Or the redemption of Israel and Simeon
The Torah portion of Phineas (Phinehas/Pinchas) speaks about the children of Israel worshiping Baal Peor and being punished for it, then redeemed. Though the messianic parallel of human atonement for collective sin has been long established in this story, there is another message that has to do with the redemption of Simeon’s inequity and the testing of Israel’s faith through his descendants. It is a story begun in Genesis 1:1 and still unfolding today. It involves generational curses and tests of hearts, of meekness, justice, zeal and mercy, of judgments and of righteousness. This story is but a glimpse into Israel’s saga, Israel whose story is ours, whose life is ours, and whose saga is that of every human being.
May the Spirit of the Lord be with you as you seek His presence and see His hand in this story. I specifically asked precise understanding, and the answer came in very unexpected ways, but in the timing that was perfect.
Questions: why when Jacob left Laban and they parted peacefully, out of nowhere, the angels of the Lord appeared and where ‘camping’ on the way, so that Jacob called the place: the place of 2 camps’? Why did Laban say he owned everything? And why his name means ‘white’? Why after the encounter with the camps of the Angels, Jacob left and split his group in 2 and said that he had been made 2 companies? Then why is it that it is then that he wrestles with the Angel of the Lord and then prevailed and was marked with a limp? Why not something else?
Then why is it that this was the beginning of the strife for Israel? Dinah, then Shimeon and Levi, then they had to flee? Had Shimeon and Levi not gone and killed Shechem, Israel would have inherited of the land of Canaan, right then and there. They were there already.
If Dinah had not gone with the daughters of the land, what would have happened? But there were no cultural settings or otherwise that would have taught Dinah not to go or distinguish herself from the daughters of the land. She came from Padan Aram with her Grandfather’s house full of idols, etc. Her mother had the idols; the people in Israel’s group had idols. She was a ‘daughter of the land’ as well. So what does this mean?
What does this have to do with Phineas?
Let’s understand Phineas first.
Numbers 25:3 (NEV)
So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. 4And the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.” 5And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.” 6And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7When Phineas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand 8and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped.
Baal Peor? Who is that god? What is this about? Searching a little, we found out that we have our modern Baal Peor worship.
But first let’s understand the meaning of the name: Baal means lord, master, husband, supposedly the one to submit to, and Peor means wide-open mouth, in reference to the female part. The cult is about submission of man to the woman unlike the Asherah poles being the cult of the male parts. The Peor rituals, of course, would demonstrate that. Besides being a foreign God to Israel, that in itself was abominable, it is worsened because it made the man lose his being a man ( i speak kindly here for children who may read me)! This would further be intolerable in biblical time for a Hebrew (as much as is today in general), especially that it may require certain mutilations…
The players: the name of the woman, Cozbi, means ‘my lie’, and she was the daughter of Zur (tzur) meaning ‘rock’. This means that the Israelite prince was worshiping the lie from the stone. She was a princess from Midian in (today’s) Saudi Arabia (the black stone?). Midian means ‘strife’ or ‘place of judgment’!
What could the Israelite prince be doing with the woman in his tent when he got killed by Phineas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron? The prince’s name was Zimri, meaning ‘my singing’, and he was the son of Salu, meaning the ‘exalted’, of the tribe of Shimeon, meaning ‘hear’. What?…
Aaron had other sons, why Eleazar? And Eleazar had other sons, why Phineas? And why Zimri out of all the princes who faltered? And why did he have to go for a woman named Cozbi? Why did she have to be of Midian and why had her father to be named Zur? But even as importantly, why was Zimri of the tribe of Shimeon specifically since all the tribes had erred, even though some scholars claim it was only the foreigner that were with them that erred? Why had Zimri to be named so? And why was his father named Salu? As well, why the divinity worshipped had to be named ‘Peor’?
Consider this sentence:
Israel fell through hearing the exalted song to the lie of the stone of strife which is the master of the open mouth!
