11 NASB95)

Shalom