Sometimes people sign pre-nuptial agreements in order that both parties know what is expected of the other prior to heading into marriage. The LORD had adopted the Israelites as His own and rescued them from slavery. After redeeming them and making them His own He let them know that He had expectations of them. He also has expectations of us; as reflected in His law that Moses gave to the people.
The LORD Lays Out His Relationship with His People
I. Our relationship with God is based on sacrifice
At first glance this chapter may seem out of place. The Israelites were just told that they would have to spend forty years in the desert, but here Moses looks beyond those forty years to talk about what kind of supplementary offerings they ought to give in connection with their regular offerings once they arrive at the Promised Land. Why talk about it now?
Well, notice the phrases that he uses. “After you enter the land I am giving you as a home.” “When you enter the land to which I am taking you.” He speaks of these things as if they were sure to happen, as sure as the sun will rise in the morning. With these words he is pointing the Israelites forward to God’s promises of the future. Even though they would be in the wilderness for forty years, there would be an end to it. And notice that there would be flour, oil, and wine; along with animals to sacrifice. If God would provide so many of these things that He could tell them to literally burn them up, then surely He would give them plenty to eat and drink as well. There would be brighter days to come.
It is easy to look at all of these laws and only study the “what” and the “how” of them, but we can’t forget to look at the “why” either. That’s one of the key things about this chapter. There’s an underlying message hidden underneath all of these sacrifices. A priest would take fresh blood from the throat of the victim and sprinkle it on the altar. There lay the helpless victim that your family personally raised and fed; breathing its last and dying. This blood showed the people that God took sin seriously. When He demanded something of them and they didn’t do it, He didn’t smile at it. He hated it. Sin needed to be punished. Yet it also showed that something could be done about sin; that God had a way of dealing with sin apart from actually and physically punishing the sinner. God had a way of transferring His wrath to another creature.
Numbers
Hebrews 10:8-10 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Think also of what John writes in 1 John 2:2, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” When Jesus died on the cross God says that He provided a covering for every sin that has ever been committed. This covering makes us HOLY in God’s sight when we believe in Jesus.
The LORD didn’t want them to forget
who THEY were and also WHO HE WAS. So He
provided these strong acts of sacrifice through which they could remember their
sin and also remember how HE was going to DEAL with that sin through the
sacrifice of SOMEONE
This is also why we start each week with a confession of sins and an absolution from the pastor. This is why we keep the baptismal font at front of center. This is where this whole lifetime of repentance and faith in God’s forgiveness begins. This is why our sermons continue to focus on how we are sinning and how God is gracious to us in Christ. We never want to lose track of our status before God. We are sinners who continually need Christ’s forgiveness. If we stop doing these things we easily get a sense of entitlement before God; as if He owes us something. We easily fall into a line of thinking that we are alright with God because of who we are and that God should accept us because of how good we are instead of how gracious He is. We go from relying on the sacrifice of Christ to relying on our own righteousness. But when God’s Word is constantly kept before us it drives us to our knees on a more regular basis and helps us cling to the cross of Christ for our atonement.
II. Our relationship with God is universal
This is how God deals with everyone. He is not partial. Listen again to Moses.
Numbers
When King David committed adultery and murder, the prophet Nathan didn’t hold back on condemning him. When Aaron’s son offered an unauthorized fire the LORD still put them to death. Their offices didn’t give them special treatment. They also needed to repent. They still put their pants legs on one leg at a time.
It doesn’t matter to God whether
you are a parent or a child; a pastor or a member; a teacher or a student; a
university professor or a janitor. God
expects the same thing of all of you.
After Jesus rose from the dead Luke 24:45-47 says, “He told them, “Repentance
and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning
at
Ah, but how we love to make distinctions in order to excuse ourselves and give ourselves special compensation to sin. One of our favorite excuses to sin is “intention”. When Saul was king he was supposed to completely destroy all of the animals and people of Amalek. Instead, he allowed the king to live and also kept the animals alive. When Samuel asked him about it he said, “Well, I was going to give these to the LORD for an offering.” He excused his sin with good intentions, and Samuel called him a rebel and a sinner. He would have none of it. So the LORD was not pleased with people who failed with good intentions. Numbers 15:22-29 says,
“If you unintentionally fail to
keep any of these commands the LORD gave Moses—then the whole community is to
offer a young bull for a burnt offering as an aroma pleasing to the LORD . . .
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.”
The LORD still called things done unintentionally sins. He still made them make sacrifices for
atonement. God still wanted them to
recognize their sin and their need for forgiveness even over sins that they
weren’t aware of. This is the same as
what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm
Here we see again that according to the law even our seemingly tiny sins of weakness still need forgiveness. But here’s an even more important point: Jesus died for even our unintentional faults. Jesus is the One who intentionally went to the cross to die for even our unintentional sins! When we believe in Christ God doesn’t look to find some sins in us that we haven’t confessed; He doesn’t try to find some reason to condemn us. He sees that we have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ through baptism and through faith and He sees every reason to take us to heaven.
If God cares about unintentional sin and says that needs atonement; then He surely also passionately hates intentional sin. Some think that if God is just love and God is just forgiveness without reason, well then once you become a member of His kingdom you can then do what you want when you want. Within Christianity many are doing exactly that. Look at how God talks about the one so bold as to intentionally do what he knew was wrong.
