The Consecration

Studies in Numbers

II Failure

A The Commencement

5 The Consecration, Text: 15:1-41

Introduction

Numbers 15 deals further with the preparations of Israel to enter the Promised Land. These are ordinances to be obeyed after they have entered the Promised Land, and that means that they carry with them the assurance that God will bring the next generation into the land. Like all sinners, Israel was prone to forget the Lord who had given them their blessings and fulfilled His promises. Many times today Christians give great weight to the law of God when they desire to escape its sanctions, but, once they are forgiven, they forget its regulations. Many emphasize grace to the exclusion of law. We are removed by God’s grace from the penalty of the law, so that we are not “under law, but under grace.” We are never removed from the obligation to obey the law of God. We tend to repeat the errors of Israel in despising and cheapening the grace of God by our ignoring the precepts of God’s law. We must grow. We must move forward. We may be saved in a moment of repentance and faith, but sanctification is a lifelong process. It is also painful, but as we know from he earlier chapters the Israelites were not good at enduring pain and privation. C. S. Lewis reminds us of this in a thought about his childhood. He writes,” I often had a toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother, she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother till the pain became very bad. And the reason was this: I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist the next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from my pain; but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists; I knew they would start fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. Our Lord is like the dentists. Dozens of people go to him to be cured of some particular sin. Well, he will cure it all right, but he will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if you once call him in, he will give you the full treatment. The rules here require us to examine the significance of the occasion and the stipulations to be obeyed.

I SIGNIFICANCE

The sacrifices in verses 1-12 and 17-21 are not new but the instructions are because they include meal offerings. The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘After you enter the land I am giving you as a home and you present to the Lord offerings made by fire, from the herd or the flock, as an aroma pleasing to the Lord—whether burnt offerings or sacrifices, for special vows or freewill offerings or festival offerings—then the one who brings his offering shall present to the Lord a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil. With each lamb for the burnt offering or the sacrifice, prepare a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. “ ‘With a ram prepare a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil, and a third of a hin of wine as a drink offering. Offer it as an aroma pleasing to the Lord. “ ‘When you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, for a special vow or a fellowship offering to the Lord, bring with the bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil. Also bring half a hin of wine as a drink offering. It will be an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. Each bull or ram, each lamb or young goat, is to be prepared in this manner. Do this for each one, for as many as you prepare…The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land to which I am taking you and you eat the food of the land, present a portion as an offering to the Lord. Present a cake from the first of your ground meal and present it as an offering from the threshing floor. Throughout the generations to come you are to give this offering to the Lord from the first of your ground meal. In detail these instructions tell Israel the exact proportions of meal and drink offerings that are to accompany their animal sacrifices. These are stipulations but the important thing here is that these provisions remind the people of the blessings of the land into which God has brought them, a land flowing with milk and honey. The Promised Land is often described as a land of milk and honey which in the Hebrew means a land which is, as we would say, the cream of the crop, the best in providing for its inhabitants. Here in this chapter what the abundant food offerings suggest is that God has kept his promises. It is the surety of God’s faithfulness, even to a disobedient people. It is the assurance, and the corroboration of God’s promises, and the bond of His faithfulness.

II STIPULATIONS

A STRANGER

Strangers and aliens were governed by the same rules even though they were not descendants of Abraham’s family as we read in verses 13-16, “Everyone who is native-born must do these things in this way when he brings an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the Lord. For the generations to come, whenever an alien or anyone else living among you presents an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the Lord, he must do exactly as you do. The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the Lord: The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you. ” Calvin reminds us, “He does not mean all strangers, but only those who, descending from heathen nations, had professedly turned to God, and thus had been received into the body of the Church; for the uncleanness of those who remained in un-circumcision excluded them from the legal service.” I believe Calvin is right because the passage is describing only those who are participating in the prescribed sacrifices. You would not do that if you had no interest in Israel’s religion. Many of these non-Israelites called the “mixed multitude” were partakers with Israel in the power of God manifested in the Exodus and the destruction of the most powerful nation on earth at that time. They crossed the red sea,and were baptized there and they ate the manna and drank water from the rock. This also preserved the purity of worship since the multitude had experienced different things in the past and God would have them worship only His way.

