15:22-31
We now come to offerings for unintentional sins. In some ways unintentional sins are the hardest to deal with. If we sin intentionally the “solution” is straightforward, we need to repent, and we receive forgiveness. With unintentional sins we did not mean to do any harm to anyone, so we cannot repent in the same way, for we had no intention of doing wrong. Yet our actions have still had a harmful effect. The cross deals with all our sins, the deliberate ones, and the unintentional ones.
There are instructions here both for the case where the people as a whole have sinned, and for the case where an individual has sinned. Again, the law applies both to the Hebrew and to the sojourner.
The person who wilfully sins is dealt with more severely. Our tendency for deliberate sin needs to be cast out. In New Testament terms we need to be sanctified.
15:32-36
Along with giving of our first fruits, the Sabbath was an important reminder and demonstration of our complete dependency upon the Lord. Here we have an extreme example. A man was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath. The Lord instructed the people to stone the man, and this they did. The harsh lesson is that unless we are totally dependent upon the Lord we cannot succeed.
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