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LIVING WITH A HOLY GOD AS SINFUL PEOPLELeviticus 4:1-6:7INTRODUCTION Just think with me for a moment about the historical situation these people are in when God speaks to them the book of Leviticus. There are about 2 million people camped out in tents in the plains in front of Mt. Sinai. Six to nine months ago these people were all slaves in Egypt and then God by mighty miracles delivered them from slavery and brought them through the Red Sea and then the Arabian Desert to this mountain. These people had been city dwellers in a well-watered and developed urban culture and in these few months have become nomadic shepherds and herders in the desert. They are very much like refugees. Entire family units of moms and dads and children and grandparents and aunts and uncles are living together in radically different circumstances. They face an unknown future. Their daily lives are filled not only with the normal ups and downs of relationships and illness and caring for children and people dying and cooking food and taking care of property and conducting business and getting married but all of that in this amazingly different situation. Can you imagine the stress upon these individuals and families? Can’t you imagine the frustrations and fears and worries they must be experiencing? If you were in their situation what kinds of things would you want to know from God? What kind of help would you be looking for? If God were going to show up and talk with you, what would you want him to talk about? It’s not hard to figure out what they want to talk about because we have a record of their conversations with God and God’s leader Moses. They want to know what they are going to eat and what they are going to drink and when are they going to get to this land of milk and honey? While we don’t live in tents in the desert we, like they, have a whole host of things we are interested in and would like help with from God. Most of us want God to show up and fix things. We would like him to show up and give us some direction, solve our financial troubles, change our circumstances, heal our diseases, change our spouses, make our kids obey, find us a spouse or at least a boyfriend. What we are observing here in the book of Leviticus is God showing up and talking with the people. God has something he wants to talk about that doesn’t have much to do with what the Israelites or we want God to talk about. The book of Leviticus is part of a nine month long conversation at Mt. Sinai that God has with his people Israel. The main thing God wants to talk about is how to make a tent fit for him to live in and how to dress the priests so they can represent the people and how to kill animals as sacrifices for various things and what foods they can’t eat and what to do about skin diseases and how having children makes a woman unfit to enter the tabernacle. I mean it is just page after page of detailed instructions that have pretty much nothing to do with living life as nomadic shepherds or as 21 st century middle-class Americans. The main thing God wants to talk with us about is how he and we can live together in peace and harmony. In spite of all the problems in the world and in our lives the main thing God has on his mind is how he and humans can live together in peace. Even if you can’t handle all the repetition and all the crazy rituals and weird ways of dressing and eating the one thing that ought to impress you is that God is really serious about wanting to live with us but it is really hard for him to live with us. Or to say it another way, we’re hard to live with if you’re God. This morning, as we examine two more of the five basic sacrifices that God required the people of Israel to make we will discover why it is so hard for God to live with us and what he's done to make it happen. MAIN POINT It is not easy for God to live with us because…I. We are sinners In our passage this morning God explains the last two of the five basic offerings that Israel is to make in the Tent of Meeting: the sin offering and the guilt offering. Unlike the first three offerings he explained in chapters 1- 3, he gives here the specific occasions for when these sacrifices are to be made. The reason the sin offering needs to be made is stated right at the beginning of chapter four: “when anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands…” The sin offering and the guilt offering are made because we are sinners who commit acts of sin. These chapters make it plain that the first reason it is hard for God to live with us is because we are sinners who break his commands. And that is the first thing to notice about sin; whether you intend to sin or not, all sin is a breaking of God’s commands. It is doing what is forbidden by the Lord. Now we are going to see in these chapters three ways that our sinfulness is described. First of all… We sin without knowing it and “by mistake” (4:1-3, 13-14, 22-23, 27-28, 5:15 , 17) Seven times in chapters 4 & 5 the word “unintentional” is connected to the word sin. The point that is being made here is that our sinfulness is so pervasive that we sin without even knowing it. Our corruption is so complete that we sin without thinking about it. Sin comes natural to us, without any thought. It is as natural as breathing, which you also do "unintentionally." Every day of our lives, without