** Writer’s Note: I am currently on a two and a half week trip that will take me to Bahrain, Crete, Sicily, Italy, Germany and Spain. Before you start to envy me too much, trust me when I say it is all business and little pleasure. I will still be writing and posting while on the road. My posting times may be a little skewed because I will be as much as 8 hours ahead of EST. I’ll do my best to be timely and ask for your patience and prayers as I travel. God bless all of you and may the joy of the Lord be your strength…now and forever. In Christ, Mark
Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
"Now if you unintentionally fail to keep any of these commands the Lord gave Moses-any of the Lord's commands to you through him, from the day the Lord gave them and continuing through the generations to come-and if this is done unintentionally without the community being aware of it, then the whole community is to offer a young bull for a burnt offering as an aroma pleasing to the Lord, along with its prescribed grain offering and drink offering, and a male goat for a sin offering. The priest is to make atonement for the whole Israelite community, and they will be forgiven, for it was not intentional and they have brought to the Lord for their wrong an offering made by fire and a sin offering. The whole Israelite community and the aliens living among them will be forgiven, because all the people were involved in the unintentional wrong."
"But if just one person sins unintentionally, he must bring a year-old female goat for a sin offering. The priest is to make atonement before the Lord for the one who erred by sinning unintentionally, and when atonement has been made for him, he will be forgiven. One and the same law applies to everyone who sins unintentionally, whether he is a native-born Israelite or an alien."
"But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the Lord, and that person must be cut off from his people. Because he has despised the Lord's word and broken his commands, that person must surely be cut off; his guilt remains on him." Numbers 15:22-31
From the time of delivering Israel from the hands of Pharoah and Egypt up to this point where the Israelites were turned from Canaan to roam the desert for 40 years, God had given His people commands…lots of commands as passed on His expectations for holy and righteous living.
Certainly at the forefront of God’s concern was the matter of sin. In our scripture today, it is center stage and there are two forms of sin addressed: unintentional and defiant.
First, unintentional sin. There were instances when someone would violate God’s commands but not intend to. For example, let’s say that a person were unclean and a person would come into contact with them. This would be a violation of God’s command but the person would have sinned unintentionally, not knowing the person they made contact with was unclean. In these instances on unintentional sin, whether collectively as a community or individually, we see in our scriptures that atonement could be made.
If the community had unintentionally sinned, they were to "offer a young bull for a burnt offering as an aroma pleasing to the Lord, along with its prescribed grain offering and drink offering, and a male goat for a sin offering" after which the priest was to make atonement for the whole Israelite community leading to their forgiveness."
If an individual had unintentionally sinned, they were to "bring a year-old female goat for a sin offering" after which the priest was to make "atonement before the Lord for the one who erred by sinning unintentionally". When atonement was made, the unintentional sinner would be forgiven.
As we study the matter of unintentional sin, we see a God of mercy and grace. Contrast this now with the person who willfully disobeys God and His commands…the defiant sinner.
For God’s word tells us that "anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the Lord, and that person must be cut off from his people because he has despised the Lord's word and broken his commands". The cut-off, defiant sinner would find "his guilt remain(ing) on him."
Now I don’t know about you but this word of God makes me very unsettled. For who hasn’t sinned defiantly, despising God’s word and breaking His commands? And just in case we might think that God isn’t serious about this matter of defiance, remember we just saw Israel punished for this very thing as God denies an entire generation the privilege to enter His promised land. Indeed, our God is a God of mercy and grace but we shouldn’t think that He isn’t a God of judgment and wrath as well. Scripture shows us otherwise.
My prayer is that we will take these words of scripture to heart and eradicate any defiant attitude that might exist within us regarding sin. I’m afraid that today most people take a very cavalier approach to sinning, feeling that through Jesus bearing our sins on the cross, we are somehow automatically excused from our sinfulness. And although those in Christ Jesus are justified (i.e just as if I had never sinned), we should remember these words from Paul:
"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." Romans 6:1-14
Jesus took our sins with Him to the cross and bore the penalty for us. Because of His sacrifice, sin is not to be our master. Jesus is. Are you obedient and faithful to Him or defiant? How much is He your Master today?
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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