Today this is how it is played out:
Children, hearing songs dedicated to the master of the ‘open mouth’ of the woman, fall into the imitation of the dancers who emulate the worshiping of that God. Those songs are highly exalted, and of course they lie about what they are and what they teach. See this video about someone well known singing and dancing to Baal Peor. Notice the 2 women facing each other on their knees as in a position of worship exposing themselves. Look at the men on their knees and the singer’s position as the master, thrusting the body part a peculiar way:
http://deadbodies.info/a-body-you-have-prepared-for-me/
Now, consider that it is natural for a woman to expect her man to lead. The worship of Baal Peor led to the opposite. Biblically such a behavior is anathema and source of shame. The bible does not specify the type of plague Israel was stricken with, but by the nature of the cause, it was some probable venereal one!
Now this is how it was stopped: Phineas took a javelin and pierced both the man and the woman thru their ‘belly’. There is a suggestion it was thru the ‘lower’ part of the belly since they have been caught ‘together’ ( in a Baal Peor worship move?).
Now Phineas (Pinchas) may mean different things depending on how the compound word is broken down. It may mean ‘mouth of snake, lust, or harlotry’ or ‘oracle’= pe + nahas, or pana=turn + ac’has= seek refuge, trust, protection, hope. His father Eleazar means ‘God helps/ed’; the grand-father Aaron means ‘bright’ or ‘high mountain/place’ and they are from the tribe of Levi meaning the ‘joined ones’.
Now here’s a peculiar thing: remember the story of Dinah in Shechem? Both Shimeon and Levi were the leaders of the revenge of their sister Dinah – meaning ‘judgment’. Thus Dinah was their judgment whether Shimeon and Levi were just. They both failed as they did not honor the covenant established by which Dinah’s honor was saved thru marriage:
On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males.
We can infer that, in payment of their inequity, God allowed in the story of Phineas that Israel had to pay for Shimeon’s crime as it is then thru his descendant Zimri, the ‘singing’ of Shimeon, which was sacrificed as an atonement by Phineas. This very Phineas who himself is the descendant of Levi.
We can observe that Levi was already paying for his crime as his descendants were not allowed to own land and were destined to do the killings for the redemption of Israel’s sin. Indeed, this happened exactly so in this Phineas story.
Thus Levi was paying his sentence making the eternal sacrifices for the redemption of Israel’s sins and themselves owning no land, meaning having no inheritance among the children of Israel, and living on the tithing, meaning they were subjected to living of a part of the blessings received by the children of Israel. These blessings were received according to 2 things: the righteousness of the actions by faith and the proper redemption of the sins (unrighteousness) of the people. These 2 depended really upon the righteousness of the Levites who were in charge of teaching that righteousness and of making the atonement for the sins of Israel. If they taught wrong, then there was no blessings, and they could not be blessed themselves (no blessings = no rain= no crops = no food = no tithing = hunger and desolation in the Levites’ life ); if they did not made proper atonement, same thing ( no atonement= curses= no food for the Levites). Both offices required meekness. So they had received their lot.
As of Shimeon and at large, even for all the tribes who, in a way, were guilty of complicity, until now, there had been no specific atonement for the sin committed in the Dinah affair. So Shimeon paid thru Zimri, who provided the blood atonement to redeem Israel, and that atonement was made ironically by a descendant of Levi who being thus a descendant of Aaron the high priest, made it legally performed; and thus both the atonement and the one who performed the sacrifice were acceptable to God.
Now let’s see the meaning behind the names.
We said that: Israel fell through hearing the exalted song to the lie of strife which is the master of the open mouth! Amplifying it we have: Israel fell through hearing (Shimeon had lost the next-in-line status for the first-born right after Reuben had lost it, in part because of the affair) the exalted (Salu) song (Zimri) to the lie (Cozbi) of the stone (Zur) of strife (Midian- means also ‘judging place’) which is the master (Baal) of the open mouth(Peor- also means the mouth (opening) of skin, excitement, blindness, exposure and nakedness)! Notice that the master of the open mouth is represented by and thus is the woman here! It also relates that the lie is the master of the open mouth!!! (this is not to say that a woman is a source of lie or leads a man to fall, etc.. This is just a study of the meaning of the different parts in the story how they relate to each other and why certain things had to be in a certain order for the story to make sense. This story can happen to anyone, whether male or female, try to get the spiritual meaning and please do not misinterpret this writing!)
The lie is the master of the open mouth! What a concept! Basically, shut up and you will not lie!
