Would you like to know why the US economy is about to take a nosedive yet again? It’s because people will have less to spend. A *lot* less.
Check out MyTaxBurden.org. Plug in fictitious numbers if you want. Then press the “Calculate” button and see how much more in taxes you’re about to spend next year when the Bush tax cuts expire.
People have less to spend, so they spend less. Rocket science.
A touching eulogy to a family’s best friend, their dog.
I’m certain I have something in my eye.
I. Introduction
We continue with a study of Leviticus this week and we’re going to focus on the things God commanded the Israelites to avoid in order to live holy lives. Last week and this week, the Lord spoke through Moses to give the ancient Israelites the Law, rules and regulations the Hebrews were to live by. Are we bound by these same rules, are we under Old Testament Law? And if not, are we completely free to disregard the laws in Leviticus?
God provide His perfect Law to us out of love, not arbitrary restriction. It’s not a maze we’re supposed to follow to achieve Heaven; it’s a guidebook to a sanctifying, pleasing, rewarding life. Laws given to us in the Old Testament in some cases, such as dietary restrictions, were expressly waived by Peter’s vision; perhaps those “unclean” animals were identified for our health and hygiene, but we’ve learned a lot about cleanliness over the centuries. The remaining religious restrictions are no longer applicable, though the protection still applies, that unclean food must be prepared properly so we don’t get sick.
Other laws have been reaffirmed by the New Testament. Sexual immorality of many different kinds were considered an abomination to the Lord, and repeated in the New Testament that they are still an abomination. These sexual perversions stand in the way of God’s plan for us, for the relationships He wants us to develop, how man and woman are supposed to related to each other.
Other laws are less clear. Leviticus 19:19 prohibits wearing clothing of mixed fibers. Should Christians be able to wear cotton and silk at the same time? Nothing in the New Testament specifically addresses this either way. Most scholars would say this is like some sort of consumer-protection law, that silk and cotton have different strengths and result in a cheaper garment. I don’t know about that, But I do know that in the New Testament Jesus revealed how God is concerned entirely with matters of the heart. The legalism of the Pharisees seemed particularly troubling. I would say that the mixed fiber restrictions of the Old Testament have no relevance in today’s world. If I wear a silk tie and a cotton shirt at the same time, it’s not a matter of respect or worship. It’s just material stuff.
All that being said, just like last week we can look at what God told the Hebrews, remind ourselves that God wants a relationship with us and is less concerned about our petty legalism, and then study to see if our unchanging and loving God has a lesson for us today from the Old Testament.
II. Avoid Worldly Practices, Leviticus 18:1-5
So let’s start off with Leviticus 18:1-5 -
The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘I am the LORD your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.
Notice any repetitive words there? Scripture uses the word “Lord” four times in five verses. Why do you think the Lord would repeat His name so many times?
The Israelites had just left Egypt where they had lived for 400 years. During that time, they were surrounded by a pagan culture. This pagan culture had a profound and corrupting influence on the Hebrews. Remember when Moses went up on the mountain? He was gone, like, a day, and the Israelites start saying, “Oh my, Moses has abandoned us” and they immediately made a golden calf to worship. The pagan culture in which they lived had corrupted their worship of the Lord.
There were other corrupting factors; in the Egyptian royal family, brothers were often married to their sisters. Near the land of Canaan there would be new influences on the Israelites. Some cultures practiced bestiality. Archaeological evidence shows some Canaanites sacrificed their own children to their gods. The Israelites were moving from one corrupting influence into another corrupting influence. The Lord’s warning was simple. Do not be like those you left, and do not be like those where you are going. Be separate, be holy.
I don’t think it’s necessary to read the details in the next verses of Leviticus, but it’s worthwhile to discuss corrupting influences of our culture on Christianity. Many of the corrupting influences are now so ingrained in our culture, we’re not even aware we’ve been corrupted.
As part of my study this weekend, I read about a man who always carried a small crucifix in his pocket for protection. Then he got involved in a car accident, and he wondered why the crucifix didn’t protect him. How is this an example of Christianity corrupted?
Every Easter, we hide Easter eggs and tell children that the Easter bunny left them over night. How is this a corruption of Christianity?
What other examples can you think of? (Christmas, Halloween, Mardi Gras.)
