Pinchas, Phineas – mouth of brass, serpent
B’midbar (Numbers) 25:10 – 30:1
Melekim Aleph (I Kings) 18:46 – 19:21
Yochanan (John) 2:13-22
The hen went berzerk! She came barreling down the trail at me squawking and flailing her wings with a fury I’d never seen before in a bird! I asked the Father, “What’s up with that?” While studying Phineas, I discovered I’d seen a paleo picture of real zeal!
What is Real Zeal?
Real zeal, qinah, in paleo-Hebrew starts with a mother bird building a nest, busily gathering her chicks under her wings. When a predator comes, she rises up to zealously defend them as a powerful bull defends with his horns.
The zeal of the world today is so fake. Children of this world, like the wokesters, put on airs like they really care about the poor and the downtrodden.
But instead of protecting defenseless babies and children, they’re into abortion and ‘gender-affirming’ mutilations that kill and sterilize countless little ones. No zeal to protect little children there – just the opposite! Sexual deviants like for little children to be wide open to the devil’s predators.
The Zeal of Phineas, Elijah and Yeshua
Phineas zealously defended the children of Israel – he took a spear to ward off the children of Israel from a defiant invasion of sexual immorality. A raging spirit of adultery had attempted to defile, cut off and destroy the offspring of the children of Elohim.
Later in Israel’s history, the prophet Eliyahu (Elijah) acted zealously for YHWH and for the children of Israel by challenging and slaying the prophets of Baal.
The meaning of the name ‘Baal’ is ‘lord’ or ‘husband.’ Israel had committed spiritual adultery with other husbands and worshiped their idols. Eliyahu exhausted himself in his zeal trying to stop adultery and idolatry. He certainly wasn’t lukewarm about it.
One of the words for ‘whore’ in Hebrew is ‘zinah.’ In paleo-Hebrew a whore is pictured as cutting off (zayin) the seed or offspring (nun) through adultery and fornication. We know how prostitutes and the sexually deviant war against reproduction.
Real zeal stops whoring and fornicating.
Yeshua acted zealously for His House and for His people. The common people were coming to the Temple to relate with their Elohim. Our Messiah drove out the money changers who were destroying the people’s worship experience. Those who brought animals to be sacrificed never had anything good enough – they had to spend money on ‘approved’ animals which drained the common people emotionally and financially.
The children of Israel were being rejected and cut off from experiencing their Father through the Temple service. Driving out the robbers, Yeshua’s zeal restored the intimate, unhindered experience of relating with Abba Who welcomes us into His House of Prayer.
Every act of real zeal by these three righteous examples had to do with protecting and restoring the relationship of Israel and their offspring with their Elohim.
Why the Reward for Violence?
Why would Pinchas be rewarded for a violent act of zeal, spearing to death two fornicators in a defiant act? Wasn’t there a more diplomatic way, like having counseling sessions, so sex addicts and predators could make better, more informed decisions? After all, the two he had slain were dignitaries. Zimri was the son of a prince of the chief house of the Simeonites; Cozbi the daughter of a head over a chief house in Midian.
Not respecting their social status, YHWH had already rendered a verdict and Pinchas knew it in his spirit. He was moved by the jealous Elohim to stop adultery from entering His house. Any righteous head of a household puts a quick stop to any defiant and defiling behavior in his house, no matter how high in the ranks of society it comes from.
The Torah demands execution for those who commit adultery, where there were valid witnesses. (Leviticus 20:10-23, Deuteronomy 19:15)
The sentence of death for sexual sin did not change in Paul’s day:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of Elohim is everlasting life through Yeshua the Messiah our Master. Romans 6:23
Praise YHWH for the good news to those who have sinned against Him. Thank Abba for the Ruach’s amazing gift of eternal life through our Savior Yeshua!
The Gospel of Phineas (Pinchas)
Can we find this Gospel message in the Torah portion today? Or is the story of Pinchas just a hard lesson on judgment and death to adulterous rebels for their sexual sin? ’Pinchas’ in Hebrew means the mouth of brass or a serpent. Remember what other brazen serpent we just saw that Moses lifted up in the wilderness? Those who were snake-bit looked up to the serpent lifted on the staff. By trusting and obeying, the snake-bit were healed and lived. Yeshua made this connection with the Gospel:
“And as Moshe lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, the Son of Adam has to be lifted up so that whoever is believing in Him should not perish but possess everlasting life. For Elohim so loved the world that He gave His only brought-forth Son so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but possess everlasting life.” John 3:14-16
With this connection, Pinchas as a brazen serpent is a type of the Messiah. How so?