knowing it, we are breaking God's commands. The meaning of this word can be clearly seen in Numbers 35 where God is giving directions on how to handle cases where one person kills another person. In v. 11 God tells the people that when they go to live in the land of Canaan they are to “select some towns to be your cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee… These six towns will be a place of refuge … so that anyone who has killed another accidentally can flee there.” That word “accidentally” is the same as the word “unintentional” back in Leviticus 4:1. If you look a little later in Numbers 35:20-24 you get a better idea of what an accidental murder is: “ If anyone with malice aforethought shoves another or throws something at him intentionally so that he dies or if in hostility he hits him with his fist so that he dies, that person shall be put to death; he is a murderer…. But if without hostility someone suddenly shoves another or throws something at him unintentionally or, without seeing him, drops a stone on him that could kill him, and he dies, then since he was not his enemy and he did not intend to harm him, the assembly must judge between him and the avenger of blood according to these regulations.” An unintentional "murder" is unplanned, unintended, not premeditated, not motivated by anger or revenge or hatred. It might be due to carelessness or inattentiveness or forgetfulness or even foolishness but it is not willfully planned and carried out. So it is with every "unintentional sin". These are sins which we commit due to carelessness, inattentiveness, forgetfulness or even foolishness but not as premeditated acts of defiance to God. Jesus, in Matthew 12:36 says, “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be condemned and by your words you will be acquitted.” Every person in here has spoken cruel, critical, condemning and evil words of which we are not even aware. All of us have said things about which we have later said, "I didn't mean to say that." "I was only joking." "I wasn't thinking when I said that." We all have spoken careless words and done careless things that have broken God’s commands because it just comes natural. Notice in Leviticus 4 how all classes of people are included in these unintentional sins. The priests, the congregation as a whole unit, the leaders and the common people all commit unintentional sins. The sin offering has to be offered because our sinfulness is so pervasive that we are sinning even without knowing it and “by mistake”. There is a second category of sins described in 5:1-4 that also require a sin offering to be made. We sin by not doing what we know we ought to do (5:1-4) The first four verses of chapter 5 describe sins of omission. In v. 1 a crime has been committed and the leaders of the community have put out a call for witnesses to come forward to give evidence so that the crime or dispute can be settled. It is sort of like a “Crimestoppers” announcement on TV. You have information either by eye witnessing the crime or by some other means but you refuse to come forward. You don’t want to get involved and so you say nothing. This is a sin of omission. You are not doing what you are supposed to do. In vv. 2-3 the sin of omission is that you have knowingly become unclean through touching the corpse of an animal or through coming in contact with one of the various kinds of human uncleanness but you forget it happened (That is what the phrase "even though he is unaware of it" means.) and therefore you don’t go through the appropriate cleansing ritual like you were supposed to do. You knew that you were unclean but you didn’t do anything about it and let it slip your mind. In v. 4 the sin of omission is that in a moment of excitement you make a vow to God, you swear that you will do something but then, because it was so rash, you forget your vow and don’t fulfill it. You don’t do what you at one time said you were going to do. These are sins of omission. Then following in vv. 5-13 instructions are given as to what you should do when your guilt finds you out. The idea is that you suddenly remember that you didn’t do what you should have done and so you have to confess your sin of omission and make a sin offering. What you offer is determined by your economic resources but you must make a sin offering of some kind when you remember that you didn't do what you were supposed to do. Finally, there is a third category of sin that requires a different offering to be made, this time a guilt offering. We sin by doing what we know we ought not to do (6:2-3) If you look at 6:1-3 there is a list of property crimes. These are intentional sins where a person obtains another’s property either through deception or extortion or simply lying about finding lost property. You entrust some property to a neighbor or friend to be held as collateral on a loan you get from someone else or because you go on a trip and when you come to get your property he tells you, "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have your property." In each case there is no way to prove that someone has taken your stuff. It is your word against his word. In fact, the thief is even willing to swear before God that he or she did not take your stuff. The particular sins that are listed are not the only intentional sins for which the guilt offering is to be made but as you