OK, let’s finish up with
one last Trespass Offering. Again, these are offerings for sins committed in
ignorance. If one sinned with a stiff neck and an obstinate heart, what kind of
offering could they bring? Sorry, that’s a trick question. Numbers 15:30-31—“‘30 But the person who does anything presumptuously,
whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the LORD,
and he shall be cut off from among his people. 31 Because he has despised the
word of the LORD, and has broken His commandment, that person shall be
completely cut off; his guilt shall be upon him.’” A theme which, by the
way, the writer of Hebrews picks up on in Hebrews 10:26—For if we sin willfully after we have received the
knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
Does this mean that if we sin intentionally and with forethought that we will
be destroyed? No. The phrase “sin willfully” is in the present tense. It means,
literally, “If we continue sinning sinfully.” That is, if the pattern of our
life is sin, then Christ will profit us nothing. But, again, God knows us
humans—in fact, He knows us better than we know ourselves (or, rather, better
than we want to know ourselves). And He knows there will
be times when we do something wrong, and we don’t realize it until it’s too
late.
So, in the Law, He gives
the people this measure of grace, Leviticus 5:14-19—14 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “15 If a person
commits a trespass, and sins unintentionally in regard to the holy things of
the LORD, then he shall bring to the LORD as his trespass offering a ram
without blemish from the flocks, with your valuation in shekels of silver
according to the shekel of the sanctuary, as a trespass offering. 16 And he
shall make restitution for the harm that he has done in regard to the holy
thing, and shall add one-fifth to it and give it to the priest. So the priest
shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it
shall be forgiven him. 17 If a person sins, and commits any of these things
which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD, though he does
not know it, yet he is guilty and shall bear his iniquity. 18 And he shall bring
to the priest a ram without blemish from the flock, with your valuation, as a
trespass offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him regarding his
ignorance in which he erred and did not know it, and it shall be forgiven him.
19 It is a trespass offering; he has certainly trespassed against the LORD.”
So, what is the “shekel
of the sanctuary”? It is 20 gerahs. What do you mean you don’t know what a
gerah is? A gerah is equivalent in weight to about 16 coffee beans. A shekel of
weight was equal to 20 gerahs, so the person would bring a ram without blemish,
and a weight in silver equivalent to about 320 coffee beans plus 1/5 of 320
coffee beans (64), for a grand total of weight of 384 coffee beans. Why aren’t
they teaching these things in school anymore? There are some times when we can
plead “ignorance” with God. There are some areas of life where God gives our
conscience leeway. Paul wrote on this many times, most clearly in Romans
14:1-3—1 Receive one who is weak in the faith,
but not to disputes over doubtful things. 2 For one believes he may eat all
things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 Let not him who eats despise
him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for
God has received him. And also 1st Corinthians 8:5-9—5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven
or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one
God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. 7 However, there
is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol,
until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being
weak, is defiled. 8 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat
are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. 9 But beware lest
somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.
So there are some areas where we have liberty, as Christians, to allow our conscience
to lead us. However, he also said in Galatians 5:13—Do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but
through love serve one another. Just doing something wrong and saying
“Well, my conscience and my Christian liberty tell me this is not a sin” is not
an excuse to live a sinful lifestyle.
That said, once we know
something is wrong, we need to ‘fess up. We need to wash our feet daily, as the
priests were to wash their feet before they took the blood into the sanctuary.
And once we learn that we have sinned, there must be mourning and confession
over that sin. The offering for that sin—it’s already been done in Christ.
We’ll finish with an example of the realization of sin, and the heart that
realizes and an offering for atonement must be made. Consider the example of
Ezra, after the people came back from the Babylonian captivity, after Nehemiah
led the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. We read in Ezra about how the
temple was rebuilt and all the articles of the temple were restored. And all
the people were ready to once again worship God. But there was one problem. Ezra
9:1-2—1 When these things were done, the
leaders came to me, saying, "The people of Israel and the priests and the
Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, with
respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites,
the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2
For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their
sons, so that the holy seed is mixed with the peoples of those lands. Indeed,
the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass."
Remember, these people
had been in captivity, and had probably not had the ability to read or hear the
Law in its fullness. So the commands against marrying foreigners was, more than
likely, lost on these people. They had sinned in ignorance. Now, the common
response today would be, “Well, what’s done is done. Can't do anything about
it now; let’s just get on with our lives.” But look at Ezra’s response. Ezra
9:3-5—3 So when I heard this thing, I tore my
garment and my robe, and plucked out some of the hair of my head and beard, and
sat down astonished. 4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of
Israel assembled to me, because of the transgression of those who had been
carried away captive, and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice. 5 At
the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and
my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God.
