Phinehas, Zealous for God’s Honour: a devotion on Africa’s legacy

From an Africa Study Bible touch point:

Phinehas’s grandfather was Putiel, an African from Put (which is modern-day Libya, Egypt, or Somalia). His grandfather served God. Phinehas’s own name means “the Nubian” or “the Cushite” in the Egyptian language. This means he had dark skin like his African grandfather. Also, it is possible that his grandmother was from Cush— modern-day Sudan. His other grandfather was Aaron, Israel’s first priest.

Even though Phinehas’s grandfathers came from different cultures, they both followed God. When Phinehas saw that Israelites were mixing with Moabites, he was not upset about their cultural mixing. But he knew it was wrong for Israelites to worship other gods and to take part in sexual immorality. 

When Phinehas saw Zimri mock God by behaving immorally in front of all the people, he did not wait for the tribal leaders to finish putting to death the ringleaders of the men who had had sex with Moabite women, as Moses had ordered. He obeyed Moses’ orders right away, and as a result God stopped the plague among the Israelites, thus saving many lives. Phinehas was counted “as a righteous man ever since that time” (Psalm 106:30-31). The only other person whose action is counted as righteous is Abraham (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3-5). 

Today, God still chooses people of African origin who have zeal for his honour to stand against immorality, to live righteously, to mediate on behalf of their people, and to seek God’s presence.

Today: 

Ask God to raise up leaders full of zeal for God’s honour. Ask God to fill you with passion to follow his commands and courage to combat injustice, corruption, and immorality.