B SINS

The purity of divine worship is also preserved by guarding against the omission of the prescribed procedures in verses 22-31, “Now if you unintentionally fail to keep any of these commands the Lord gave Moses—any of the Lord’s commands to you through him, from the day the Lord gave them and continuing through the generations to come—and if this is done unintentionally without the community being aware of it, then the whole community is to offer a young bull for a burnt offering as an aroma pleasing to the Lord, along with its prescribed grain offering and drink offering, and a male goat for a sin offering. The priest is to make atonement for the whole Israelite community, and they will be forgiven, for it was not intentional and they have brought to the Lord for their wrong an offering made by fire and a sin offering. The whole Israelite community and the aliens living among them will be forgiven, because all the people were involved in the unintentional wrong. But 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. 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.” The main part of this portion of our text deals with breaches of the rules God has given for worship and life, but they are breaches of ignorance. They are not what we call deliberate. They are not rebellious. For us in the New Testament era the obligations imposed by Jesus’ death as the manifestation of eternal love are greater because in proportion as the Divine will is made clear, the sin of rejection becomes greater and more blasphemous. But, on the other hand, the unwitting transgressor, be he heathen or imperfectly instructed Christian, has under the new covenant, in which mercy and justice go hand in hand, no less consideration than the Hebrew who unintentionally erred. By His mercy God commends to us patience and endurance. Transgressors are to have their full opportunity of repentance, to which the very goodness of God calls them. If we take this to heart we will not be the kind of self-righteous overzealous moralists who are intent on making people pay for sins committed earlier in life especially before their conversion. I illustrate as follows: A happily married dedicated Christian couple reveal that they have been divorced in the past for the wrong reasons in disobedience to God’s law. Some misled people actually think they should be excluded from office or leadership, or even from the Church and the kingdom of God. That does not reflect God’s attitude. God says that though our sins be as scarlet he will make them as white as snow, if we repent. There are those who sin deliberately, knowing these things and they are mentioned in verses 30 and 31 and they must be expelled, but even they have the opportunity to repent. In this we do not exceed the rule of the Old Covenant because the person excluded is said to be defiant and that is the opposite of repentant.. 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.

C SABBATH

Another example of stubborn and defiant sinning is revealed in verses 32-36, 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. The man was defiant because all his neighbors were observing the sabbath when he did this. In this day and age when the sabbath is largely disregarded, not only by society at large but also by church going Christians, this is a hard teaching. We live in a culture with only the remnants of Christian morality, but that at least enables most people to see that stealing and murder are wrong. Transgressing the sabbath hardly makes the list of sins. The reason is that we have lost sight of who we’re hurting. This man like the previously mentioned deliberate sinners, has “despised the Lord’s Word.” We may think that the only measure of sinful conduct is the humans we hurt. This is why people engaged in private licentious behavior always say, “Who am I hurting?” The answer is that sin is measured by what God thinks of it, and not what we think. That is why David writes in Psalm 51, his prayer of repentance for adultery and murder, “Against thee only have I sinned.” Of course he had sinned against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah the Hittite, but in comparison to the offense to God, that was nothing. We have lost that perspective.

D SYMBOLS

God gave an ordinance to the people to remind them of His commands. We read in verses 37-41, The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. 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 Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.” The purpose here is concisely stated, “to remember and obey.” Visual reminders are important. Our faith is bolstered by seeing as well as hearing. Jesus illustrated many truths with signs and wonders, and each time we celebrate the Lord’s supper or baptism we are seeing the truth visually portrayed. Thus God gave a sign to the Israelites to remind them of His commandments which was a fringe on the hem of their shawls. Unfortunately like all signs, when the meaning is lost the sign becomes a stumbling block rather than a blessing. That this happened with the Pharisees and the fringe is made clear in Matthew 23:5-7 where Jesus is talking about hypocrisy and he says, “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. It was indeed a minute and apparently trivial distinction, and yet would most surely strike the eye, like the service medals on a uniform which recall the exploits of a soldier. The tasseled Hebrew was a marked man in society. He could not pass himself off as one of the heathen; he was perpetually reminded of the special relation in which he stood to the Lord by the uniform which he wore. This same hypocrisy is magnified in modern orthodox Jews many of whom who wear the Talith or shawl as an undergarment rather than in plain view. Christians do no differently when they observe the signs of their faith without understanding or appreciating the meaning. We always have the opportunity to repent so let us meet at the cross.