Spear Hunters

I welcome you to this maybe a unique sermon.

I've been listening to Church of God sermons for 50 years, ever since I was 14 years old and never heard one like I will give today. So that was a reason for me to give it. The title of my sermon, and I do that every time, so whoever is writing it down, i.e. Ampey, will know the title. And so the title of today's sermon is Spear Hunters. Spear Hunters. We have someone here. I have the card, and it says Diane, and she's sitting here, and she was certified at 988 as an underwater hunter.

Underwater hunter. So she's got some experience there. I'll make sure I'll give that to you here. I'll just go ahead and do that so I don't go off it. Instructor. She was an instructor of underwater hunting. Well, mine's not underwater. It's going to be above water on land. I'll teach you to be a land hunter today. I bring this out because the spear, and I'll give a little history on this one I have in my hand, but the spear is the oldest implement of war in the history of man, according to historians and archaeologists, and it was the very first weapon to be created for war. It was a spear.

As a matter of fact, I saw a picture this week from the German, someplace in Germany that has a museum that supposedly holds the oldest spear in existence. It's 400,000 years old, they said, and it is a stick with a point on it.

Looks like many sticks I've seen before, but it has a couple, has a crook in it, but according to them, it's the very first spear of one of the oldest spears 400,000 years ago. I had a lot of sticks like that in our farm in Tennessee, if I'd have just known. I could have created one and said it was 500,000 years old.

Who knows? But I bring this out today because I want you to look at something. There's an incredible story in the Bible that I'll go into, hopefully bring you into. I am on, right? I feel so natural up here. I thought this didn't even work. You remember the stories in the Bible about a spear? There are so many, I could just give a sermon and just cover those. But I'm not going to because there's one story in particular that I would like to look at.

We know that Saul, if you remember the story, Saul, King Saul, tried to what? Kill David. Yes, but with David, he tried twice. Do you remember? And the Bible says he was trying to pin him to the wall. But of course, David was young, spry, like Matthew, and so he was able to dodge that spear. Then you remember David fighting Goliath. Remember Goliath? This nine-foot six-inch giant. It talked about his spear. His spear was so large that the very head of his spear weighed 15 pounds.

This one here weighs about a pound and a half. So take 15 times. You can imagine that. I brought this one today because it is a replica. A company made them off I got from Amazon. And they make replica spears and swords for movies. And this exact spear that I got is steel. And it is a spear from the Roman Spartan era. It means this is a type of spear that would have been used by Roman soldiers.

Now, the thing I didn't know was that most Roman soldiers had two spears. One that was 42 inches long and the other spear was 60 inches long. The 60-inch spear being most Roman soldiers at the time of Christ were an average of five foot tall. As it was even the Jews would have been about five foot tall. So Christ would have been 5'5'1' best. But the soldiers had a 60-inch spear which was a spear as tall as they were.

But they only used that for war. They kept it in the barracks. But the spear they carried around, and most of them did according to history, was a spear similar to this that they walked around with. That was 42 inches long, which meant it was a lot more versatile. It could be used to get one's attention, to intimidate, but also easy to walk around. Now I laid this one out because I'm six foot tall, not five foot. So this would have been about, according to size, would have been about where it came, just at chest level. So they would have walked around with this spear, even more than a sword.

Many of them kept a small sword on their side, but it wasn't the large swords that we all picture happened in the movies. Perhaps you remember in John 19 verse 34, talks about a spear similar to this that was taken and the guy did what? Spear the side of Christ, and out came blood and water. It's debatable whether that is the thing that killed him, as some people said, the history, or whether he was just died and they wanted to be sure.

