Holy God,
while You had blessed Your people,
while curses were turned to songs of promise,
Israel gave themselves to sin.
They yoked themselves to idols,
bowed to Baal of Peor,
and defiled covenant love
with lust and rebellion.
Your anger burned,
for the people You saved
traded Your glory for shame.
Lord, how often I do the same.
When You bless, I grow careless.
When You provide, I grow proud.
When You call me to holiness,
I flirt with sin.
Forgive me, O God.
Tear the idols from my heart,
shatter the altars I build in secret,
cleanse me from loves
that pull me away from You.
Let me be yoked to Christ alone,
bound to His love,
held fast in His mercy.
In the camp, sin was bold
a man brought rebellion into the open,
before the eyes of Moses,
before the tears of the faithful.
But Phinehas rose with zeal,
and his action stopped the plague.
O Lord, stir such zeal in me.
Not violence of hand,
but violence of spirit against sin.
Let me not grow numb
to the destruction of rebellion.
Give me holy anger at what dishonors You,
and holy compassion for those
who perish without You.
You commended Phinehas,
saying he turned back Your wrath
with his zeal for Your holiness.
You gave him a covenant of peace,
a priesthood of lasting promise.
Lord, make me a peacemaker too
not by compromise with sin,
but by confronting it with truth and grace.
Let my life stand in the gap,
interceding, warning, pleading,
that others might live.
Father, the plague was stopped,
but not without cost
thousands perished in rebellion.
Teach me to tremble at sin’s wages,
to grieve for those cut off,
to cling more tightly to the cross,
where wrath and mercy meet.
For only there is my cleansing,
only there is my peace,
only there do I find safety
from judgment I deserve.
So today, Lord,
guard my heart from idols,
my eyes from lust,
my steps from rebellion.
Fill me with zeal for Your name,
with passion for Your holiness,
with gratitude for Your mercy.
Let my life bear witness to this
that sin destroys,
but God redeems,
and His covenant of peace endures forever.
In the name of Jesus,
the One who bore my plague,
and gave me His peace,
Amen.