I was reading another article today and realized an interesting point that makes a huge difference in how I view forgiveness. The focus was Thus the priest shall make expiation for them, and they shall be forgiven. Leviticus 4:20 “Baruch Levine makes the point that the Hebrew verb, k-p-r, is often translated by a phrase such as “to cover or conceal.” But this isn’t correct. The idea behind kipper is to wipe clean, to remove defilement, to wipe off.” (“Cleaning Up the Confusion”) As a Christ-follower, I have always tended to think of Christ’s blood as a covering. It covers my sins. But the word used in the verse above actually means to wipe clean. It seems like an insignificant thing, right? Does the blood cover or clean? Either way, God doesn’t see my sin, I guess. But then I realized some of the implications of the difference. If my sins are merely covered, then my sin still clings to me. Underneath His blood, I am still filthy, disgusting, and stained with years and years of sin. (Also, if God does know everything then can’t He see through that blood and see all the yuck underneath?) If my sins are wiped away, then underneath His blood I am clean and pure. His blood against my skin, soaking into my soul. That seems like a pretty significant difference.
Leviticus 16:21 Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send [it] away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. This is an interesting verse. When Aaron lays his hands on the live goat (aka. the scapegoat) the Hebrew text says he cast the punishment for the sins of the children of Israel on it. It wasn’t just the sin that was transferred, it was the guilt and punishment for those sins. The goat was then sent into the wilderness (where it was probably eaten by lions or other animals in short order). The symbolism is that their sins were removed, and they never saw them again. This is what Jesus did for us on the cross, too. Our guilt and our punishment for our sins were placed on Him (our scapegoat). He was killed in the wilderness of our world and our sins were completely removed from the eyes of God. I once read somewhere that the Israelites would place a scarlet thread outside or inside the temple and that after the scapegoat was removed it would miraculously turn from red to white. However, once Jesus died, the miracle no longer occurred. Jesus removed the need to offer continual sacrifices. I think God has a remarkable imagination and an amazing way of using symbols to help us understand what He does in our lives. Sometimes this makes it a little tricky, but maybe that makes the search more satisfying.
Leviticus 3:-7 LOTS of sacrifices. Wow! The priests were busy! There are an awful lot of sacrifices that were to be made. Although, they often pertain to different classes of people, so it may not have been that many to remember. Most though do focus on unintentional sins. Only one is for an unintentional sin – lying or stealing. That one involves restoring what was taken plus extra, and then the person also had to make a sin offering. Another thing is that if a person is unclean and they participate in or consume any of the sacrifice they would be cut off from Israel – exiled. They wouldn’t be able to offer sacrifices, and that meant they wouldn’t be forgiven and they wouldn’t have that special relationship with God. No wonder they tried so hard to keep from being defiled or made unclean! Same thing if a person ate the fat from an offering or at blood. What the heck is a wave offering? And a heave offering? Other than those two weird things, there was a grain offering, a burnt offering, a sin offering, a trespass offering, the consecrations, and the peace offering. That’s a lot! But I suppose that if you’d grown up with that as part of your life it wouldn’t be nearly as complex sounding as it is today when it’s archaic. Thankfully, we don’t have a Temple anymore, and because of that and because of Jesus, we no longer have to offer sacrifices like this. The Hebrews always put the most important things at the beginning (they didn’t much care about chronology, like we do today). So, since the sacrifices are the first thing in this book (which was also the first book the children read and learned to write from), they must have been critical. They established and enabled the relationship between YHWH and His people. They didn’t want to do anything to mess that us, so they put it first. It was the first thing you learned because that relationship was the most important thing in their lives. Is it the most important thing in my life? Do I put that relationship first?