But it is interesting because I went and pictured this in my mind because the movies we see where the crosses were way up here as they crucified the people were not really true. The people were just a few inches off the ground, so it gave easy access to striking them, to taking care of them. So the soldier who pierced Christ, as was also prophesied in the Old Testament, would have just been able to stab into the side of Christ. I found it interesting when I read this because once I got this, I go, hmm, that doesn't look too fancy. It doesn't look too straight. And so I looked on the comments of the people who bought it and said, no, this is an exact replica of those that were actually found from the time. They didn't have a factory to stamp out swords, so they all looked perfect. There was actually some imperfections and flaws, if you can actually see that. I could have. This cost about $26, if I remember right, put it on my wife's account. She asked just yesterday what that was. Yes, when I ordered it, but I could have actually gotten an exact sword from that time, or not really the sword, because most of them were wood, not metal, because they would lose the head and break the head off occasionally. But that was about $1,800, and I didn't. That wasn't in Mary's budget. But they do have swords, spears, just like this, that are used in so many of the movies back in the 50s and 60s and Ben Hur and various things like that. The Silvishallis, they buy these and they would use them then in the movies to make more realistic. Thing is, this is very sharp. It could do some serious damage.

I bring that out because I want to look at a case today, but before we do, I'd like to look at a scripture that we just sang about going up to the mountain. It's in Isaiah 2. Would you join me? Would you join me in Isaiah 2? It's a time we can all look forward to. It's a time we can imagine in our minds. Isaiah 2 talks about when Christ's Kingdom is set up and everybody will go up to the mountain of the Lord as we just sang. He will tell in verse 3, it says, teach us His ways. We're walking His paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and they shall rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their what? Spears into pruning hooks. Anybody done any pruning?

Anybody realize how this could be used for farming implements? Because that's what He's talking about happening here. The implements of war will be changed into implements for farming. If you've ever used a hoe, this could actually dig a trench or a ditch.

God is going to change man's mind and it's interesting that He brings the oldest implement of war into a picture of His kingdom.

Because it says we will not learn what anymore? War anymore. So none of these everybody will, after a certain amount of time, will go, oh that's a farm tool. Can I borrow one of your tools for my farm, for my garden, for my time? What a beautiful vision that gives us that Isaiah 2 talks about. There are heroes of the Bible, not only David, but I'd like you to turn with me to 2 Samuel 23. 2 Samuel 23 gives us an insight into the David's mighty men. 37 in all, it says. And 2 Samuel 23, let's go to verse 18. Verse 18 is said, now, Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zuiah, was chief of another three. He lifted his spear, it says, against 300 men and killed them.

And won a name among these three. And if you go back to the original Hebrew, he lifted his spear that day against 300 men and killed 300 men in one day with a spear. Now, that's a warrior. You understand why he was maybe one of God's mighty men? Of course, Samson killed a thousand with a jawbone of an ass. But imagine fighting. So he was considered one of the mighty men, and you read those stories, and you're going, hmm, some pretty impressive men to be five foot tall.

Let's go down to another one. In 2 Samuel 23, let's go to verse 20. It said, Ben-Iah. Ben-Iah you will see later in the story of David, where he takes Joab's place. He was one of the mighty men. He said, Ben-Iah, the son of Yehoda, the son of a valiant man from Kebzil who had done many deeds. He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. It means they were great warriors, and he met them and won in battle. He also went down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day. Why would they put that in there?

That didn't have anything to do with war. These mighty men were there, according to the story, and they found a lion that had fallen into a pit. And the lions were big, and the lions were hungry. They could have easily killed it. Ben-Iah said, no, let me go down. And he went down and he killed the lion by himself. He fought the lion for fun! For fun! Now, let's go out and shoot some basketball. No, I think I'll just fight a lion. That's the kind of guys that these were. They were warriors. They were the best. They even came from other countries to be part of David's army. He said, verse 21, he killed an Egyptian, a spectacular man, as it said. And the notes on it were that he was huge, strong. He was an Arnold Schwarzenegger looking guy. The Rock. He was just an impressive figure. As a matter of fact, it was even thought he was Egyptian's greatest warrior. And he went against Ben-Iah. Said, the Egyptian had a spear in his hand. So he went down to him with a what? A staff. A piece of wood.

Not many of us want to do that.

