How do we respond after we have messed up? Some of us might become defiant. Maybe we harden our hearts, denying we have done anything wrong, or we are quick to blame others. On the other hand, some of us might get very discouraged and down. Perhaps we feel overwhelmed with a sense of our failure, that we are not good enough. The burden of guilt can be crushing. Whether we become defiant or discouraged or somewhere in-between, how we respond to our sin says a lot about what we think of God.
In Numbers 13 and 14, Israel rebelled against God by refusing to enter the promised land. Instead of trusting God, Israel’s unbelief led them to become fearful. They focused on all the difficulties and forgot God’s faithfulness. Following their own wisdom, the Israelites thought it be better to U-turn and go back to Egypt, than to believe God’s promise to give them the land. Unbelief led to defeat and disaster. A whole generation would die in the wilderness, except for Caleb and Joshua. After the account of Israel’s failure in the previous chapters, Numbers 15 sounds out of place in the narrative. This chapter with instructions about offerings and clothing seems like an odd interruption to the storyline.
But bear in mind that Numbers was originally written for a new generation of Israelites, that they might know what happened before, during and after the exodus from Egypt. Their time in the wilderness was almost over. God was preparing them to enter the promised land. This new generation was to learn from the previous generation’s negative example of unbelief. Do not repeat the sins of the past. At the same time, this new generation might have wondered about their place in God’s purposes. Given Israel’s past failures, can they still be assured about God?
Remember God is gracious, God is holy, and God is our Redeemer.
We may also be wrestling with such questions, especially after we stumble and fall. Do doubts about God’s goodness push us away from him? Numbers 15 was written to remind a new generation of Israelites about who God is. Far from being unrelated to the narrative, these laws are meant to encourage people who struggle with sin. We need to be reminded of God, especially when sin turns us inwards and we lose sight of God. These laws call us to look to God, to remember the God to whom we belong. This is the big idea – Remember God is gracious, God is holy, and God is our Redeemer.
Remember God is gracious (Num 15:1-21)
In Numbers 15:1, the LORD speaks to Moses, who is to instruct the people concerning various offerings. These instructions have to do with the grain and drink offerings that accompany the burnt and peace offerings. Three kinds of burnt offerings of increasing value are mentioned: a lamb, a ram, or a bull. In Old Testament times, these animals were especially valuable. Owning a bull is like owning a car. These offerings demonstrate devotion to God. As the value of the offering goes up, the amount of grain and drink offerings increase as well. The offering of each lamb must be accompanied by about 2 litres of fine flour (which can be used to bake 2-3 loaves of bread, 8-10 pizzas, 30-40 pancakes),1 litre of oil and 1 litre of wine. For a bull, the quantities of the accompanying food and drink offerings increase by two to three times.
But the question is: How are the people going to get such large quantities of flour, oil and wine in the wilderness? The answer is they cannot. This is the reason why God fed Israel with manna. Flour, oil and wine cannot be produced in the wilderness, because they need land to cultivate. But what God requires, He will also provide. Listen to Number 15:2, “When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you…” Notice God says “when”, not “if”. He has not revoked his pledge to Israel, despite the people’s sin. He will give Israel the land. These laws remind us of God’s grace by revealing how the gracious God keeps His promise.
God’s words emphasise the land is a gift. Israel did not earn it, but God is gracious to give it. We do not deserve His blessings. Quite the opposite, in fact. We are like unfaithful Israel. God made us in His image, for His glory. But instead of being thankful and worshiping Him, we have turned away from Him. We would rather live in spiritual Egypt. We have sold ourselves into slavery to sin, living for ourselves, following our own ways. But God, who is gracious, did not leave us in our sin. He kept His promise to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to save sinners. Jesus died and rose from the dead, so that all who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Through His Son, God makes us a new creation. We look forward to an even greater promised land — the new heavens and new earth.
Israel’s faithlessness does not change God’s faithfulness. He will give His people the land, just as He promised to their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It will be a good land that will produce abundant flour, oil and wine. These laws assure the people of future harvests in the land. The gracious God will keep His word.
