Last week I wrote a blog about the reality of sins which we commit unintentionally. In the course of my daily Bible reading I just encountered another passage where God gives Moses instructions on how to deal with sins “done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation” (Num. 15:24). If you are interested in the context (and you should always be), why not read the section:: http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Nu15.22-31

There is an obvious distance we must appreciate as this is an offering which was to be made under the Old Covenant, a covenant which is no longer in force. The timeless principle (something which is always true) which I tried to draw out was that our knowledge of 1) God’s Law and 2) of our own sin, is often incomplete and wanting. The fact of the matter is we commit sins all the time, some of which we are aware of, and others which slip by undetected. Our lack of knowledge and awareness does not diminish either the sinfulness of the action (or omission) or the guilt we incur.

The observation I wanted to make here is about the character of God. As his patience is being tried by the cowardly, false report of the 10 spies, and the people’s failure to believe Caleb and Joshua, God punishes the 10 spies with death and the unbelieving generation with 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. He then begins (in 15:1) to issues laws regarding sacrifices to Moses. Then, in the passage linked above, he turns to the subject of how they are to deal with sins committed in ignorance (oopsies, mistakes, or whatever we might call them today). Why is that?

It is a common (unwarranted) charge against God that he is cruel, unjust, uncaring. How can such a charge stand when he is here going out of his way to make sure that sins committed BOTH intentionally and unintentionally will have an appropriate offering? There are even stipulations for non-Israelites who know that offering to the Lord is the right thing to do! God is not only admirable for holding everyone equally accountable to the Law, but kind and generous by providing a way to patch things up when the Law is violated.

In this provision I see the concept of mercy and grace. Be careful no to associate grace with a sacrifice which must be repeated (as warns the author of Hebrews), that Old Covenant feature where sacrifice produces the pleasing aroma and propitiates guilt is mercy. God’s grace is present in the giving of a law by which sacrifices may be offered in the first place. He did not have to do this, but he chose to freely. This illustrates God’s character.

The apologetic value may be seen when you are asked about God’s goodness or kindness. If God is so good, why did/does he do X, Y, or Z (Unbelievers excel at selective proof-texting)? We must remind them that God created all of us and is dealing with rebels. For him to punish some is fair, for him to love some…well… that is grace (the exact opposite of what they deserve). In the Old Covenant, provisions like this show God’s gracious attitude toward rebels. His restraint in NOT punishing everyone immediately must be discussed and emphasized. Then, his choice to make a way for repairing the damage caused by sin. In the New Covenant, God’s grace is most clearly seen in a sacrifice. But this one is different, it is perfect and efficacious on behalf of all for whom it was made. God’s gracious attitude in sending Jesus forever alleviates him of the charge of mistreating rebels.