can see at the end of v. 3, the guilt offering is to be made “if he commits any such sin that people may do.” The point is here that we sin on purpose. We do things to steal from others when we believe we can get away with it. I doubt there is anyone in here who has not kept lost property they have found or lied on their income taxes or lied to a sibling in order to keep a toy or a CD. We all have used deception or intimidation or cunning to obtain or keep things that do not belong to us. Again, when a person's guilt finds them out, when their conscience troubles them, then they must offer the guilt offering. The point of these passages is this: our sin is so pervasive that we break God’s laws without even knowing it, by not doing what we know we ought to do and by doing what we know that we ought not to do. God has a hard time living with us because we so naturally despise and disregard and disobey his laws. We are contemptuous of and indifferent to God and his law and we show it by our regular breaking of his laws. It is not easy for God to live with us because…
II. Sin makes us guilty before God (4:3, 13, 22, 27, 5:1, 2, 3, 4, 17, 6:4) There is a phrase that is repeated about ten times in these chapters. The first time is in 4:3, when the priest sins unintentionally he brings guilt on all the people. The priest is viewed by God as the representative of all the people and so what the priest does the people do. When the priest sins he brings guilt upon the people because he is the people in relation to God. Notice in 4:13 that when the community sins unintentionally, even though they are unaware of it, they are guilty. So it goes throughout the passage: when the leader sins unintentionally he is guilty (v. 22); when the common person sins unintentionally he or she is guilty (vv. 27); when a person touches an unclean corpse, even though he forgets he did so, he is still guilty (5:2). Over and over again the point is, no matter how or why you break God’s laws you are guilty. What does it mean to be guilty? This is not primarily talking about a feeling of guilt, though in a moment we will see that normally, when people are living with God, objective guilt becomes the feeling of guilt. When you break God’s laws, no matter how or why you do it or whether or not you know you broke his law, you are guilty. Most of us understand and agree with this point in principle. We all recognize that if you enter a new town and are going 35 mph when the police officer pulls you over and he tells you that the speed limit was 25 mph that just because you didn’t see the sign doesn’t mean you are not guilty. We know that we deserve the ticket because we were guilty of speeding. However, while most of us will agree with the principle, yet when we are the one being accused of some transgression we are not normally so agreeable. When I am accused of some wrongdoing my immediate and natural reaction is self defense. I have reasons as to why I did what I did and those reasons justify my violating the standard. Yes, I know the standard applies in most situations but in this case, I’m not guilty because I was tired, because you can't let people get away with stuff, or because I couldn’t bear the thought of losing my job, or because I forgot or I didn't know and the list of reasons why I'm not guilty goes on and on. The point of this little phrase is this: when you break one of God's laws you are guilty, no matter what. God's laws apply to all people all the time. Whether you believe in God or not, whether you know his standards or not, whether you're sick or not, you are responsible to God all the time. You live in his world and you are dependent upon him for all things and you owe him perfect obedience. You and I are responsible to know what he wants and to do it. There is no excuse for not doing his will. To be guilty means that I am subject to God’s judgment. He is just and right to punish us because we are guilty. We all know that if the guilty are not punished then anarchy and chaos are all that is left. About fifteen years ago the Los Angeles police pulled over a drunk driver who tried to outrun them in his car. His name was Rodney King. When they caught him they pulled him out of his car and beat him. He was black and all the officers were white. However, unknown to the police a person in a nearby house videotaped the entire incident and turned the video over to the press. The videotape was played on TV all over the nation and the LA Police Commission arrested the officers. They were tried in San Diego with an all white jury. The jury acquitted the officers in spite of the videotaped evidence. The day the innocent verdicts were handed down LA exploded with riots for days. Buildings were burned down and other property destroyed. A white truck driver was brutally beaten to death and this atrocity was caught on videotape. Why the riots? Why the anger? It was clear to the African American population in LA and to the rest of the country that justice was not done. The guilty were not punished but let go and the whole nation was outraged because we all know that is wrong. God is the perfect judge who has perfect knowledge of everyone's sins and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. This is the fundamental reason for why it is so hard for God to live with us. It is not easy for God to live with us because…