The people had sinned in ignorance, and now the sin
which they have committed becomes known, so what are they to do? Do they
just put it behind them and try to do better next time? Do they say, “Well,
now, we would mess up all these lives if we did anything about it now. We’re
sure God would understand!” No.
Let’s skip ahead to Ezra
10:2-3, 16-19—2 And Shechaniah the son of
Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, spoke up and said to Ezra, "We have
trespassed against our God, and have taken pagan wives from the peoples of the
land; yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this. 3 Now therefore, let us
make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have
been born to them, according to the advice of my master and of those who
tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the
law"…16 And Ezra the priest, with certain heads of the fathers'
households, were set apart by the fathers' households, each of them by name;
and they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter. 17
By the first day of the first month they finished questioning all the men who
had taken pagan wives. 18 And among the sons of the priests who had taken pagan
wives the following were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and
his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. 19 And they gave their
promise that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they
presented a ram of the flock as their trespass offering. The people
had sinned by taking foreign wives—a sin committed in ignorance of God’s Law. They
realized their sin, and as hard as it may have been for them, they had to do
that which glorified God the most, and must put away these foreign wives, and
separate themselves from their (little-g) gods. That is one cost of being one
of God’s people. You must separate yourself from sin. Paul says we are to put
to death our body of sin (Colossians 3:5). There are some, however, who
say that teaching like that makes one a “closet Catholic®” and that we are
teaching “legalism” and “salvation by works.” No we’re not. We’re simply
teaching the Bible.
Jesus even said in Matthew
10:37-39—“37 He who loves father or mother more
than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is
not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is
not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his
life for My sake will find it.” That’s harsh! If you don’t love Christ
more than you love even your closest blood relatives—even your mother and
father—then you have no part in Christ! He also said, Luke 9:62—"No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking
back, is fit for the kingdom of God." And He gave us this simple
warning, Luke 17:32—“Remember Lot’s wife.”
The apostle Paul also gives list after list of those things which God calls
sin, and which we are to avoid lest we risk our very soul. 1st
Corinthians 6:9-10—9 Do you not know that the
unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will
inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21—19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are:
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred,
contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,
heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I
tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who
practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who do
not turn away from doing such things willfully, as a pattern of life, will be
shut outside the kingdom of God, and will have no other sacrifice for those
sins. They will stand before God, be judged based on those works of the flesh,
and be cast into the Lake of Fire.
Now, the following
section we have already studied, when we were surveying the Ten Commandments.
This section deals with theft, but there is one aspect we did not talk about,
so here is the text and a final commentary. Leviticus 6:1-7—1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “2 If a person
sins and commits a trespass against the LORD by lying to his neighbor about
what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or about a pledge, or about a
robbery, or if he has extorted from his neighbor, 3 or if he has found what was
lost and lies concerning it, and swears falsely—in any one of these things that
a man may do in which he sins: 4 then it shall be, because he has sinned and is
guilty, that he shall restore what he has stolen, or the thing which he has
extorted, or what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or the lost thing which
he found, 5 or all that about which he has sworn falsely. He shall restore its
full value, add one-fifth more to it, and give it to whomever it belongs, on
the day of his trespass offering. 6 And he shall bring his trespass offering to
the LORD, a ram without blemish from the flock, with your valuation, as a
trespass offering, to the priest. 7 So the priest shall make atonement for him
before the LORD, and he shall be forgiven for any one of these things that he
may have done in which he trespasses.” Not only do you have to bring a
Trespass Offering (אָשָׁם (asham)), but the priest set a value of what you stole.
Once he establishes that valuation, you had to bring that amount, plus another
20%. So let’s say you know who stole one of Yitzhak’s goats. Or you found one
of Yitzhak’s goats and kept it for yourself. Or you blackmailed Yitzhak into
giving you one of his goats. Once you are found out the priest hears the
matter, determines that the goat is worth 10 shekels of silver according to the
shekel of the sanctuary. You come to the tabernacle with 12 shekels of silver
according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the 10 shekels the goat was worth,
plus the 1/5 added to it), along with a Trespass Offering
(אָשָׁם (asham)). You confess your sin, and then and only then
can the priest make atonement for you. Why these rules? Why these commands? Why
these specifications? Because we humans need them. Because we humans are always
trying to find loopholes. “Well, it’s not like I snuck into Yitzhak’s goat
pen and stole it!” Yes it is.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Amen.
