Laws for various offerings
15
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 📚“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you have entered the land where you are to live, which I will give to you, 15:1-2 The people of Israel had lost their opportunity to enter Canaan for 40 years. A great many of them then living would never enter it. However, God immediately began to speak of what they should do after the people of Israel entered it – so certain it was that they would finally arrive in the land. Though they failed, He would not. Chapters 15 to 20 of Numbers cover a period of about 38 years. During that time Israel was wandering here and there in the desert regions south of Canaan. The instructions to the priests in this chapter, for the most part, had been given before at Sinai. Given again here they showed that the covenant was still in force, that God would undertake to bring them into Canaan, and that they should still observe His laws.⚜
6 📚“Or for a ram, you must prepare two tenths of an ephah of flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil as a grain offering, 7 and as a drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine, as a fragrant aroma to the LORD.
8 📚“And when you prepare an ox as a burnt offering, or as a sacrifice in performing a vow, or peace offerings 📖 to the LORD, 9 📚then he must bring with the ox a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of flour mixed with half a hin of oil. 10 📚And you shall bring as a drink offering half a hin of wine, as an offering made by fire, a fragrant aroma to the LORD. 11 This is the way it must be done for one ox, or for one ram, or for a lamb, or a young goat. 12 You shall prepare them according to the number of offerings; so do for each one in accordance with their number.
13 “Everyone who is native-born must do these things in this way, when presenting an offering made by fire, a fragrant aroma to the LORD. 14 And throughout your generations, if a foreigner is staying with you, or anyone else is among you, and presents an offering made by fire, a fragrant aroma to the LORD, he must do just as you do. 15 📚One ordinance is to be for both you of the congregation, and for the foreigner who is staying with you, a permanent ordinance throughout your generations. Before the LORD the foreigner is to be just as you are. 16 The same law and the same custom shall be for you, and for the foreigner who is staying with you”.
17 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 18 📚“Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you enter the land where I will take you, 19 📚it shall be that when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall present a lifted up offering to the LORD. 20 📚You shall offer a cake from the first of your dough as a lifted up offering. You shall lift it up just as you do the lifted up offering from the threshing floor. 21 📚Throughout your generations you shall present to the LORD a lifted up offering from the first of your dough.
22 📚“And if you unknowingly failed, and have not obeyed all these commands which the LORD has spoken to Moses, 23 all that the LORD has commanded you through Moses from the day that the LORD first commanded him, and from now on throughout your generations, 24 📚then it shall be, if any sin has been committed through ignorance, without the knowledge of the congregation, that the whole congregation shall offer one young ox as a burnt offering, as a fragrant aroma to the LORD, with its grain offering and its drink offering, in accordance with the ordinance, and one young goat as a sin offering. 25 📚And the priest shall make atonement for the whole congregation of the children of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them; for it was done in ignorance. And they shall bring their offering, a sacrifice made by fire to the LORD, and their sin offering, before the LORD, for their sin done in ignorance; 26 📚and it shall be forgiven the whole congregation of the children of Israel, and the foreigner who stays among them, since all the people were in ignorance.
27 📚“And if any person sins through ignorance, then he shall bring a female goat a year old as a sin offering. 28 📚And the priest shall make atonement for the person who sins in ignorance, when he sins in ignorance against the LORD, making atonement for him so that he can be forgiven him. 29 📚For the one who sins in ignorance you shall have the same law both for him who is born among the children of Israel, and for the foreigner who stays among them.
15:22-29 Unintentional sin is still sin. It does harm to people, it is an affront to God’s holiness, and it requires atonement (Lev 4:2; Ps 19:12-13).⚜
The punishment for presumptuous, wilful sin
30 📚“But the person who commits sin defiantly, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, is blaspheming the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 31 📚He must definitely be cut off, because he has rejected the word of the LORD, and has broken his commandment. His guilt will be on him”.
15:30-31 Sins done in arrogance and rebellion are a different matter. Those who do them blaspheme God and despise His word. They must be severely punished to show God’s wrath against sin and to show there can be no blessing of God when such things are permitted. The Lord Jesus said that all sin and blasphemy could be forgiven men (except the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit – Matt 12:31). Yes, but there will be very serious consequences in this life to the Christian who commits presumptuous sins (1 Cor 5:1-5; 11:29-30).⚜
32 📚And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. 33 📚And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to the whole congregation. 34 📚And they put him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him.
35 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death. The whole congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp”. 36 📚And the whole congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died, just as the LORD commanded Moses.
15:32-36 A man merely gathers a few sticks on the sabbath and so must die a cruel death. Was this justice? Yes it was, for God Himself commanded it. The people had just been warned about presumptuous sins. This man had not “merely” gathered a few sticks on the sabbath. He had openly defied God and despised His word (Ex 20:9-11). That is why he had to die. God set him forth as an example of what should happen to everyone who defiantly, arrogantly disobeys the Word of God. The law justly condemns all who disobey it. The reason for the law’s existence is not to show mercy, and, in fact, it does not do so. Since we are all sinners (that is, breakers of God’s law) we all deserve to die (Rom 3:19; Gal 3:10-14). By such examples as the incident in this chapter the law teaches us to come to Christ for mercy and grace (Gal 3:24). It teaches us how much we need the Gospel of God. Without it we would all be dead and in hell. Note on law at Ex 19:21-25.⚜
Tassels on clothes
37 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 38 📚“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them to make for themselves tassels on the hems of their garments, throughout their generations, and that they put a blue cord on the tassels on the hems. 39 📚And it will be a tassel for you to look at and remember 📖 all the commandments of the LORD, and do them, and not follow your own heart and your own eyes, in accordance with which you have been prostituting yourselves, 40 📚so that you may remember to obey all my commandments, and to be holy for your God. 41 📚I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. I am the LORD your God”.