[T]here are also
noncultic references to making atonement. In these cases, Yahweh’s wrath
against the whole congregation is withdrawn because someone has acted in their
stead or acted in a way (viz., “jealous for my name”) that reestablished
Yahweh’s righteous government. (Michael Horton, Justification, 2 vols.
[New Studies in Dogmatics; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2018], 2:213)
After the people made
the golden calf, Moses pleaded with God to “Make atonement” for their sins
(Exod 32:3), which he does by fasting and prayer for forty days. God’s wrath is
stayed (Deut 9:13-29; Ps 106:19-23). When later Israel sinned, Aaron offered up
incense and “made atonement,” which turned back the plague (Num 16:41-50). When
Israelites were marrying Moabites and bowing down to their gods, Yahweh sent a
plague, but Phinehas drove a spear through Zimri and his Midianite wife as they
flaunted their relationship. It stopped the plague through Zimri and Midianite
wife as they flaunted their relationship. It stopped the plague and Yahwe
pledged a “covenant of peace,” with Phinehas’s children serving before him as
priests from generation to generation. “Phinehas . . . has turned back my wrath
from the people of Israel,” Yahweh told Moses, and “was jealous for his God and
made atonement for the people of Israel,” Yahweh told Moses, and “was jealous
for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel” (Num 25:1-12).
Reciting this event, Psalm 106:30-31 declares, “That was counted to him as
righteousness [וַתֵּחָשֶׁב לוֹ לִצְדָקָה] from generation to generation
forever.” (Ibid., 2:213 n. 77)
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