We can also apply this directly to our personal lives. Before we come to Christ, we are sinners in the eyes of the Lord. When we come to Christ, we become like new, the old is washed away. But where did we come from? Did the lives we lived as sinners have a corrupting influence on our lives that affect our new lives as Christian? I had many corrupting influences; greed, idolatry, pride, lust, gluttony. While I am forgiven of my past transgressions, I still feel the repercussions of my old Egyptian life. They corrupt me, and if I am not ever vigilant, these corruptions will attempt to creep back into my life.
And where we are going? We are headed to our own promised land, but along the way, our faith and our sanctification can be corrupted, even by well-meaning fellow Christians. Let me give you a few examples.
We can all agree that God is love, correct? And we can agree that love is a virtue that pleases God. But understand that when we try to apply this perfect love to our lives and those around us, we can do it wrong. Synonyms of love, definitions of love that are pleasing to God include: affection, charity, compassion, benevolence, adoration, fondness, commitment, caring deeply. And we know what to avoid, the opposite of love, the vices: hate, animosity, antipathy, aversion, dislike, enmity, hostility, ill-will, malice, vindictiveness, fear, dread. But the corruption, the perversion of love, is just as destructive. Possessiveness, overly protective, permissive, smothering love, manipulated love. On the surface, these appear to be love, but they are not. They are perversions of love.
Nearly every virtue has a vice, an opposite, that we know to avoid. But we are not as confident about the corruptions to our faith, the perversions. So let’s talk about them.
Virtue: Joy. Delight, gladness, cheerful.
Vice: Pain, hurt, agony, anguish, distress, misery.
Perversion: frenzy, crazed excitement, hysteria.
Virtue: Peace. Quietness, tranquility, harmony, serenity.
Vice: War, rage, conflict, feud, brawl.
Perversion: lukewarm, indifference, detached, uninvolved.
Virtue: Patience. Longsuffering, endurance, perseverance.
Vice: impatient, crabby, nagging, touchy, impetuous, restless. Perversion: lenient, indulgent, permissive.
Virtue: Gentleness. Kindness, goodness, kind.
Vice: Severe, harsh, rough, abusive, bitter, cruel, rude, violent.
Perversion: Mushy, neglect, lax, careless, inattentive.
Virtue: Faith. Trustworthy, reliable, fidelity, loyal, dependable.
Vice: Untrustworthy, inconsistent, uncertainty.
Perversion: Legalism, workaholic, fanatic, extremism.
Virtue: Humility. Meek, accepting
Vice: pride, egotistic, vain.
Perversion: Weakness, cowardly, wimpy, spineless, timid.
These perversions of Christian virtue sometimes come from other well-meaning Christians. Other times, these perversion come from outside the church, allowing non-Christians to tell us what we’re supposed to believe. We fall victim to these perversions because we allow people to guide our walk with Christ instead of letting Jesus guide our walk. God wants us to be vigilant, that our actions and our heart belong to Him. Don’t let our past, pre-Christian lives corrupt our Christianity, and don’t let others in our future corrupt us, either. Keep returning to God’s word for instruction.
III. Avoid Immorality, Leviticus 18:20-26
Leviticus 6-18 describe various forms of incest and adultery, I hope you don’t mind if we skip over most of that. The next verses are graphic, but I think they’re necessary to understand that God also wants us to avoid immorality in our lives. Leviticus 18:20-26 -
Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her. Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
Sexual immorality, adultery, child sacrifice, bestiality. It’s amazing to me that God would have to provide a specific warning to avoid this sort of behavior. Molech mentioned here was the god of the Ammonites, and worshiping Molech involved sacrificing an innocent child as somehow pleasing. Sadly, the Israelites were indeed corrupted; 2 Kings 23 and Jeremiah 7 both mention that the Israelites had started worshiping Molech. But this wasn’t worship; this was murder. Any practice that takes a human life made in God’s image for the purpose of convenience or to benefit ourselves is murder in God’s eyes.
And yet today, our society has slipped into the same practices. The practice of abortion for convenience, or the practice of euthanasia, taking the life of the young or the elderly is violating the sanctity of life.
How does the phrase “anything goes” describe our society? Do you think “anything goes” should be considered Christian? What word or phrase should describe the life of a Christian?
Homosexuality is condemned as detestable which means this act is especially offensive to God. And yet our society in the last thirty years or so has changed; it used to be morally offensive to be gay or lesbian, now our country is considering passing laws protecting such lifestyle, and to speak out against it is a hate crime.
