Three Characters; One Point - Numbers 25

This short, 18-verse chapter really tells a lot about the character of God. It reveals certain aspects about Him, and how He thinks and feels. I want to run over a few of these quickly.

The first is that our God is a jealous God (vs 1-5), and why shouldn't He be! He is our creator. The very essence of our being. If I created something that could think and feel, and it worshipped something else, I would probably be pretty upset too! It would be like getting a puppy, and being really excited about it. You go and buy it all of the nicest toys and beds and food and snacks - and then it runs off to the neighbors house and will not come back. It doesn't even like you! That would hurt. Or even worse, lets say you find someone and put your heart on your sleeve, and take this person as your spouse because you love them so much - and they run off with someone, and does not even love you. Things like that hurt! And with God, when we turn from Him and give something else our worship - our love - it hurts Him too! We see examples of this throughout the Bible, and God makes it known that He loves us very much, and doesn't want us to leave Him.

The second character that stands out is in verses 6-15. God reveals that He loves it when people are zealous for Him. In the same way (using the same example as above), when we love someone with all that we have, we want them to love us back. And if they do love us back, we want them to show it. God feels the same about us. He wants people to love Him with all they can possibly muster - not because He demands it, but because that is how He loves us! He loved us enough that He even gave up His own Son so that we may live and unite with Him again; that is powerful love! It was because of Phinehas' zealous love for God that God turned back His wrath from Israel and allowed them to live. Because of his zealous love for God, God made atonement for Israel, and also made of covenant of peace for Phinehas and his family. It's just an example given to us of how God loves us, and how He wants us to love Him back with everything that we have - and in all that we do!

Finally, in the last three verses, God shows us another character of His: His protection for those He loves. God was pretty upset that someone had messed with Israel, and so for that He turned His wrath upon them. He told Moses to attack them and strike them dead. Now, at first glance, this sounds horrible! When we think of God, we don't like to think of a God who wants us to strike people down! But look deeper -- the reason He wants to strike them down is because they hurt someone He loved deeply! Not to beat a dead horse, but lets look at our analogy one more time. Let's say you finally get that spouse, and that spouse really does love you as much as you love them -- and then someone tried to hurt them badly enough to kill them! You would be pretty upset with that person, and would probably put your wrath against them as well. What looks on the surface to be mean, nasty anger is actually beautiful love that God shows for His people! What is even more beautiful is that through Jesus Christ, God opened up His family to even more people - us - and loves us with the same zeal as He did the Israelites. It gets me excited to think that I am love by God this much!

All three of these characters of God point to one thing: His love! If you don't think God really loves you, just pick up a Bible and start reading. It won't take you long to figure out that He loves you more than you could ever imagine! Why do you think Satan attacks us so much?! It's not because it is fun for him or anything like that - it's because he knows how much God loves us and that is his only way to hurt God. He hates God, and the very sight of us (since we are created in God's image), repulses Satan and he wants to destroy us. This should make you hate sin even more! When you realize that your sin actually hurts the God that loved you so much as to send His own Son to die a brutal death, it makes you think twice about doing it! It is a powerful love that I don't deserve in even the least, and I think God that He decides to continue to love me so.