Proverbs 21:23
Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue
keeps himself out oftrouble.
Proverbs 13:3
Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life;
he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
Proverbs 18:7
A fool’s mouth is his ruin,
and his lips are a snare to his soul.
Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits.
And now about Cozbi:
Proverbs 22:14
The mouth of a forbidden women is a deep pit;
he with whom the LORD is angry will fall into it.
Was the Lord angry with Shimeon, the hearing of Israel-Jacob? So atonement was needed:
Proverbs 2:16
Soyou will be delivered from the forbiddenwoman,
fromthe adulteress with her smooth words.
Now watch: how do you kill a lie? Enters Phineas! Son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, of Levi – who came first. Thus you have:
Unite (put yourself together, be of one mind and one heart, be consistent-Levi), and the very high and bright (Aaron)God will help (Eleazar) thru an oracle (this is understood as: the Voice of the Lord and the Commandments of God, the Torah, by extension: the Messiah) to turn and seek refuge, protection, trust, hope within (Phineas). In other words: God will help kill the lie (darkness) by bringing light thru his word, but you must be as one in your heart. And with the names: God will help (Eleazar) kill the lie Cozbi) by bringing light (Aaron) thru His word (Phineas), but you must be as one in your heart (Levi). Now, Phineas is representing the Word of God, as a Cohen, he is supposed to teach it, live it, and show it as a living example. We also understand that the Word of God is the Messiah. Notice how:
the Word of God kills the singing to lies! (Phineas kills Zimri+Cozbi).
Now there is more: notice how it is God who helps (Eleazar). This is very important to understand the teaching of the story. This corresponds to Genesis 1:2-5 again where there was darkness first (misunderstanding, ignorance, lie) then God commanded and made the light appear (understanding, joy, Messiah, etc.). And all became united as one (echad). Who made the light appear? Who removed the darkness? Who separated the darkness from the light so there be no confusion about which is which?
Now this is also corresponding to the story of the quails:
Exodus 16:12
I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.
Darkness first, then light, coming by God’s doing.
Now more details: another reason why the Levites could not have any possession is found in the story of Cain and Abel: Cain means ‘possession’ and Abel means ‘breath’. Look: Cain killed Abel= possessions kill the breath=> possession suffocate/choke you! So we deduct that ‘Possessions keep you from divine life’. On that subject, Cain was a tiller of the ground means he worked the flesh, he lived by the flesh, tilling also has a strong sexual connotation, the plow and the furrow- Asherah and Baal Peor? Here we learn that possession is the work of the flesh; whereas Abel was a keeper of the sheep, meaning tended and was a friend of multitudes: this means that the breath feeds, gives life, guides, and defends the multitudes. So the shepherds cannot work the flesh, for the flesh would mean death. Thus the Levites as priests, shepherds, and servants must not be distracted by possessions. Phineas was a shepherd (as a priest), a type of Abel whose sacrifice was acceptable. Zimri was of his flock.
What did Cain do? He lied. Back to the lie, back to Cozbi. Cain was afraid he would be touched by someone (and killed). And what lead the Israelites to worship Baal Peor? They were “possessed” by the desire to ‘possess’ (-had to make a pun). Again the lie was killed. The revenge of Abel? Was Abel, the good shepherd, the atonement for the sins of his parents, for his sacrifice was accepted and his blood cried out of the ground (Yeshua’s blood ran into a crack in the ground)? You ask the Lord for that one, but He did say that the blood of Abel would be asked from the priests and Pharisees! Why?
Another description i ran over too briefly: the name Salu, which i hastily rendered as ‘exalted’ means more ‘made high’, but the connotation is that it is presented to judgment, thus the spot light is on it, and it can be rejected or forgiven as it is placed in the scale of justice. The root word, Salah, means all of that. This reinforces the description that Zimri is the singing (the story) of Shimeon which is brought up and subjected to judgment. And because it was offered to the lie, deceit, then it was rejected by the Word of God.
Watch this: the judge is Dinah (lit.: judgment), and the forum is Midian (place of judgment)!
Now the stone (Zur) of judgment (Midian) can be inferred that it is the stone of the place of judgment is:
So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha.