We are called to love one another, to share the love of Christ with unbelievers so that they, too, will learn of God’s love. We are called to rebuke those who use scripture incorrectly for personal gain. We harm the image of Christianity if we cannot learn to speak the truth in love. Gays and lesbians should be welcome in church. I’m thankful a church welcomed me when I was seeking. But acceptance of the person is not the same thing as acceptance of the lifestyle. Some churches are in great schisms now because they are ordaining gays and lesbians as pastors, in effect saying that a homosexual lifestyle is an acceptable sin, there’s no need to repent. All sin is offensive to God, and all sin should bring repentance, a turning away from that sin. Would we accept a pastor with any other unrepentant sin? One in an adulterous relationship maybe? Sins detestable to God should not be acceptable to Christians. Sinful people acceptable to God should be acceptable to Christians. Those two statements do not contradict each other.
God says these detestable practices led to the land vomiting out the people that lived there, which is why God is giving it to the Israelis instead. And God says if the Israelis or even the aliens, the non-Israelites, engage it detestable practices, they, too, will be vomited out. My interpretation of this says that this great land of America given to us by God should maintain Judeo-Christian values. How are we doing in that regard? Are Christians standing up against immorality, or is society dragging Christians down?
We forget that God judges nations when immorality runs rampant. The Canaanites had no covenant relationship to God, and God punished them for their excesses and abominations. There comes a day when the patience of God is replaced by the judgment of God.
I am struck by the fact that these sexual practices are so detestable to God, that even if the aliens living among them practice it, the land will vomit them out. We should take that as instruction from God to continue speaking out against immorality. When Massachusetts passes a law that permits gay marriage, Christians should speak out against it and oppose this slide in moral values. It is not all right. God doesn’t like it. He is the Lord our God.
IV. Avoid Sorcery, Leviticus 20:6-8
Leviticus 19 contains a host of other laws; don’t cuss, steal, lie, slander, murder. Don’t turn your daughter into a prostitute. Don’t get tattoos. Basically, a framework for moral living, and each of these points can be debated as to whether they’re still applicable today. Let’s jump all the way to Leviticus 20:6-8 and see what it says about witchcraft and sorcery.
I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people. Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy.
Some background here; the Canaanites practiced fertility rites at their temple in order to bring fertility to the earth for a good planting season. Worshippers at the temple engaged in sex with temple prostitutes; the thought was that if the people were engaged in sex, the god, too, would have sex, and then their crops would grow.
Israel’s covenant relationship with God is often called a marriage, just like Christians’ relationship with Jesus. When the Israelites were corrupted by the Canaanites, they literally prostituted themselves and committed spiritual adultery. This is idolatry, misplaced worship someplace other than the one place it’s deserved. Our God is a kind and gracious and just and loving God, but He’s also a jealous God. Worship belongs to Jehovah God and nobody else.
God says He will set His face against those that worship other gods, those that turn to mediums and spiritist. Fortune tellers, palm readers, astrology, Ouiji board, séances, tea leaves, anything and anybody that claims to be able to tell the future or contact the dead is acting contrary to God’s desire.
If you were given the chance to see the future, would you accept the chance?
The emotions we feel about loved ones who have died can override our spiritual sensibilities. Even in the church we can find ourselves saying things such things like “I know she’s looking down on us and watching over us.” Is that true, or is it just supposed to be comforting? We miss those we can’t spend time with anymore, but we also want to honor God and His Word. God has revealed certain things about the afterlife, and other things He has chosen not to reveal. We should be careful that we are honoring God and not attributing our wishful thinking to Him.
I think the root of this warning in Leviticus is one of the ten commandments, “Thou shalt have no other god before me.” Wicca, witchcraft, all those false religions that teach many ways to heaven are all detestable because it says our God is not big enough and we should put our trust in other things just to be on the safe side. Putting our trust in other things is not being safe; the occult and other religions are detestable to the Lord.
Do you think God is mean when He turns His face from those who worship false religions or turn to the occult or sorcery? Or do you think it’s for our protection?
V. Conclusion
God called Israel to live a holy life apart from the customs of the people around them. The paganism of Egypt, the idolatry and sexual immorality of the Canaanites. Likewise, today, God want His children to lead separate and holy lives. Immorality has a way of becoming the norm, leading to further degradation of morality. Our society accepts premarital sex, then it accepts children out of wedlock or it accepts abortion. Who knows what the next generation will accept? There are already ungodly practices around us in such abundance that sometimes it’s hard to even tell what is ungodly anymore. God is calling you and me not to be influenced by the culture around us, but to recognize we belong to Him and He has a greater plan for us.