So let's see what happened. So he went down to him with a staff and wrested the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. One of those things you see on a movie. He's an impressive man. Impressive time. It was a vicious world, but war is. Was the same. War is hell. Talk to anybody who's been through it. They'll tell you. That's why we look forward to a time of peace. It's not our world yet, is it? It's still a world of war. We're looking forward to a world of peace. We're training for a world of peace. Not a world of war. Another story to show the strength is most of the swords were still on the top of the head and it was hard, very hard wood. They would use acacia wood for the spear. You remember where acacia wood was used? You got it. Yes, it was used because it would last for thousands of years. Acacia, one of the hardest wood, they would use that for the shaft because it wouldn't break easy if you're fighting.

The interesting story in 2 Samuel 2. You don't have to turn there. You can read it later. I want to make sure I have plenty of time here today. But you saw that Joab's youngest brother, Asiel, he had two brothers. Asiel was also a great warrior. Extremely fast. They compared him to an animal when he ran. He ran so fast. But he also was a warrior who used a spear. And he was running down Abner, the great general for Saul.

And Abner did not want to kill him because he was a man of superior intellect and fighting. And he even yelled at him, turn back. Go back. I don't want to have to explain to Joab that I killed you. But Asiel was young and he went after him. And as he caught up with him, Abner took his spear and turned it to the blunt end and rammed it completely through Asiel's body. It went all the way through. Can you imagine the strength it took for a blunt? And the Bible even describes it as a blunt end. I'm sorry. Get me with the sharp end. But he died right there.

So the Bible has a big history of explaining to us about spears. So I would like to turn as we go through this sermon today to a portion of scripture about a spear hunter. Of course, there are, as we look there, spear guns. Anybody ever used a spear gun? I got more people than I thought. Okay. Not some I'd want to be shot with. But if I guess I was a fish, that's better than hooking my mouth. But I think about this because we had a woman in the church. She's passed now over on the Big Island. And her husband, because every year on the Big Island of Hawaii, they have too many boars. Old big pigs. And they're allowed to run over. But every few years, they have to have a they pay you bounty for killing the boar because they would just take over. And so this woman who is a member of our church, they're her husband, which I met. Beautiful guy, really nice guy. He was older too at that time, wouldn't he? But he was part of the few guys that went out and hunt the boar the old-fashioned way with just a spear. They would climb in a tree, put some corn on the ground, and wait up in the tree until the boars came by. And they would jump out of the tree and kill the boar. Some of these boars were pretty big, and if you missed and if you fell to the ground, they would eat you. A lot of people just said so. When we were there, of course, that's been a many years ago, the government actually paid you more if you did the original spear hunting than if you just went and shot them. They wanted to keep that tradition alive.

I'd like you to go with me to a story of a spear hunter. He was the poster child for all of us, and I wanted to cover his story in about 15 verses. The man's name was Phineas, and he was moved to kill sin in the children of Israel. Now, I put that this certain way because it is interesting. Phineas was a grandson of Aaron. Aaron had died months before.

As the children of Israel were moving through to the Promised Land, they came into the land of Moab. Moab had a, not really one translation called him a king, but he was really a prince, the son of a king. His name was Baloch, and he saw what the children of Israel had done to another king, Agar, Sion. They had asked to go through the land, and the king said, no. They were going to be nice about it, and he went out to attack him, and they wiped that, wiped that king and everybody out in that entire village. So, all of a sudden, Baloch's looking over, wait a minute, that's not too far from me. They're coming in my land, and they're going to wipe us out. That wasn't the intention of God. So, Baloch said, hmm, I'm going to go to my seer. I'm going to go to a prophet, and that prophet's name, of course, was Balaam. Balaam. And he went to Balaam, and he said, I'm going to give you this incredible amount of money. And according to tradition, it was more money than you could ever earn in a lifetime. He'd never have to work another day in his life. He could live the great life. Balaam, of course, was a false prophet. He was a pagan. But God decided to work with Balaam. And Balaam actually had to listen. So, Balaam came and said, okay, this nation of two million people are coming through my land. I want you to curse them. And so then I can be safe. But God told Balaam, he can't curse them. You have to bless them. So, he goes up with Balaam, stand over a mountain, looks at this, waves of people, and says these great words and blesses them. And Balaam goes, what are you doing? Well, the Lord told me I had to bless them. Well, let's go over here. So, he took him somewhere else. He took him two more times and said, curse these people. And each time he had to bless, because God told him, if you want to live, you'll do what I tell you. So, this false prophet actually knew what a God, when God really spoke to him. So, what happens? You think that's the end of the story, but it's not. Because Balaam's about to go home with no money. And Balaam's not happy, and neither is Balaam with no money. So, Balaam finally says, tell you what, I'll take the money and I'll tell you how you can get God to curse them. And so, you can do what you do, and God will curse the entire group of people. And that sounded really good. And so, guess what? We come to Numbers 25. You know it. Let's go to Numbers 25, and we see this incredible story. Oh, they've laid the background for it.