III. Our sin contaminates everything and must be cleansed in order for God to live with us (4:6-7, 16-18, 25, 30 with 16:16 & 19 and with Hebrews 9:11-14, 23 & 13:11-12) The sin offering differs in significant ways from the burnt offering and the peace or fellowship offering. Each of these offerings helps us to understand, with different nuances, our sin and guilt and how Christ's life, death and resurrection justly rescue us from our sin and guilt. Let me first describe how the sin offering works and then we'll think about what it tells us about sin and forgiveness through Christ. First, if one of the priests breaks one of the God's commands unintentionally and he becomes aware of it, he is to bring a young bull to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, lay his hands on it and kill it. He is to drain its blood into a bowl and go into the Holy Place, into the outer room of the tabernacle. He is to dip his fingers into the blood and sprinkle the blood seven times on the curtain that separates the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place where the Ark of the Covenant is located. Then he is to dip his fingers in the blood and rub some of it on the altar of incense which is in front of the curtain. Then he is to leave the tent and take the remaining blood and pour it out at the base of the altar of burnt offering (Note: he doesn't splash it as in the burnt and peace offerings.). Then he is to take the fat, the kidneys and the liver and burn it up on the altar. The rest of the bull is to be taken outside the camp of Israel to the clean place where the ashes from the altar are daily taken and the entire bull is to be disposed of by burning it to ashes on a wood fire. The exact same procedure is to be followed if the entire congregation sins unintentionally, beginning with the elders laying their hands on the bull. But then notice that if one of the tribal leaders sins unintentionally and becomes aware of it he does not bring a bull, which is the most valuable animal, but a less valuable male goat without defect to the tent. The blood of this goat is not taken into the Holy Place but is rubbed on the horns at the corners of the altar of burnt offering and the rest of the blood is poured out at the base of the altar. The fat, kidneys and liver are burned up but the rest of the goat is not taken outside the camp. Rather the priest gets to use the goat for his food. Then when a common person sins unintentionally and becomes aware that he has done so he doesn't bring a young bull or a male goat but a less valuable female goat or lamb or, if you look down to 5:7 & 11, if he is poor he can bring two doves or pigeons or if he is really poor a small portion of flour as a sin offering. The blood of the female goat or lamb is rubbed on the horns of the altar and after the fat and kidneys and liver are burned up the priest eats the animal or the grain. In the sin offering it is the blood that is the main thing, not what is done with the body of the animal as in the burnt and peace offerings. The blood is placed upon the curtain of the tabernacle or the two altars in order to cleanse them from the contamination caused by the presence of sinful human beings. The point here is that sin contaminates or pollutes everything it comes in contact with. Notice also that the closer a person is in relation to God or the more authority the person has, the more potent is the contamination. Sin is like the unseen bacteria and virus that cause disease. We know that when sick people touch doorknobs or other objects that they leave unseen contamination. We use cleansers to wash away the bacteria or virus and make the objects which were touched safe to handle. The blood is viewed by God as a powerful cleansing agent that removes the contamination of sin so that God, who has an aversion to sin, can dwell among sinful humanity. The blood affects the contagion of sin the same way that bleach affects viruses. While that is a helpful metaphor we shouldn’t think that God could somehow "catch" sin from us the way we catch a cold. Rather, the point is that God and the disease or pollution of sin cannot be in the same place and so the blood cleanses the contamination caused by sin and thus makes it possible for God to remain present. Several times the NT says that Jesus is our sin offering (Romans 8:4). In the book of Hebrews we are told that he carries his own blood into heaven itself on our behalf. In Colossians we are told that it is by the blood of Jesus that God reconciles all of creation to himself. Remember that the curtain in the tent if blue with palm trees, pomegranates and flying beings embroidered in it. Also, just on the other side of the curtain is the place where God lives, the Most Holy Place. The curtain represents both creation and God's presence. The idea is that our sin pollutes the entire universe, including heaven itself and the only way that God can live in the same place that sinners live is if the blood of his son cleanses the contagion or the pollution of sin. God is so just and so holy that he cannot tolerate sin in any form and it is only the blood of the sin offering that can cleanse the heavens and the earth so that God and man can dwell together. Additionally, we, the church, the people of God are now the temple of God, the place where he dwells. Thus, as Paul says in Ephesians 5:31 when we sin we grieve the Holy Spirit. Our ongoing sins as Christians continually contaminate our own bodies and the corporate church. Thus, as John says in 1 John 1:7, "the blood of Jesus his Son continually cleanses us from all sin." The only way that God, by the Spirit can keep living in us is because the blood of our sin offering, the crucified Christ, is continually purging us of the pollution of our sin. We can boldly approach God in prayer and we can be confident that our sins are forgiven and that heaven will welcome us because of that blood. It is not easy for God to live with us because…