As believers called by God, we need to seek the Lord’s standards rather than the world’s standards around us. We should strive to believe and exhibit the highest ethical and sexual conduct for holy lives, pleasing to God, sanctifying us and showing the world there is a better way, a higher calling, than secular living, sexual immorality, idolatry, fortune telling and lucky charms. God has a better plan for us. Let’s turn from worldly ways and seek the face of God.
Amen
I. Introduction
I’ve always joked that if I was ever asked to teach a lesson from the book of Leviticus, I would focus on the evils of shellfish. I’m allergic to shellfish – did any of you ever see the movie “Hitch” with Will Smith? And after another one of his disastrous dates where he eats some shrimp and his face gets all puffy and swollen and they have to go to the drugstore and buy a bottle of Benadryl? That’s what happens to me, I was going to bring in some shrimp gumbo and teach a lesson that would be unforgettable and maybe end in a hospital visit.
Well, we’re studying Leviticus this week, but, for some reason, the Holy Spirit didn’t lead me to do any shellfish experiments. That’s a good thing for all of us, I think. Turns out there’s a more meaningful lesson in Leviticus today.
One of the best investors of the last fifty years was a nice Jewish fellow named Bernard. His clientele was hand-picked; you practically had to be invited to invest with him. He was always generous and never lost money. His background on Wall Street was impeccable, and investors bragged about how well their investments were performing. By September 2009, there was $36 billion invested in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC.
I’m sure you know the name by now. Of that $36 billion, Bernie Madoff reported that he had grown their investments to $65 billion, but he hadn’t. In fact, he had spent or lost half of it. A lot of this money was stolen from Jewish charities like Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Yeshiva University, Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation. Thousands of people who thought they had a great retirement invested with Bernie Madoff found their entire savings gone.
If you had given your money to somebody to invest for you – you give them $100 because they promised to make it grow to $200 and give it back to you – but instead you found they invested it in a nice dinner at Perry’s Steakhouse and ate it, how would you feel?
If the court system said that out of the $100 you invested, you can have $50 back but you have to give $30 to your lawyer, would you feel justice was served?
What if the court made the scammer give back your $100 in full, would that make everything right? Would the scammer then be guilt-free?
As Christians, we are saved by the grace of God, and all of our sins are forgiven, paid by the penalty on the cross. And as Christians, we are no longer slaves to sin, but that doesn’t mean we have no sin. And even though we are forgiven, solid Christian living and the gracious forgiveness we receive from God does not mean we do not have obligations and repercussion because of our sin. Today we’re going to see what God asks us to do when we have sinned because it’s the right thing to do.
II. Atonement for Sin
Throughout first half of Leviticus, God gives Moses instructions for how to lead His people and how to maintain a relationship with the Lord. The concept of sacrifice was established, where the innocent could pay the price of the guilty or as a method of worship. There are several types of sacrifices for which God provided instructions.
Let’s look at the types of sins and the sacrifices that go with them.
Leviticus 1 describes the Burnt Offering. Leviticus 1:3-4,
If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to offer a male without defect. He must present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting so that it will be acceptable to the LORD. He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.
What is atonement? Sometimes it’s spelled At-One-Ment. We are sinful people, inherited separation from God because of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve. Atonement is making peace with God, asking for forgiveness. It’s our reconciliation, that we may still have a relationship with the Almighty God even though there is sin in us that He cannot abide.
This burnt offering provides a one-ment with God. The burnt offering required a blood sacrifice of an innocent animal. This offering was not shared by the priests; the offering was completely consumed, completely dedicated to the Lord. Verse1:17 says this aroma was pleasing to the Lord; the Lord is pleased, not for the death but for the reconciliation.
Today, we no longer sacrifice burnt offerings. We now have eternal reconciliation through the blood of Jesus Christ. This sacrifice is misunderstood by many of those outside the Christian faith – the sacrifice of the Son of God is not what pleases Him. It is the reconciliation with His children that pleases the Lord.