Numbers 25 has told you the story here. So, it says in verse 1, a re from the New King James Version, said, then Israel remained in a casia grove, which is Moab, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. And get that. Women, Moab, men, Israel.

So, what I could never figure is, wait a minute, guys. I'm sure they came scantily dressed. I'm sure they were a wild-looking group of women. They were probably all looked like Raquel Welch, figure-wise. They probably had everything. But why? You had roughly two million people. You had at least half those are women. At least, you had at least a hundred to two hundred thousand women of your own people. And what did they do? Hmm. The scripture you cannot get any better than the way the scripture describes in the Old King James. Strange flesh. Strange flesh. Something that looked new. Wow! And it just goes to show, even now. You had, when I was growing up, you had Playboy magazine. And they would have some beautiful women in there who were naked. You couldn't, you know, you would, of course, I was young. I'd looked at it. I was like, yeah, look at that. You know, wow, you can't get a better looking woman than that. I mean, she's got everything in all the right places, right? But then you go, wow. Well, airbrush and everything else. And then you would go back and go, wow. Then by the end of it, why would they need to print another book? The next month, they had another centerfold with more pictures of other different looking, beautiful naked women. And what did people do? Ah, gotta go buy it. Satan knows the man's mind. Knows, oh, you start looking. Guess what? You'll keep looking. Keep looking. Oh, that's the most beautiful blonde. How could you? Oh, whoa, but look at this brunette. Whoa, look at this redhead. Look out. Wow. This is what happened here is they saw strange flesh. And what did they do? Let's go to verse 2. They, these beautiful, beautiful, half naked women with all the right figures, all the right measurements. They invited the people. People? What people? Ah, Diane's got it. It shouldn't be people. It should be men. They didn't write the women. They invited the men because it said in verse, what did it say in verse 4? With the women, they committed Harley Street with the women of Moab. And they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. And the people ate. Oh, this is a feast. And they had to say, wow, look at this. You got naked women running around. You got all this food and so forth. This beats the feast tabernacles every day of the week. And so, wow, they were just having a great time here and bowed down to their gods. Yes, they were sacrificing that meat. And then what's worse is this is towards the end of the 38 years. They not only committed fornication. They ate. Anybody want to bet what meat it was? You think the guys asked? Wait a minute, is this clean? Huh? Whatever. But then they bowed down. They got down and worshipped with those women.

I'm sure they did. Yes. Why? They didn't eat them. Those women liked them. Verse 3, so Israel was joined to Baal of Peor. That was their god. As a matter of fact, the other name was Kimosh. Was their main god of the Moabites. And the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. How many men you think it was? I don't know. Don't know. Okay. But we do know it was quite a few men. And a lot of them were the leaders. How do you think that conversation started? Think about it. You think they, maybe if they had horses or maybe at some day rode over to see this camp and to make peace and see if, you know, wow. Or did the Moabites, you know, because where did this come from? This came from Balaam. He told them how to get God to curse. So I'm sure Balaam laid out, hey, let's have some music here. Let's have some food. Let's have a party because, and we'll invite some of the leading men. And next thing you know, everybody is going to be involved. Verse 4, Then the Lord said to Moses, Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the Lord out in the sun, which was what? That was considered a disgrace. One of the biggest disgrace you could have is having you hung out there and leave your bodies out there.

