New Phinehas

Jesus’ letter to Pergamum mentions Balaam and Balak (Revelation 2:14), and that is a signal that the whole message is running along the lines of Numbers 22-25.

The death of
the high priest is a sacrificial moment in the life of Israel. According to the rules of the cities of
refuge (Numbers 35), the manslayer would remain in a city of refuge until the
death of the high priest. After that, he
was free to return to the land. The
death of the high priest “atones” for the blood that the manslayer has
spilled on the land, and the land is cleansed by his death. 

Aaron’s death, recounted in Numbers 21, has a similar effect, releasing Israel from the refuge of the wilderness.

That’s what
startles Balak into action. He is king
of Moab, and the Moabites and Midianites both are frightened at the people that
has come from Egypt and is ready to take the land. So Balak hires Balaam to curse Israel.
That utterly fails, as Yahweh turns all his curses into blessings. But that is followed by another
effort.

Numbers 25
describes how the daughters of Moab and some of the women of Midian come into
the camp, and the people begin to “play the harlot” with the daughters of
Moab. This involves offering sacrifice
to false gods (v. 2), eating from those sacrifices, and actual fornication
(vv. 6-7). A plague breaks out, but
Phinehas arrests the plague by impaling a fornicating man and woman and making
atonement and winning an imputed righteousness: Justification by impalement. Though Balaam is not mentioned in chapter 25, we later learn that he
was behind the effort (Numbers 31:16). When he failed to directly curse Israel, he tried to entice Israel to
bring a curse on herself.

The Balaamites
and Nicolaitans in Pergamum are not cursing the new Israel, the church, from without, but seeking
to corrupt it from within. Satan
attempted to intimidate the church into renouncing Jesus – Antipas was
killed. That didn’t work, so internal
corruption is the next step. Like Balaam, some in the church are seducing
the saints to eat food of idolatry and indulge in fornication. 

If the saints at Pergamum do
not turn from these Balaamite practices and teachings, Jesus is coming as a new
Phinehas, with his sword drawn, to impale the sinners and to stay the
plague.