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Sunday 27 March 2011

Numbers 15 : Various instructions

After the non-entry into the Promised Land we get more instructions on offerings. God's plan had not changed, the nation of Israel would still enter the Promised Land, and everything was still geared towards preparing for that.
There are more instructions on unintentional sins, and a distinction is drawn between defiant and unintentional sins. Unintentional sins matter, hence the sacrifices needed, but defiant sins are even more serious, for they reflect a condition of the heart.
A man broke the Sabbath. Moses and Aaron kept him in custody until they had consulted the Lord. Then God told them to put him to death. Now this sort of verse was used as a pretext by the Pharisees and other religious leaders in Jesus' time for putting Jesus to death, for He was seen as a Sabbath breaker. By the time of Jesus the situation with the Sabbath had reached ridiculousness, with myriads of rules and regulations, completely losing what it was all about. We see here also a cautiousness on the part of Moses and Aaron. Even so the man was till stoned to death.
The Israelites were to tie tassels to their garments to remind them of the commands of the Lord. They were to live by the word of God, not the lusts of their own hearts and eyes. The root is man's sin is thinking we can decided for ourselves what is right and wrong, without any reference to God's word. Instead, we are to be a people consecrated to the Lord, living by His word. 

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