That the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel. He didn't promise it would. Because God had been working with these people. He had saved them. He had been with them. He had done everything imaginable. And all it took was some women to go, hey, baby. It had to be very frustrating to God.

So Moses said to the judge, in verse 5, so Moses said to the judges of Israel, Every one of you kill his men who were joined to all of Peor. Want to kill all those men? It's your job. You're the judges. You're the leaders. Remember how they set judges over 50, judges over 100? Okay, it's your job. You're to take them out. Kill them.

Isn't that amazing?

We have a handout. Would you please hand this out before we go to verse 6? What I'm handing you is a drawing of how the camp of Israel was laid out. Whenever they would pick up and travel through, God gave them certain instructions, specific instructions, instructions that they had to follow to the letter on how the camp was laid out, where the tabernacle was. Where everyone's tents were located and how the different tribes, see the different tribes there, and how they were to be placed. Every single time they were to do this. Everybody get one? Good. So now you're looking at it. I still continue to look. Look at how it is. Can you imagine if you work your way around camp, if you were out by Reuben, you go, well, let's see, I got to walk all the way past Simeon, Gad, to get to Moses and Aaron. Tents there who were right, their tent was right in front of where? Right to the entrance. Yeah, right to the entrance. What was going on at night?

Fire. What was going on during the day? Cloud, right over. That tabernacle, wherever.

That tabernacle, that's what's going on. Okay. Now let's go to verse 6. And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the children, all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. You see where the door would have been? Right in front of Moses and Aaron. That was a door. There were people who were coming and weeping because God had said at that time, I'm putting a plague on you. And that plague was killing Israelites by the thousands, to the count of what? 24,000 people died because of this incident. Besides the ones who were hung, they didn't die from the plague. 24,000 people died from the plague. So it started hitting all the camp, and people were going and coming to the temple because they knew only God could save them. And so the women were coming there in front of the tabernacle weeping because of their families being killed, people dying all around them. You were in mourning, crying all through these tents. And what happens? This young man from Israel who finds a Moab, Midianite woman finds her, and what does he do? Well, look what he did. It said that he came and presented to his brethren. He was showing off. Look what I got. Look what I found. He was riding a horse. I don't know whether they were walking. Whatever it was, it said, in the sight of Moses and the congregation, he was from the tribe of Simeon. Look where Simeon is. Look at it. Now, he's going to take this young lady to his tent. If I'm going to take the lady to the tent that I know I shouldn't be with, do something that I shouldn't do, I don't have to. All I have to do is come around the side, right? Come around the back. Read what he did. He went right across the front where Moses... He went in front of Moses' tent. Yes, in the sight of everybody. Oh, yes! He thought, oh, look at me. And then look at her. Look what I got.

Moses didn't do anything, did he? Eliezer, who was the high priest at the time, Aaron, was already dead. Eliezer, he didn't do anything. Nobody did a thing. And here he did, just throwing it up in your face, throwing it up in God's face. So let's go. In the story now, verse 7, when Phineas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin, or in other words, a spear, and he had it in his hand. And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, because the man took her into the tent. Do you know what? They weren't playing cards. Okay? And you can read, yeah, they were doing what carnal people can do, not married. Okay? And thrust both of them through the man of Israel, and so the woman through her body, so it doesn't take a lot of imagination, runs them completely through two bodies and kills them.

Diane, David might have been, I, David might have been, I remember giving a sermon somewhere 15, 20 years ago. A little different, but I was telling the story of Phineas, and I remember two women, one out of Murfreesboro, one out of Nashville congregation, came to me and said, you're, you're making Phineas out to be something great. He was a killer. I said, you've read that, and that's what you get? Why don't you try it in another translation, and come back and show me?

They never did. And so we come down to verse eight. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. At the time he killed them, ran his spear straight through both of them, the plague stopped because somebody was thinking for God.

Read the context, and it makes you think if he didn't, God wouldn't. If he didn't do his job, God would not have stopped the plague. Let's go down. Verse nine. And those who died in the plague were 24,000. Dale was right. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned back my wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with my zeal among them, so I did not consume the children of Israel in my zeal. He had the zeal of God. If he had no, God would wipe them out.

