The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer is one of those Religious Right activsts who takes the Bible so literally that he actually advocates that all of our nation’s laws should be based on and uphold Biblical values … so much so that he recently called for a whale at Sea World to be put to death for killing its trainer in accordance with Scripture.
Which is why this clip from last Friday’s radio program is rather concerning, considering that it consists of Fischer approvingly quoting Numbers 25 in which a man named Phinehas saves Israel by killing a man and a woman with a spear for engaging in “sexual immorality.”
Fischer compares the “rampant sexual immorality” in the passage to modern day America and says that “what God is obviously looking for is more Phinehases in our day,” urging everyone to “be a Phinehas in our own world, and in our own generation”:
I want to read a passage that my wife pointed out to me this morning from Numbers 25. This is a story about a man by the name of Phinehas, the nation had lapsed into rampant sexual immorality – I don’t know if that sounds familiar to you, it certainly does to me – and Phinehas was motivated to do something about this and he did something very decisive: he found an Israelite in flagrante with a Philistine woman and he ran them both through with a spear, pinned them both to the ground inside their tent, ran his spear through both of them, right into the ground. And that shook up the nation, it got their attention and they transformed, they made a decision, they turned from that kind of behavior and renewed their commitment to follow God.
[Fischer then reads Number 25: 10-13: 10 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 11″Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. 12″Therefore say, Behold, I give him My covenant of peace; 13and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel.”]
So Phinehas is commended for his zeal, that he was willing to take action, that he was willing to act boldly, he was willing to act decisively out of his jealousy for his God and his jealous desire to see that his people, his nation, would be wholly devoted to God.
So what God is obviously looking for is more Phinehases in our day … you know, and it’s striking here, that here’s the actions of one man, here is one man by his action, by his commitment, by his energy, by his commitment, by his willingness to take decisive and assertive action when that’s what was called for, he alone was able to turn back the wrath of God from his people, from his nation.
So may his His tribe increase, may each one of us be a Phinehas our own world and in our own generation.