[ Habakkuk’s Second Complaint ] Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
In fact, Shechem (= back of shoulder that carries a burden as in the Upper back) the son of Hamor (donkey) was the one that carried out the burden of trying Shimeon and Levi. This is why it is said (quoting Zac 9:9)
Mat 21:5
Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
Indeed Zion is also a place of Judgment – Jerusalem, the House of the Almighty Judge- and the center of Israel’s lifeblood; Dinah, the daughter of Israel –Jacob-, is the judge while Shechem the son (foal) of the ass (Hamor), carrying the burden of test for Shimeon and Levi (hearing of the Lord and being united to the Lord).
But what were they tested for? We learn from that same verse that the king came in meekness. The test was that of meekness, but they responded with pride and broke the covenant of union (Dinah and Shechem’s marriage is thus the burden of judgment). The messiah comes as the groom. This means that to Hear and Unite to the Lord, one must hear and unite in meekness. We could cite half of the bible right here. But let’s keep it on track:
Joel 3:17
So you shall know that I am the LORD your God,
who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain.
He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
Here Shechem was the sacrificial lamb, the marriage of the lamb with Israel. But why?
Now Dinah is the daughter of Israel and Leah. Leah means’ weary, grieved, exhausted’. And Israel means ‘Contended with God’ but also ‘Right with God, God rules, Prince of God’. His former name Jacob means ‘supplanter’. Reuben means ‘see a son’.
Jacob had committed a sin, which was to supplant Esau by deception and trickery. This sin had to be atoned for but is not a capital sin. Thus the price to pay is: being weary and grieved for seven years (seven children- each of which will be a test).
So the supplanter finally contended with God, and obtained mercy by convincing God to give him another chance. This is why it is said that he prevailed. And God passed a judgment and Jacob was made right (darkness first, then light), but not without the limping penalty as a sign of remembrance. And he had to be tested further. So his sight, his hearing, and his desire to be united will be challenged (Reuben, Shimeon, Levi) Dinah being the judgment (there is more but it is for another study as it interacts with the other siblings and is irrelevant to this Phineas story).
Thus if the one made right with God pass those tests, he would unite with the Lamb who came on the foal of an ass, as it is said:
Zechariah 9:9
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
And:
Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born, to usa son is given;
and the government shall be uponhis shoulder,
But Reuben would fall with the concubine, so Israel could not see the Son. And because of the sin of Levi and Shimeon which cursed Israel out even more, then redemption had to be made and the king thereof couldn’t be made manifest as of yet. Had not such sins been committed, Israel would have remained in Shechem and would have been blessed with Canaan as promised to Abraham. Instead they had to flee in shame and inequity.
But what was the sin of Dinah- Dinah, the ‘judgment’ of Israel? The judgment? As in: the critical thinking? Would that refer to the Mind of Israel? Watch:
Dinah went to the daughters of the land. What happened next? She got defiled.
Meanings: Land= body, flesh, carnality. Set this in your mind that wherever the Bible states land, earth, dust, ground, Adam, Edom, related it immediately to the flesh works. Daughters, same as Sons, it means ‘related to, results, belonging to, actions of, product of, representatives of, same as, embodiment of’. Thus, the ‘daughters of the land’ can be understood as a metaphor for: ‘actions of the body, living in the flesh, subject to carnality’. Indeed, this was the life of the Land of Canaan back then. Since Dinah means ‘judgment’, and she is the daughter of Israel, meaning the ‘judgment of Israel’, or the ‘critical thinking of Israel’, we have as a translation of ‘Dinah having gone to the daughters of the land’ as:
The ‘judgment of Israel’ went with the actions/life of the flesh. In other words, he slipped out and lost his spiritual perspective. He went once more with the flesh! Indeed, if he had taught properly righteousness to his daughter, she would not have exposed herself.
In the same manner, had he taught his children proper righteousness and meekness, they would not have killed Shechem and slept with his concubine, etc. Thus indeed they are the testing of Israel the man. Eyesight: Failed! Hearing: failed! Breath/togetherness of actions: Failed! Critical/righteous thinking: Failed!!
