When Violence is the Appropriate Response

When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Numbers 25:7-8

Most of my life, whenever I’ve recognized a self-destructive habitual behavior, I’ve simply decided in my mind that I wasn’t going to do it anymore. I can’t remember a time when that method has actually worked. Yet still, it’s my go to method for attempting behavioral change. Usually, I experience some negative consequence of a bad habit – maybe I gain weight from eating too much – and so, I just promise myself that I won’t do it anymore. I swear, I’ll only eat healthy food from now on. The problem of course, is that I’ve not actually done anything. I’ve changed nothing and if nothing changes, nothing changes. So, soon, I’m back at my old behavior, wondering why my life hasn’t improved.

My addiction taught me that if I want to see radical change, I must make radical changes. Once it became clear to me that I was going to lose everything to my addiction, I became willing to do whatever it took to cut it out of my life. I’d previously desired sobriety, but I engaged only in half-measures. Finally, ten years ago, I went to God, telling him that I’d do whatever he asked. That was the beginning of change. It was violent though. My addiction had metastasized throughout my life and cutting it out meant making painful, traumatic changes. Only when I became willing to give everything up to God though, did he work his miraculous transformation in my life.

Today’s passage illustrates this. In the story, the Israelite men were enticed by foreign women to worship foreign Gods. When one of the men brought home a foreign wife in front of the whole congregation, Phinehas, a priest, immediately killed the man. This seems extreme, but Phinehas realized what was at stake. If the Israelites turned from God, they’d be destroying themselves. Either they killed their sin, or it would kill them.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell (Matthew 5:30). Jesus wasn’t speaking here of literal self-mutilation. He was teaching however, that when we encounter habitual sin in our lives, we must deal violently with it, doing whatever it takes to cut it out of our lives. This is why most of us fail at behavioral change – because we’re unwilling to do what it takes to change. I know I struggle with pornography, but I can’t get rid of my smartphone. I need my smartphone. God doesn’t leave us alone to fix ourselves, but often, he requires that we engage in radical obedience before he works his miracle of transformation in our lives. Either we kill our sin or it kills us.