Numbers 15:22-31--Laws About Unintentional Sins

Numbers 15:22-31
English Standard Version

Laws About Unintentional Sins
22 “But if you sin unintentionally, and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses, 23 all that the Lord has commanded you by Moses, from the day that the Lord gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations, 24 then if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation, all the congregation shall offer one bull from the herd for a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord, with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the rule, and one male goat for a sin offering. 25 And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel, and they shall be forgiven, because it was a mistake, and they have brought their offering, a food offering to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord for their mistake. 26 And all the congregation of the people of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them, because the whole population was involved in the mistake.

​27 “If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering. 28 And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who makes a mistake, when he sins unintentionally, to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. 29 You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them. 30 But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 31 Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.”

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As we mentioned last time, God is renewing the covenant with the people, specifically promising to renew it with the next generation so that they will be able to claim the inheritance that their parents have forfeited by their rebellion.  This next section shows grace for the unintentional sins that we commit--while that's a question lots of people ask about during debate, if we're really honest, we know that we too are very rebellious people and we also stand condemned for the sins that we have knowingly and willfully committed and the sins that we have knowingly turned a blind eye to and said nothing or did nothing about (notice that this grace extends only so far as the congregation was also kept in the dark about the sin).

It is the fault of each member of the community for not being his brother's keeper (this seems to be a direct answer to Cain's question to God in the book of Genesis when Cain asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?")  God seems to be saying here, "Indeed, you are your brother's keeper."  So much so that not knowing what is going on in your brother's life is a guilt the whole community will share, and they will have to offer a bull and a male goat for the whole congregation like they do on the Day of Atonement.  They are also to bring the food offering of grain and the drink offering of wine with these sacrifices.

The person who committed the unintentional sin was also to offer a female goat as a sin offering as soon as he or she realizes that they have accidently transgressed the Law of God.  This is the rule for the citizen and the sojourners and aliens in the land.

Now notice verses 30 and 31 as I've been telling you this for a long time (probably since the book of Exodus), but no verses say this more clearly than right here, 30 "But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 31 Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.”  The Law gave no atonement for high-handed sins of rebellion.  We often times miss this--this is why the Jews should have known that the Law was insufficient to save, because we should all have an honest look at ourselves and know that we don't only commit sins of ignorance or accidently commit sins.  We look them straight in the face knowing what we're doing and we do them anyways.  This is the judgment and the verdict against all those who committed this sin of rebellion against the Lord and His Law--and all of us if we too are honest.  We may have been Gentiles at one point who didn't know the whole Law, but we intentionally rebelled against what we did know.  The book of Romans lays out this case nicely.

So then we will see that the Old Testament is consistent with the New Testament in saying the blood of bulls and goats was never sufficient and that a more excellent sacrifice was needed that would not just remove our transgressions (our accidently sins), but also our iniquities (our high-handed sins of rebellion) and would keep us from being blotted out of the Lamb's Book of Life, keep God's Spirit from being removed from us, keep us from hellfire and damnation, and give us a new heart and a new Spirit like we will see promised in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  The gospel is all over the Old Testament.  This part right here is the "bad news" like we get in Romans 3:23.  "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." and Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  There is going to be lots of "bad news" for a while in the book of Numbers, but hang in there--the rest of the gospel message is coming in Numbers 17 where we see God show His people a symbol of regeneration--that the most powerful thing He can do is not the plagues the brought about redemption but that He can make the "born again," taking that which was dead and making it alive through regeneration.  They just aren't quite ready to listen to that yet, and even when they see it, few will understand it--even though that symbol will be as important as the Law and the Manna that were also kept in the Ark of the Covenant.