These laws also reveal how the gracious God accepts his people’s worship. Israel’s offerings make a pleasing aroma to the LORD (Num 15:3, 7, 10, 13, 14). Despite their failure, God will still accept His people and their worship. He will delight in their offerings. The food and drink offerings represent fellowship with the Lord. When God confirmed His covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, the leaders ate and drank in God’s presence. God remains faithful to the covenant relationship between Him and his people.
Non-Israelites are also welcome. Look at Number 15:13-16. Besides native Israelites, which assumes they will be the inhabitants of the promised land, strangers can also worship the Lord. Both native Israelites and sojourners approach God on the same terms, according to one law and one rule (Num 15:16). There is to be no distinction between them: “You and the sojourner shall be alike before the LORD. (Num 15:15)” This fulfils God’s promise to Abraham that His offspring would bless the nations. God will keep His word to gather a people from every nation, tongue and tribe. Ultimately, Jesus fulfils this. He saves both Jews and Gentiles, uniting us in Himself. In Christ, we will glorify God together with one voice.
We are saved to worship.
We are saved to worship. Therefore, we are to offer sacrifices that are pleasing to God. Since Christ has already given Himself as a sacrifice for sin once for all, we no longer have to carry out the Old Testament offerings. But in light of the lavish grace we have received from Jesus, our obligation is even greater. By the mercies of God, present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable to Him. This is our spiritual worship. What does this look like?
It means following Jesus together, serving and suffering for the gospel, and loving one another in the local church. It is striking how the New Testament uses Old Testament sacrificial language to describe ordinary, faithful Christian life. Colossians 1:10 says we are to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” The Apostle Paul likens suffering for the gospel to “being poured out as a drink offering” (2 Tim 4:6). Hebrews 13:16 exhorts us to be generous in meeting one another’s needs: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Paul describes the financial giving of Christians as “a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God” (Phil 4:18). Ephesians 5:2 says, “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Offer our entire selves to God. Yes, be generous with our resources, but know that God does not want our stuff; He wants us. If Jesus gave His life for us, how can we hold back anything from him? Worship God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength; with our time and talents; with our wealth and work; with our plans and purposes; with our ambitions and aspirations. Jesus has made our worship pleasing to God. So, worship Him with all of our life.
Israel is also to remember that the gracious God provides for His people (Num 15:17-21). Notice again in Numbers 15:18 how God assures Israel that He will go with them to the promised land: “When you come into the land to which I bring you…” Israel will not wander in the wilderness forever; the Lord will lead them home. This law presupposes that the people will receive the promise. They will eat of the bread of the land. When the people do so, they are to remember the LORD and present a contribution of the first of their dough to him. The Lord gives us each day our daily bread. We can trust Him to provide for us. Therefore, do not be anxious. Our Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need. So, seek first His kingdom. Put God first. Give Him our best, not our leftovers.
Remember God is holy (Num 15:22-36)
These laws also remind us of God’s holiness. If we are to come to God rightly, then we must know Him truly. God is holy; we cannot approach Him casually, anyway we please. We are to come to God on His terms, in His way.
How can those who have sinned come to the holy God? These laws make provision for those who have sinned unintentionally. This includes sins committed without realising, perhaps accidentally or ignorantly. For example, carelessly bumping into someone is very different from purposely pushing a person over. Unintentional sin also means a person is not living in persistent, unrepentant sin. His life is not marked by a general pattern of rebellion against God. These laws hold out hope to us: If we repent of our sins and return to God, He provides atonement for our sin. We can be forgiven and reconciled to God. May God’s mercy move us to return to Him.
These laws address unintentional sins by the congregation—the people of Israel as a whole (Num 15:22-26) — and by individual Israelites (Num 15:27-29). For congregational sins, a bull must be offered as a burnt offering, as well as one male goat for a sin offering. For individual sins, a less costly offering of one female goat is to be sacrificed as a sin offering. The key lesson is that sin — even unintentional ones — must be paid for. Because God is holy, He cannot ignore or be indifferent about sin. This would go against His being. All sin is an affront to God’s holiness. The holy God must punish sin.