The serpent is the most cursed of creatures, which YHWH Himself declared to the serpent in the Garden of Eden:
And Elohim said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all livestock and more than every beast of the field. On your belly, you are to go and eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall crush your head, and you shall crush His heel.” Genesis 3:15
There’s been a war ever since between the two seeds, the two lineages, between the Seed of the Messiah and the Seed of the Serpent. One of the most effective ways the serpent tries to strike us is with the poisonous, deadly venom of sexual immorality.
We learned this from the sin of Baal-Peor last Shabbat. Balak failed to have Balaam curse them with words but then did succeed to have Israel curse themselves by luring them into sexual immorality. What an important lesson for us to read and heed!
Balak had Midianite parents give up their daughters to become whores in Israel. Why the Midianites? ‘Midian’ means ‘strife’ or ‘contention.’ Midian was one of those nations that held a causeless hatred for Israel and didn’t want peace, they just wanted strife and contention at any cost.
Today, we see the same baseless hatred so deep that the enemies of Israel will strap bombs on their children and surround themselves with little ones in harm’s way as they contend with the chosen people. Isn’t the old snake ever sending out a flood of sexual perversions in the media and our culture today? Being on guard to not fall into sexual temptation takes zeal; a lackadaisical attitude won’t cut it. Pinchas, the mouth of the brazen serpent, didn’t just speak out against it, he took decisive action and put a dead stop to sexual immorality.
Yeshua became a curse for us and took on the likeness of a cursed serpent when He hung upon the cross. Looking up to the Messiah hanging on the cross, confessing sin, and calling upon the Name of Salvation from the open mouth, like Israel looking to the serpent on the staff in the wilderness, stops the venom of the fatal curse coursing through the veins. Those who behold Him and put their trust in Him are granted the gift of eternal life by His grace by which we are saved.
The Broken "Wow" Man
Another picture of the Messiah is in the covenant of shalom granted to Pinchas. Unseen in our English Bibles, the letter ‘Vav’ in the word shalom was purposely broken when the scribes meticulously copied it over the past millennia.
Why did Yah have Moshe write a broken letter ‘Vav’ in the word shalom?
The letter Vav pictures a nail and has a numerical value of 6, the number of man. If we were to speak with softer consonants as indicated by the less angular text of ancient Hebrew – we would call this letter – Wow! The amazing meaning of the broken Wow is that the Man nailed on the cross, having taken the curse of sin and death upon Himself, would die of a broken heart over the adultery of His Bride. In this way, our zealous Messiah forgave and broke off our adulterous and idolatrous sins.
He would also break the force of violent enmity by appeasing the wrath of a jealous Elohim for our sakes. Yeshua took the full punishment of death by impalement on the cross for all who would put their faith in Him. Out of His great love, He finished the work of paying the full price of redemption for His Bride with His precious blood.
But now in Messiah Yeshua, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. For He is our shalom, the One Who made the two into one and broke down the middle wall of separation. Within His flesh He made powerless the hostility— the law code of mitzvot (commandments) contained in regulations. He did this to create within Himself one new man from the two groups, making shalom, and to reconcile both to Elohim in one body through the cross—by which He put the hostility to death. And He came and proclaimed shalom to you who were far away and shalom to those who were near – for through Him we both have access to the Father by the same Ruach. Ephesians 2:13-18
The Good News of Shalom
The broken Wow pictures the wall of separation amid the other three letters, which spell ‘Shalem.’ Our sin that separated us from the Father and one another is broken down by the Messiah through His work on the cross, so making shalom.
Shalem is the original name for Jerusalem, the name of the Bride of Messiah in Revelations 21:2. It is the origin of the name of the city of our exile, Salem, Oregon. The Gospel message that Yeshua came to be broken and spilled out for us, thus proclaiming shalom. The Good News went out to His people near Jerusalem, then to those far away in space and time, such as you and I way out here near Salem, Oregon. The Wow Man Yeshua was broken so that we may have shalom with Him and with one another.
The paleo-Hebrew pictures in Shalom reveal to us that He destroys the authority that brings chaos (see the figure below). Nothing brings chaos and separation among the members of a family in a home or a congregation like sexual immorality does. But, thanks be to Yah, the zealous Wow Man saves our souls and makes for us – shalom!
Shalom is a loaded word! I pray that those of us who are surnamed by Israel here near Salem would experience and have shalom in all its abundance.
Shalom to you in completeness, soundness, welfare, safety, health, prosperity, tranquility, contentment, peace, and friendship with Elohim, especially in covenant relationships and peace from war (Brown-Driver Briggs Dictionary).
Hope to enjoy many more Shabbats with much shalom with you, our friends and family one in Messiah!
Zealous for the seed of Messiah!
Shalom baShem Yeshua,
David