III. An Offering of Gratitude
God’s desire to have a relationship with us, especially considering throughout history how we have rejected the Lord, should fill us with gratitude that the Lord pursues us until we turn from sin and turn to Him. The offering described in Leviticus 2 is the grain offering and is offer to express our gratitude, our faithfulness to God, our commitment to a life that is pleasing to the One who created us.
If you bring a grain offering of firstfruits to the LORD, offer crushed heads of new grain roasted in the fire. Put oil and incense on it; it is a grain offering. The priest shall burn the memorial portion of the crushed grain and the oil, together with all the incense, as an offering made to the LORD by fire.
So our gratitude to the Lord is shown by our willingness to give to God the best of what we have, our firstfruits. And again, when this offering is burned by the priest, verse 9 says the aroma is pleasing to the Lord. Unlike the burnt offering that was totally consumed in dedication to the Lord for our sins, this offering belongs to the Lord and for the use by Aaron and his sons, the Levitical priesthood.
Today, we don’t bring grain offerings, but we still offer our firstfruits in gratitude to the Lord. Today, this is our tithe. Where God has blessed us, we acknowledge our thanks that all things are provided by the Lord, we give thanks for allowing us to be good stewards of His gifts by returning the best of what we have, the best of which already belongs to the Lord.
IV. An Offering of Fellowship
The next offering is one of peace and fellowship. Leviticus 3:5 says the offering should be an unblemished animal from the flock that is burned on the alter as food, and the aroma is pleasing to the Lord. The food is to be shared by all the people, including the priests, and a portion is to be set aside for the Lord.
Our fellowship, one with another, is why we’re here. We learn to forgive others as the Lord has forgiven us. We learn how to be gracious and giving, as the Lord has been gracious and giving toward us. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves in celebration of the Lord’s love for us.
Our relationship with each other is so very important to the Lord. Matthew 5:23-24 says,
Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
Our relationship with each other is so important that if we are at odds, God wants us to forgive each other far more than He wants our offering. Why is this?
I believe there are several reasons for this. A rift between brothers and sisters is like a wound or a sore in the body of Christ. It keeps the church from functioning well, and it keeps us from showing the light of Christ in our lives to others. If we are at odds with one another, it shows that we truly don’t understand the sacrifice Jesus made for us. He died for us, not because we’re basically good people and we deserve a good sacrifice once in a while. He died for us while we were yet sinners.
V. The Sin Offering
We’ve had three offerings so far – the burnt offering for atonement, the grain offering of thankfulness, and then the barbecue, the offering of fellowship. These are essentially offerings of worship for our communion with God and with one another. All three of these were offered on the altar in the compound of the Tabernacle.
The fourth offering is similar to the offering of atonement, but it’s not made so much in worship but in payment for our sins. And like Jesus, who paid for our sins on a cross outside of the city of Jerusalem, this offering is made outside of the camp. Leviticus 4 describes the offering in payment for our sins.
The common word throughout this chapter is the word “unintentional.” This offering assumes the follower has the right heart and is following the Lord’s commands, and the sins he commits are unintentional. While the Lord will not look upon sin, this indicates that not all sin is viewed the same way. The unintentional sin can be atoned by a sacrifice to the Lord as payment. The defiant, intentional sin is different. Look at the book of Numbers, chapter 15 for a moment. Numbers 15 also addresses offerings made to the Lord, and Numbers 15:22 also addresses offers for unintentional sins. Numbers 15:30-31 says,
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.
We talk about sins of commission and sins of omission. A sin of commission is something we do. Lying, cheating, stealing are sins of commission. And then there is the sin of omission – something we should have done, but didn’t. We should have tithed, we should have shared Christ, we should have offered help to our neighbor. Unintentional sins can be either be by omission or commission.
There is no offering prescribed for a defiant sin. One cannot praise the Lord with all his heart, yet at the same time thumb his nose at the Lord’s commands. His guilt remains on him; how awful, how terrible, to pay the price for one’s own sin, for Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. A defiant sin acts like a wedge between us and the Lord and drives us away from His love and compassion. Romans 1:21 talks about defiant sin; it says that while wicked men knew God, they neither glorified God nor gave thanks to Him, but instead claimed to be wise and instead made themselves foolish. God therefore gave them over to their own sinful desires.
God doesn’t force us to love us. In fact, God gives us exactly what we want. If we want an eternity in the presence of Jesus, we can have it simply by confessing Jesus as both Lord and Savior. And if we do not want God’s influence in our lives, He will make that part of our eternity instead. Defiant sin is a terrible thing. But the unintentional sin of the Christian is paid for by the blood of Christ.