But the holy God, in His mercy, forgives sin. Look at Numbers 15: 26,28. The people of Israel who sin unintentionally shall be forgiven. The individual Israelite who sins unintentionally shall be forgiven too. How? God forgives sin through the priest who makes atonement for the people. The wages of sin is death. For God to be holy and just to forgive sins, a sacrificial offering must die in the place of sinners. This is the case for everyone, whether Israelite or non-Israelite. There is no distinction: All have sinned, and all need forgiveness through the atoning death of a sacrificial substitute.
But free forgiveness is not cheap. It does not give us licence to sin. These verses in Numbers 15:30-31 sound a serious warning: While there is atonement for unintentional sins, there is no atonement for a person who does anything with a high hand. To sin in a high handed way means to persist in deliberate disobedience and unrepentance. High-handed sinning defies and despises the Lord. It rejects His word, especially the forgiveness he offers. The holy God judges. Therefore, a person who sins in a high-handed way shall be utterly cut off, which means he will be removed from God’s people through death.
An example of such a person is found in Numbers 15:32-36. A man was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath. We might think, What is the big deal — it is only sticks, right? But the sin is more serious than we may realise. The Sabbath was a day set apart for rest and worship. Moses said to the people in Exodus 35:1-3, “These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do. Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.” This man was collecting wood intending to light a fire. He disobeyed God’s clear command.
The Sabbath was a sign of the covenant that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai. Therefore, to deliberately break the Sabbath was to intentionally reject the God of the covenant. What is more, the lighting of a fire is an act of open rebellion. A fire is obvious and visible; it cannot be hidden. This man sought to defy God, in full view of the other Israelites. The LORD, who knows what is in our hearts, knows the thoughts and intentions of the man. Therefore, He commands the congregation to put him to death. This is to protect the rest of God’s people from sin’s corrupting influence. A similar warning is found in Deuteronomy 29: “Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. The LORD will not be willing to forgive him.”
Are Christians still expected to keep the Sabbath? No, not in the sense that we are still under the old covenant. The Sabbath has been fulfilled in Christ, in whom we rest. In Christ, we gather for worship on the Lord’s day. Now as new covenant believers, we live out the truths signified by the Sabbath by resting in Christ and worshiping Him.
Notice how God’s people are to take collective responsibility for the holiness of the whole people of God. It is not just the leaders’ job, but the congregation as well. What does this mean for us today? To be clear, the church has no authority to carry out capital punishment. The state is entrusted with the power of the sword. The church’s authority is spiritual. So, as fellow members of this local church, we are responsible for one another’s holiness and spiritual wellbeing. So, speak God’s truth in love to one another. Be intentional about building one another up in Christ. Be open to give and receive encouragement to grow in Christ-likeness. Help one another to fight sin and pursue holiness. Pursue those who have strayed. Rejoice over those who repent.
The holy God cares about the purity of His people.
The holy God cares about the purity of His people. Therefore, we as a church are to practice biblical church discipline. If someone calls himself a Christian and yet refuses to repent of open and serious sin, then the church cannot continue to affirm his profession of faith through membership. A lifestyle of ongoing repentance and faith in Christ is a mark of a true Christian. Church membership should meaningfully reflect this. Just as the man is brought outside the camp in Numbers 15:36, so the church is to remove the unrepentant person from membership.
These laws warn us to not take God’s grace for granted. Today, if you hear God’s word, do not harden your hearts. Draw near to God with humble hearts, seeking his mercy. Like Israel in the Old Testament, we have disobeyed God. What hope is there for us? Thank God that we have a better sacrifice than the Old Testament offerings. While we were enemies of God, Christ died for us. Jesus bore the guilt of our sin and took God’s judgement in our place, if we trust in Him. Jesus rose from the dead to give us new life. In Christ, we are forgiven. We have a Saviour who has atoned for sins once for all. So, repent and believe in Jesus. Do not reject the only Saviour for sinners. Hebrews 10:26-27 warns, “If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment.” So, choose life. Choose Christ.
Remember God is our Redeemer (Num 15:37-41)
When we fail and fall, these laws encourage us to look to God. Remember God is gracious. Remember God is holy. Third, remember God is our Redeemer. Again, the LORD speaks to Moses. This time, the instructions are not about sacrifices but about clothing. God commands the Israelites to make tassels on their garments. A tassel made up of twisted threads is to be attached to the four corners of an outer garment or cloak. A cord of blue is also added to the tassel. The tassels remind the Israelites of who they are and whose they are.