Do we have a zeal of God? Therefore, say, Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him in his descendants, after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel. Verse 14, 14-15. Now, the name of the Israelite who was killed, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, son of Zalu, a leader of a father's house among the Simeonites. That's how we know where he was from. That's how we know what he did, a blatant act right in front of God and all the people. You see how dangerous it is when you know what to do and you don't do it? And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cosby, not Bill Cosby, but Cosby, the daughter of Zir. He was the head of the people of a father's house in Midian. Do you understand what that means? He was a leader, and so was the boy, the young man. So here you got to say, well, you know, well, what's your father do? My father's a leader. What's your father do? Oh, mine's also a leader. Ah! I guess we're meant to be together. Can you imagine the conversation? And that he was willing because the intent, because the structure of the words, tell us that when the party went on with the Moabai women, it was away from the camp. They invited the men from Israel to the camp. This was not that. This was where he invited her. And he somehow in his mind, he was a leader, and yet he thought this was going to be okay, and that I can take her right in my tent and have sexual relations. I can fornicate in front of God. The cloud would have been there. He'd seen that cloud. God was there. He would have seen it. Ah! No, no, no. Amazing. Amazing. So was he an example for us? Absolutely. Absolutely. He had God's zeal. And it's so important, so important, like turn to one land scripture. Go with me to Psalm 106. Psalm 106. Psalm 106 and verse 28 gives a history, a little history of this. Okay? And it says in verse 28, they joined themselves to Baal a peor, and eight sacrifices made to the dead. Here's something else is added. They not only sacrificed and they did it, but they did stuff too because of the dead too. Thus in 29, thus they provoked him, God, to anger with their deeds, and the plague broke out among them. Then Phineas stood up and intervened, so the plague was stopped. And that was accounted to him for righteousness to all generations forever more. How would you like that to be said about you? Oh, because he had the zeal of God.

Remember Christ chasing out the money changers? And the disciples said they remember the scripture, the zeal for God's house has eaten me up. This would have been for Phineas. What amazing. Brethren, we are called to spear, to be spear hunters, except we're not to spear people. We're to spear sin. We're here to kill sin. Metaphorically, we're here to kill, to stab, to spear, and to kill sin in us, and we need to have a spear, the spear mindset, that if we see a sin, and all of us do, and I give this just for that, because we all have a serious sin we deal with. And God is telling us we need to kill it. We need to be like Phineas and stab it all the way through and kill it. Are we going to be sinless? No, but we'll be rid of that sin, because it shows this was one of the most important sins that could happen to Israel. It would destroy them, and so he was going to destroy them before it did. If we have a sin that is so prevalent that we that is so big, we need to kill it. We need to be some we need to have a Phineas mindset and kill that sin, spirit.

And then we can deal with some others, but a lot of times that that most graphic sometimes and big sin just hangs on in our lives to where, well, God, you know, yeah, I do everything, but I, you know, you know, I have a problem with that. God says, no, kill it. And he gives us the ability, he gives us the talent, and he gives us his spirit, which can serve as our spear to say, God, I want this dead. If it's alcohol, kill it. If it's drugs, kill it. If it's pornography, kill it. If it's lying, stealing, kill it. Don't let that. Don't let God have to do the job for you.

So is your spear sharp? Are you willing? The soldiers, they sharpen these every time it was used. Do we keep our spear sharp so that we can make sure we kill it?

Are you proficient with your spear metaphorically?

Do you have good eyes like a warrior? Do you have good eyes to see the sin and not be afraid to address it? Remember David walking out? 15, 16, 17, at best, telling Saul, who is this uncircumcised Philistine who defies the armies of the living God? It's a man after God's own heart, even as a young man. He said, I'll go kill this Philistine. Brethren, we need to be sin lawyers. Our sins. It's easy to look at other people's sins and see them, but it's our sin he wants us to be. So you are spear hunters for God, working every week to kill those sins. Yes, the blood of Christ takes them away.

But God would like to see us not have to repent day after day after day after day of the same sin. So my last words to you today. Happy hunting this week!