IV. Our sin makes us debtors to God ( 5:14-6:7) There are three different scenarios for the offering of the guilt offering in 5:14-6:7. First, a person unintentionally eats an animal or grain or other produce that belongs to God. That's what it means to sin against the holy things of the Lord. Then he becomes aware that he has not given to God what he was supposed to give. At that time he takes a male ram to the Tent of Meeting where it is offered in a way that is not described and the person has to pay a fine for what he has taken from God. For example, if he ate one of his firstborn male lambs without redeeming it at the tent, then he would have to pay the priest the price of a year old male lamb plus a 20% fine along with the offering of the male ram. Second, in vv. 17-19, if a person feels like he or she has broken one of the Lord's commands but isn't sure which one or in what way, she simply has a guilty conscience, then the person is to offer a male ram as a guilt offering but there is no fine. Finally, if a person obtains property by deception and then feels bad about it and confesses what he has done, then he is to offer the male ram at the tent and pay the value of the stolen property plus a 20% fine to the one from whom he stole the property. The emphasis with the guilt offering is the value of the ram and the economic value of the things taken either from the Lord or from another person. The point is that sin puts us in God's debt and the debt must be paid. All that we have comes from God and he gives us everything we have to be used for his glory and the good of our neighbor. However, we take all God's gifts and use them for our own sinful purposes. We steal from God and man by using all that we are and have for our own private pleasures rather than for the glory of God and for the good of our neighbor. So sin and its consequence is often described in economic terms. Just think about that famous parable in Matthew 25 where the king wants to settle debts with the people in his kingdom and the guy is brought before him who owes him millions of dollars and cannot repay it. The servant used the king's property for himself and thus was in the king's debt. So the king forgives the debt when the servant asks. How is it right for God to forgive the debt we have incurred by sin? In Isaiah 53 which is quoted dozens of times in the NT as referring to Christ's suffering and death, God says in v. 10, "Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days… he will justify many." Peter says in his first letter, "For you know that it was not with perishable things like silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." In other words, Christ's life and death pay off our debt to God. He is our guilt offering which God accepts as the payment of our debt and so he forgives us and does not require us to pay him back. Throughout this passage the offerings are made when the person becomes aware of their sin or when they remember their failure or when their guilty conscience provokes them to confess. This happens to all of us all the time, right? Just yesterday Jane told me about a conversation she had with one of our children who was excessively worried. As they talked this child shared how their worry was in some sense caused by the fear I provoked in them when they saw me worry about things as they grew up. I made them afraid by my worry as children and so they now struggle with fear at certain points in their lives. What do I do about that? I have been made aware of sins from my past that I have forgotten about. I must go to God in confession trusting in the one who is my sin offering and my guilt offering. I need to talk to my child and ask forgiveness and seek to repair the damage I've done. The only way you can know if the sacrifice of Christ has been applied in your case is if you feel the weight of the guilt of your sins, confess your sins to God and willingly make restitution to those you have offended and sinned against. Your awareness of your guilt or your confession or your restitution does not earn God's forgiveness. It is the blood, the offering as applied by the priest that obtains forgiveness. But all those who are forgiven openly admit and confess their guilt to God and man and willingly make things right with those against whom they have sinned. Are you regularly becoming aware of the guilt of your many sins? Are you openly confessing those sins and making things right with those you sin against? Most importantly, are you daily going to Christ and trusting in the cleansing power of his blood and the sufficiency of his life and death as the payment of your debt to God? This is how true Christians respond to their guilt, when they remember their sins. © Copyright 2008 John Swanson.
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