Rescuing a Friend in Debt
Pinchas, son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the
priest, was the one who zealously took up My cause among the Israelites and
turned My anger away from them, so that I did not destroy them in My vengeance.
—Numbers 25:11
Jake had borrowed large sums of money from several people,
a fact he wasn’t exactly shouting from the rooftops. Lacking a steady income,
Jake found himself in a bit of a financial pickle. His creditors, unimpressed
by his charm and well-rehearsed excuses, were done waiting and demanded their
money.
But Jake had a secret weapon: his friends. They rallied to
his side, negotiating with the lenders and somehow convincing them, probably
out of sheer exhaustion, to give Jake more time. After all, who could say no to
a group of people who could talk the hind leg off a donkey?
The days passed. The extension expired. Once again, the
creditors came knocking. And once again, Jake’s friends intervened, securing
yet another “gracious” postponement.
Time marched on, and once more the deadline loomed. Jake’s
friends were out of excuses. “Well, you know Jake… he’s just having a rough
time right now…” wasn’t going to cut it this time.
Fortunately for Jake, he had one particularly close
friend. This friend was no stranger to financial gymnastics. He understood that
now was the moment to face the lenders head-on.
“You’re absolutely right,” he told them, his voice all
business. “Jake owes you money. I get it. But the problem is, Jake doesn’t have
any. Now, I’m willing to offer you a sum, let’s say 50% of what he owes. It’s
better than nothing, and let’s face it, if you don’t take it, you probably will
end up with nothing at all. And that would be a real shame, wouldn’t it?”
The lenders grumbled, exchanged wary glances, and after a
few long, agonizing moments, reluctantly agreed. They signed away the rest of
Jake’s debt with the grimace of someone making a colonoscopy appointment.
So, who really helped Jake? The friends who endlessly
delayed the repayment? They only kicked the problem down the road. It was his
closest friend, the one who faced the situation head-on and found a real
solution, who wiped Jake’s debts clean.
Moses Delayed, Pinchas Delivered
After the Golden Calf, Moses pleaded on behalf of the
people. Moved by Moses’ intercession, God agreed: The punishment would be
spread out over generations. Not cancelled. Deferred. “But on the day I make an
accounting,” God warned, “I will bring them to account for their sin” (Exod.
32:34).
Then came the spies. Again, disaster. Again, Moses
pleaded. Again, the punishment stretched out: forty years of wandering in the
desert.
But when the people stumbled once more, this time with
Moabite idolatry and public scandal, something changed. A prince of Israel,
Zimri, paraded a Midianite princess in front of the nation. The people wept.
Moses stood still. No one moved.
Except Pinchas.
He saw a nation in peril, its very soul at risk. He took
action. Swift, sharp, and decisive. And with that, the plague stopped cold.
“Pinchas,” God said, “turned My anger away from the Israelites, so that I did
not destroy them.”
Moses, like the borrower’s friends in the story, bought
time with his prayers. But Pinchas, like the true friend, settled the matter.
With decisive action, he annulled the Divine decree against Israel.