Furthermore, Hamor was of the Hivites, from Hivah, same as Havah (Eve, of Adam) means’ village, place of living, life giving’. This is why the giving of life (Havah/Eve) happens if the test of meekness is passed. This is explained by the Passover Lamb (another study relating the ARK of the covenant, Yom Kippur, and Sukkoth).
Now this:
Isaiah 53:2
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground [Zion=dry ground];
And
3 He was despised and rejectedby men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted withgrief [Leah];
This is why the Messiah had to come on a donkey’s colt, and why the Priests (Kohanim) had to kill Him much as Levi killed Shechem, and as his descendant Phineas killed Zimri. Each time there was pride, and each time the Messiah was present and gave a choice! These were some of the servants Messiah spoke about that the master of the field had sent to collect his dues. First the tests were meekness, then righteousness and mercy, then justice. Indeed, Israel lacked meekness, but was made right by God, but his price, again, was grievance, for a time, but the second test was thru Shechem, meekness again, then mercy. And failed, it was brought back into the light and tested a 3rd time through Zimri, meekness and mercy, who failed. But it was made right by Phineas with Justice and Zeal.
Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? For ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock.
Now, because of his zeal, Phineas was given a covenant:
Number 25:12
Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, 13and it shall be to him and tohis descendants after him the covenant ofa perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.
As it says in
Psalm 110:4
The LORD hassworn and willnot change his mind,
“You area priestforever after the order of Melchizedek.”
We know that the atonement had to be pierced through as it says (the whole of proverb 7 actually could describe the fall of Zimri- remember, Cozbi means ‘my lie’):
Proverb 7:21
With much seductive speech she persuades him;
with her smooth talk she compels him.
22All at once he follows her,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast
23till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
he does not know that it will cost him his life.
And the famous messianic lines:
Zechariah 12:10
[ Him Whom They Have Pierced ] “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced [Dakar], they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
And
Isaiah 53:5
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
And for Both Shechem and Zimri:
8 By oppression and judgment [Dinah, Midian] he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living [Havah (Eve),hivites],
stricken for the transgression of my people?
Now in Numbers 25:4 The Lord ask to hang all the chiefs of the transgressors [see above], because, as we have learned, a man hanged on a tree is cursed:
Deuteronomy 21:22-23
22“And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, fora hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.
Thus:
The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.
And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree,
And for those who never heard of putting a stumbling block, here are some verses explaining why Cozbi was the daughter of Tzur the rock of Judgment. Nothing is left to chance:
Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand.
They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling block of their iniquity.
“Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?
You think that relating Zion, in Jerusalem, to Midian is far-fetched as far as being places of judgment?
Zion means ‘place of dryness’; Horeb, means ‘place of dryness’. In Horeb was given the Law, the tool of Judgment, on Shavuot (Pentecost); Horeb is in Midian! On Zion was given the Spirit of righteousness, truth, and justice, the tools of Judgment, on Shavuot; Zion is in Jerusalem. The Ark was built in Horeb and sat in Zion. The Ark is the throne of Judgment with the seat of Mercy. The Ark was present at the scene of Phineas story!
And the judgment of Zion stroke!
Now that we see a bit more how Israel-Jacob really failed from the beginning, we can understand why there must be a redemption atonement that an individual human can appeal to. Because no matter how many chances we get, same as Israel got, we keep slipping, we keep going with the daughters of the land, the Cozbi’s of Baal Peors, we keep defiling the Dinah’s and killing the Shechem’s and dropping the Cross over the stumbling Stones of Midian. For each time we leave our Laban (=white), our father who owns everything, the White (sinless as snow) one, we walk away with our striped and brown and spotted lambs and come face to face with the camp of the Angels of the Lord and we realize here are two camps: theirs and ours.
And each time, we come to argue in the night with God till the break through and plead our case. And God in his grandeur gives us another chance and call us again, ‘made straight with God’, Israel! And he marks us with a limp that we forget not that a straight walk with God is not a walk in the park but requires efforts, because our limping leads us astray to one side or another. And we forget that we will be tested, again and again, every part of our mind, heard, body and soul, whether we desire to make one camp with the Angels of the Lord or be made into 2 companies, the constant rivalry between Rachel (ewe) and Leah, between the Lamb of your first love and the Grief and Affliction of your treachery.
Gratitude be to God who showed me this very specifically.
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