Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Leviticus 5-7
Leviticus 5:17
“If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord's commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible."
How often do we sin and not even know it? Often times I've thought about something after the fact and realized later that I was wrong.
Did I go back and make things right? Not always, in fact more times than not I've asked God to forgive me and left it at that. Should I then go and make things right with the one I've wronged? I would think the right answer to that question would be "yes", but as we all know circumstances don't always allow for us to go back and make things right. In fact, sometimes we don't want to bring up old memories or events that may bring back emotions that would cause us or others to sin again. Each case is different, and it's up to us personally, through prayer, to decide how to handle this.
In our reading today, we see that there were laws to follow in all of these cases, and the Israelites had to pay close attention to follow. The consequences were severe to those that didn't,
7: 20-21 "But if anyone who is unclean eats any meat of the fellowship offering belonging to the Lord, they must be cut off from their people. [21] Anyone who touches something unclean —whether human uncleanness or an unclean animal or any unclean creature that moves along the ground - and then eats any of the meat of the fellowship offering belonging to the Lord must be cut off from their people.’
I'm amazed at how much attention to detail is listed here. They had to follow closely and were not allowed to "forget" or "not pay attention". Do we take following God this seriously today? Do we pay close attention to what we're doing, in order to stay on track?
Another point I found interesting as I read a commentary on chapter 6 was how difficult it must have been for an Israelite to give up one of their best lamb or goats for a sin conmited , but it had to be done in order to gain forgiveness. It symbolizes how great the love God has for us that He (gave) sent His son to be a sacrifice for our sins! We are all pathetic sinners, but God still loved us enough to sacrifice His son so that we could gain a pardon for our sins, if we ask for that forgiveness, and then gain power and victory over sin. He didn't have to do this, but did because He loves us.
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage: Leviticus 8-10
3 comments:
Leviticus 5:17 stood out to me too. Even if we didn't realize that we sinned and wronged someone, we are still held accountable. I need to be more aware of my words and actions for how they affect others.
This stood out for me:
“If you are called to testify about something you have seen or that you know about, it is sinful to refuse to testify, and you will be punished for your sin
Keeping quiet about what you have seen is sinful.
It's often easy to forget that we can not only sin by doing the wrong thing, but also by not doing the right thing.
These sacrifices are a good reminder that forgiveness does not come cheaply. Indeed it came at the ultimate cost - the very life of God's own Son. How cavalier and callous our attitude towards sin is in light of this.
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