Interpersonal Defilement (Num. 5:5-10)

12/8/2008 9:38 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  Interpersonal defilement

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Numbers 5:5-10

            Message of the verses:  “5 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 6 “Speak to the sons of Israel, ‘When a man or woman commits any of the sins of mankind, acting unfaithfully against the LORD, and that person is guilty, 7 then he shall confess his sins which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add to it one-fifth of it, and give it to him whom he has wronged.  8  ‘But if the man has no relative to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution which is made for the wrong must go to the LORD for the priest, besides the ram of atonement, by which atonement is made for him.  9 ‘Also every contribution pertaining to all the holy gifts of the sons of Israel, which they offer to the priest, shall be his.  10  ‘So every man’s holy gifts shall be his; whatever any man gives to the priest, it becomes his’”

            I have written about this earlier in my SD that was dated 8:21-08 and will copy some of what was written then to this SD.

            “The guilt offering was needed for two kinds of sins, one against “the holy things of the Lord” which can be seen in Leviticus 5:15.  “15  "If a person acts unfaithfully and sins unintentionally against the LORD’S holy things, then he shall bring his guilt offering to the LORD: a ram without defect from the flock, according to your valuation in silver by shekels, in terms of the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering.”  The second sin the guilt offering was for was a sin against one’s neighbor and that can be seen in Leviticus 6:2-3:  “2  "When a person sins and acts unfaithfully against the LORD, and deceives his companion in regard to a deposit or a security entrusted to him, or through robbery, or if he has extorted from his companion, 3  or has found what was lost and lied about it and sworn falsely, so that he sins in regard to any one of the things a man may do.”

            Those were the sins and now I will look at the ritual on how this sacrifice was to be offered.  The first process is to confession of the sin and this can be seen in Numbers 5:6-7 “6  "Speak to the sons of Israel, ‘When a man or woman commits any of the sins of mankind, acting unfaithfully against the LORD, and that person is guilty, 7  then he shall confess his sins which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add to it one-fifth of it, and give it to him whom he has wronged.”  Dr. Wiersbe writes this about true repentance:  “True repentance will always bring with it a desire for restitution.  We will want to make things right with God and with those whom we’ve sinned against.  Forgiveness comes only because of the death of an innocent substitute.  Isaiah 53:10 speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ being a guilt offering, “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”  The guilt offering was to be a bull and that bull must be worth the damage that was done and then twenty percent was added to it, for it was very costly to commit sin.”

            There are at least two things that the Lord was teaching Israel that can be seen from this section of Scripture.  The first thing being taught here is that sin is costly, and this can be seen by what it cost the persons here who commit the sin.  The second thing is that the people of Israel were about to go and fight against their enemies and they needed to in unity with each other before they would be able to fight against their enemies.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Paul speaks of the enemies that I as a believer have to fight against each day, and if I am to be successful in my battle against them I need to have the right equipment on, and that is the spiritual armor.  Unity is also something that is needed in the church that I attend for one of Satan’s ways of fighting against the church is to divide people in the church in order to cause trouble, where unity is the way not to have this kind of trouble.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Put on the spiritual armor.
2. Give myself to the Lord for service and worship and to have my mind renewed.
3. Trust the Lord to guide my path.
4. Learn contentment.

Memory verses for the week:                                              Romans 6:1-11

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves of sin,
7. for he who has died is freed from sin.
8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.
11. Even so consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12/8/2008 10:08 AM