Knowing our identity matters. How we live is shaped by who we are. For example, when a person becomes a Singapore citizen, there is a ceremony where he recites the pledge and commits to be loyal to his new nation. He learns and adopts a new way of life. When he looks at his pink IC and red passport, they remind him of his new identity. Similarly, we recite our members’ covenant at members meetings to remind us of our identity as God’s people. The Israelites are to look at the tassels and remember all the commandments of the LORD (Num 15:39). The tassels tell them they belong to God. God says to Israel in Numbers 15:40, “So you shall remember and do all of my commandments, and be holy to your God.” They are God’s people. Therefore, they are to be holy as their God is holy.
Our holiness does not earn us a place among God’s people. No, that would be legalism. We are to be holy because we already belong to God. Remember that God is our Redeemer. He has saved us by his grace to be His people, so that we might walk in His ways. We obey not to be saved; we obey because we have been saved. In Numbers 15:41, God reminds His people of how He has redeemed them to belong to Him: “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.” This verse sums up what we have seen so far in Numbers 15. We are who we are because the gracious and holy God has redeemed us and made us His own.
God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt to be a kingdom of priests. The blue cord in the tassels symbolised their new status. Blue dye was very expensive in the ancient world. Blue was the colour of royalty. Blue was also the most sacred colour in the tabernacle. As the colour of kings and priests, the blue cord was a symbol of Israel’s identity as a royal priesthood. They are no longer slaves, but kings and priests to God. Therefore, they are to live out their new identity. We have been redeemed through Jesus Christ to belong to God. In Christ, we are God’s people. 1 Peter 2:9 says to us, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”
So, do not go back to our old identity. Do not love the world or the things in the world. The world wants us to conform to its ways. The world urges us to live for ourselves, to trust our own wisdom, to follow our own feelings. But that is the opposite of how we should live as God’s people. Listen to Numbers 15:39. We are not to follow after our own heart and our own eyes. Do not listen to your heart. Your ways of thinking, your ideas and opinions, your feelings, your desires, and your fears can be self-deceived and wrong. You are not the best judge of how you should live.
Instead, as God’s redeemed people, we are to remember God. Jesus has fulfilled the law. So, now that Christ has already come, we no longer need to wear garments with tassels. In fact, Jesus rebuked the hypocritical Jewish religious leaders for being more concerned with outward appearances than with true holiness. The Pharisees and scribes made their tassels long (Matt 23:5), but their hearts were far from him. How, then, are we to remember God? We are to look to Jesus, our Redeemer. He is the Word made flesh. In 2 Timothy 2:8. Paul exhorts Timothy, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.”
The tassels are meant to point the Israelites to God, their Redeemer. To remember and do God’s commandments, what we ultimately need is not special clothing, which is merely external. What we need is new hearts. Only Jesus by the Spirit can give us new hearts and change us from the inside out. So, hear and heed His word. Believe in His gospel.
Our spiritually forgetful hearts are prone to wander. Remember Jesus, by taking up our cross daily and following Him. Let His word dwell in us richly. Christ has saved us into his church, which is his body. So, join with His church and gather regularly with other believers to remember and praise the Lord. If we isolate ourselves from God’s people, we make it harder for ourselves to remember our Redeemer. So, cultivate deep Christian community and spiritual friendships with one another. Encourage one another in the Lord. We remember Jesus through the ordinances He has given the church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Next week, we will be celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Prepare ourselves by reflecting on God’s goodness to us through his Son, our Lord Jesus. Be ready to come to the Lord’s table with thankful hearts. We remember Jesus by loving and serving His people, the church. We remember Jesus by making disciples and making Him known among the nations.
How we respond to our sin says a lot about what we think of God. The failure of one generation of Israelites did not derail God’s promises to his people. A new generation was encouraged to look to God. When we stumble and fall, remember God. Remember His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday and today and forever. He is gracious. He is holy. He is our Redeemer.