VI. The Guilt Offering
The last offering described by Moses is the guilt offering. This is repayment of the harm caused by the sin. While many times sin can be against another person, sin is always against the will of God. Leviticus 5 says that if one sins, one must make full restitution.
Leviticus 5:1-5 mentions several ways one could sin; verse 1 talks about keeping silent when he should speak, perhaps of witnessing a crime but choosing not to do anything about it. Verse 2 and 3 talk about our actions, of doing things that offend the Lord. And verse 4 talks about the sins of the tongue, of cussing and swearing and breaking oaths. Look at the last part of verse 4 -
even though he is unaware of it, in any case when he learns of it he will be guilty.
When does a sin become a sin? When you commit the sin, or when you learn about the sin?
A couple of months ago, headed to work out Highway 59, I exited Williams Trace. I approached the intersection; the light was red but there was nobody in the intersection. After looking carefully, I turned right on red, a perfectly legal thing to do in Texas.
The red light camera thought different. They took not only a nice picture of my license plate but also a nice video and posted it on the web for me to see. And I watched the video and had no idea why they were sending me a ticket.
I didn’t come to a complete stop; while that camera has been there for years and I’ve worked there for years, I apparently had never approached that intersection on red with nobody in front of me. Since I didn’t come to a complete stop first before turning, I got a ticket. I was guilty. Was I guilty when I first received the ticket, or when I turned the corner on red without coming to a complete stop?
We are guilty of sin when we commits the sin, whether we realize we did it or whether we even knew it was a sin. But when we realize we have committed a sin, we are to confess the sin.
When I was growing up, apparently I was a boy. Boys can be trouble sometimes, so I’ve heard. But not me. When something bad happened around the house, when the lamp was broken or, say, you were five years old and tipped over 2 50 lb bags of dog food in the garage and ran over it with your tricycle, making wonderful little crunching noises until all the dog food was a fine powder that covered the entire garage… hypothetically, of course. My mother would line the three of us kids up, my sister, my brother, and me, and say, “If one of you don’t confess, all three of you will get a spanking!” And my sister would crack under the pressure and confess. Every time. So… she was really the guilty one, right?
My sister and I are close and we joke about this now, but I realize studying for this lesson that it’s a long ago sin, but I’m guilty. I’ve never made restitution, and I should leave my offering on the altar and make sure things are right with her after all these years. I would have apologized earlier, but it was all her fault I didn’t. No, no, I mean I confess my transgression and go make things right. It doesn’t matter when I knew it was wrong, it’s never the wrong time to go apologize and make things right.
When the sin is committed against another person, restitution must be paid more than in full. Look at Leviticus 5:16 -
He must make restitution for what he has failed to do in regard to the holy things, add a fifth of the value to that and give it all to the priest, who will make atonement for him with the ram as a guilt offering, and he will be forgiven.
Bernie Madoff stole billions that he can never repay, and for his crime he will probably spend the rest of his life in prison. Remember the $100 that our so-called friend promised to invest for us but spent it at Perry’s steakhouse? If we discover that we have sinned against another and we have to make restitution, do more than what is expected to make up for it. Pay back $120 instead of the $100 borrowed. And if they want you to walk a mile for them, walk two. And if they strike you on the cheek, offer them the other cheek, too.
VII. Conclusion
We talked about five offerings in Leviticus 1-5. An offering for the atonement of sin so that we may have fellowship and worship of the Lord. An offering of gratitude, to give to the Lord the best we have to offer. An offering of fellowship, of loving our neighbor as ourselves and a celebration of belonging to the body of Christ. And then an offering for our sins and an offering for our guilt and to make restitution and go over and above to make sure things are right between ourselves, the Lord, and between each other, no matter when we discover we have sinned.
And we can give thanks that God himself loved us so much that He provided the ultimate offering as payment for our sins, His son and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
I watched Pastor Bob Botsford today on Larry King Live. Larry had Jennifer Knapp on, a singer who won Dove Awards for a rock song and as a new artist of the year back in 1999.
Pastor Bob did an excellent job of speaking the truth with love. It was not received that way, but Pastor Bob stood unflinchingly by his faith, judging the sin and loving the sinner.
If I’m ever in San Diego, I’m going to his church at Horizon Christian Fellowship.