“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.’” While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.” So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses.” (Numbers 15:30-36)
An Israelite man decided to go out and gather wood on a Sabbath, when he wasn’t supposed to work. I don’t know exactly went on in that man’s mind. I imagine he must have thought, “Oh, who’s going to stone me for gathering a couple of sticks! I don’t care if it’s wrong. This whole not-working-on-the-Sabbath thing is a waste of time. Who cares?” There was no mercy for that man. His actions were a brazen example of defiant unbelief. He was to be taken outside of the camp and have stones hurled at him by the assembly of people. Eventually after one stone hit his arm, then his chest, then his legs, and then his head, the man was put to death; all of this over a couple of sticks!
There are many who might look at this and say it is extreme. Death over gathering a few sticks seems extreme. Nobody is even willing to put child molesters or murderers to death in our society. But it wasn’t just the action or the object of the sin that caused death; it was the nature of the sin; the attitude that was connected with the collection of the sticks. The man knew it was wrong. He knew that the LORD clearly commanded it. Judas went to hell over 30 pieces of silver; but it was much more than 30 pieces of silver; it was greed and betrayal and despair that condemned him. In the end the man who collected sticks decided that his needs and wants were more important than what the LORD wanted. In doing so he made himself his own God. This was called “blaspheming” the name of the LORD. It means to purposely taunt the LORD and challenge Him to do anything. So the LORD had this man who picked up sticks taken outside of town. He was shown that the LORD is neither a weak nor an indifferent God as people picked up stones and threw them at him. The people who threw the stones were being given a clear message. Do not arrogantly defy the LORD.
If the LORD was insulted over the gathering of sticks, then this same LORD is also insulted over the defiance of parents; over a failure to listen to His Word; over lust, laziness and slander. We sin every day in times of weakness; being lazy with our parents; saying things we shouldn’t do in ways we aren’t even aware of. But it’s those who know what they are doing is wrong and defiantly do it anyway and say basically, “I don’t care what my parents want me to do. I don’t care what the LORD says. I’m going to do things my way.” Some people joke about hell when they are confronted and say, “I guess I’m going to hell then!” So many people are more and more defiant about sin in today’s world. Couples live together and then openly tell you, “Yeah, we’re living in sin.” Homosexuals walk hand in hand and brazenly flaunt their sexuality. Kids brashly use cuss words on social networking sites and have no concern for who reads it. They know what they’re doing is wrong, but they honestly don’t care. They act as if there were no God; and if there were a God; they don’t care what He thinks or what anyone else thinks for that matter. They look God in the eye and say, “Whatever.”
The warning in the book of Hebrews is to all of us; that we never take sin lightly. The worst sin you can commit is to take any sin lightly; to think it to be no big deal; to come to accept even the seemingly most innocent of things when you know they are wrong. If you continue to produce only thistles and thorns you put yourself in the dangerous position of being cursed into the pits of hell. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
Think again about how serious God is about sin. He had His own Son pick up a much bigger stick and carry it outside of the city limits. He allowed people to pick up hammer and nails and drive them into his hands. He Himself took His only Son and condemned Him into the depths of hell. The man in the story picked up sticks to keep himself warm and comfortable and well fed. Jesus picked up His stick to go through pain and suffering and hell. Did He do this because He didn’t care about sin or because He deeply hates sin? Did He do this because He loves sin or because He wanted to eradicate it from His sight? Who of us would think that Jesus went through this so that we could continue doing the same thing? If that was God’s attitude towards sin in the first place then He never would have had to die for it. Look at the cross! Jesus picked up a huge stick and was crucified on it because God hates all sin; even accidental sin. Jesus picked up a world of sin and was drowned under it; blamed for the defiance of the world; placed into a stone for our defiance! Yet Jesus rose up! God’s Holy Spirit gave us the living Christ. He gave us hope and life; He enabled us to fight against this evil acceptance of sin. He gave us a covering for our sin so that we would feel a desire to get out of the mud and keep ourselves clean. This is what He expects of us.
At the end of this chapter the LORD had some final instructions for their clothing. The Israelites were also told to make some tassels with blue cords and hang them from the four corners of their garments. These were to be physical and daily reminders that accompanied them every where they went of the commandments of the LORD and how God expected them to act in their relationship with Him. The LORD was not only to be remembered in the way they conducted worship but also in the way they conducted their lives.
Our relationship with God is never meant to be just a Sunday thing; God doesn’t just want one day or one hour of your life; He wants to be permeated into every aspect of your life; the way you work; do your chores; your homework; treat your spouse; every thing. When you were baptized the Holy Spirit put a tassel on your heart and in front of your eyes. A daily reminder of baptism might be to cross your self every morning. A cross around the neck or a tattoo are sometimes used by others to put their faith and their LORD in the forefront of their lives. Some use bumper stickers and t-shirts with Bible verses on them. Daily devotions and Bible readings help as well. We use catechisms and memory work to accomplish the same purpose with our children. The LORD said,
Numbers 15:39-41 You will have
these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD,
that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts
of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all my commands and
will be consecrated to your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of
Notice again; the Word was put before them to keep them from acting like they wanted to act and also to remind them who their LORD was. “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt to be your God.” God saved them from slavery! He called them His own. He didn’t do this so that He could be their pet or their friend or their grandpa. He did it so He would be their God; the One to fear but also the One to trust and the One to love.
The Holy Spirit has placed the cross of Christ in our hearts and on our minds; He has shown us that our sins have been paid for and covered. He is our LORD and our God. Remember what it means to be in a relationship with Him; continue to repent and believe in Him; to trust in Him and call on Him; no matter how long it takes for you to get into the Promised Land. Amen.