Thoughts in Worship

Message Magazine's Online Devotional for Sabbath, October 28, 2017

Audio Link: https://www.spreaker.com/user/reachmanyradio/thoughts-in-worship-10-28-2017

This is devotional thought number 45 in our devotional series, “Removing the Veil: Sanctuary Living in the 21st Century.” Our subject is: God’s Got You Covered

“Then the Lord spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites: When someone sins unintentionally against any of the Lord’s commands and does anything prohibited by them—” (Leviticus 4:1–2, HCSB).

I realize I stopped the reading in mid thought. It was not a mistake.

You may have heard the legal principle, “Ignorance of law excuses no one.” This appears to have been adapted from the Bible principle regarding sins of ignorance and their related offerings.

Before I go into any details on this, you may be wondering how somebody can sin ignorantly; and that would be a great question. You may be familiar with the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech. If not, here’s a snippet: “From there Abraham traveled to the region of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived in Gerar, Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar had Sarah brought to him. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.” Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, “Lord, would You destroy a nation even though it is innocent? Didn’t he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I did this with a clear conscience and clean hands.” Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. I have also kept you from sinning against Me. Therefore I have not let you touch her.” (Genesis 20:1–6, HCSB). I will not go into the sordid details of this story, except to say that had Abimelech had sex with and or married Sarah, regardless of Abraham’s blatant iniquity (that’s another level of sin) it would still have been a sin. Sarah was already married. Having sex with a married woman who's not your wife is sin. Full stop. I know your wheels are spinning out of control right now, but pay attention. One blessing about God’s mercy is that He is consistent. Sin is always sin, but Paul and David said that we are blessed when God does not hold our sins against us. There was a provision, so to speak, that helped the children of Israel during those times of ignorance (mercy). When we discussed the burnt offering, I left out an aspect, which dealt with the priests keeping a burnt offering from evening to morning, and morning to evening (a continual sacrifice), partially to keep God’s people covered until they could bring their own offerings and confess their sins before the Lord. You could consider Job’s offerings on behalf of his children to be a manifestation of this. He interceded for his children so that, in the event that they sinned, God would have mercy upon them and give them opportunity to get right with Him. So, now we know that it is more than possible to sin unintentionally. We also know that God made provision to keep us safe from condemnation until knowledge of our sin came and we could settle accounts with Him.

In our theme chapter, the Lord outlined exactly how people in each strata of society would need to address these circumstances when the Holy Spirit brought knowledge of their sin to them. There was guidance for the high priest, rulers/leaders, and common people. Each were to bring offerings, and having then recognized their sin, they could commit not to go down that road again. If they elected to it again, they would be in an entirely different zone with God. The sin offering could not cover intentional sins. They...