Psalm 19:12, 14 How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. This is my prayer. Sometimes I feel like there are so many hidden faults, those things that are so ingrained in me that I don’t even realize they’re there – like pride or selfishness. I know that some people would say that God convicts me of my sin and I should recognize these things… but the truth is sometimes God’s working on one issue and I get focused on that and don’t hear Him, or other times I’m so busy that I’m not paying a whole lot of attention. I’d like to think that I could pause and reflect and ask God to cleanse me from my hidden faults. My prayer each day is that the words of my mouth and the thoughts (or meditations) of my heart be pleasing to my Abba, Father, my rock and my redeemer. He paid a high price to redeem my heart, and I want to make Him smile.
Romans 9:18 So you see, God shows mercy to some just because he wants to, and he chooses to make some people refuse to listen. This has always been a point that amazes and kind of saddens me. God created and creates some people to refuse to listen, to be the “bad guys” in history. For example, He made Pharaoh in Egypt refuse to listen and let the Israelites go so that He could show His glory through the situation. He chose Jacob, but rejected Esau (even before they were born). So, God makes some people bad in order that His glory may be shown more clearly. I guess it’s kind of like bad things happening. God could stop all of them and we’d never suffer, but then God’s miraculous provision and mercy wouldn’t be as obvious. I don’t think we’d depend on Him as much if we never had a need. So, God’s allowing or creating some people to be the bad guys makes His glory and His love and His mercy shine that much more significantly. Maybe that’s why God still saves those people who are on death row for horrible crimes against people. He made them, too, and maybe they’re like Pharaoh, chosen to reject God for a purpose, but given a chance for repentance in the end so that all people may come to know the love of Christ. That’s pretty hard to fathom, and I’ve never understood how God could love some people like child molesters and murderers who torture people. But if I look at it in light of this verse (and the other ones in context), it makes a little more sense.
Romans 7:19 When I want to do good, I don’t. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. This sounds like Paul was having one of those days where no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t do it right. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to try to explain these concepts for the first time. Although, since it’s God-inspired it might not have been as hard as I think. Regardless of how it was written, this is one of those passages that people read, and then reread, and then scratch their head and reread, to try and get the point. The Blue Letter Bible actually puts each verse on its own line, which is annoying sometimes, but in this case is really helpful because I can read each verse of this sometimes confusing passage individually, helping me make more sense of it. In some ways it sounds like Paul’s saying, “It’s not my fault!” But he clearly acknowledges his sinful nature’s role in poor decision making. Heaven knows I feel this way sometimes, when everything I do seems to be the wrong thing… or when I know what the right thing to do is, but don’t do it. For example, where I work it’s very easy to speak negatively about things, and even though I know that’s not the right thing to do, I often get sucked into that negativity because of my frustration with things. So, I know the right thing to do, but don’t do it. Sigh. Thankfully, God is merciful and oh, so patient! So, every time I mess up (again) He forgives me, and I can try again.
Romans 6:11 So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus. Today’s my first day back at work/school after 2 beautiful and wonderful weeks of vacation. Man! I’m so not ready for this! And of course, my time this morning is all about sin and forgiveness and the role they play in our lives. Heavy stuff for my mind this early and this distractable. Romans 6 starts with that famous question, “should I keep sinning so that God can show his mercy and forgiveness through that? Should I sin more so I can be forgiven more?” That’s kind of like asking if you should cut yourself to get a bandaid (granted God’s forgiveness is more like a healing miracle than a bandaid, but hopefully that makes the point of how silly that question is). Paul goes on to talk about how Jesus conquered death and sin and since we believe in Him and have new life through Him we no longer are subjected to continually doing the wrong thing. Does that mean that we’ll be perfect? No. But since we are no longer required to do what sin tells us to, we can live in a way that brings glory to God through our love and kindness. And if you’re like me at all, you’re thinking “that’s a tall order! I make mistakes all the time!” Yup. You’re human, too (I hope, unless you’re a robot or strangely intelligent something else). But its okay, that’s why we have forgiveness. And, the more we get to know God, the more able we are to live like Him and act in a way that reflects His mercy, grace, and love. And I think that’s the point of it all.