"In Case of Sin..."

Scripture Passage for Today

Leviticus 4:1-6:30

Scripture Focus

“This is how you are to deal with those who sin unintentionally by doing anything that violates one of the LORD’s commands.” (Leviticus 4:1 NLT)

Observation

Let’s face it—today’s passage can seem a bit laborious. Regulation after regulation for the offering of sacrifices is addressed…offerings we’ve never had to make—and never will have to make. On some level, it’s like reading a technical manual for the repair of VCRs. Don’t need to know—why should I care?

But the thing is—we *do* need to know! It’s not that I need to know how to prepare a sacrifice. I need to know something of the holiness of God, the heinousness of sin, and the cost of reconciliation. Everything about these rules and regulations speak to those realities.

The regulations define what Israel was to do in case of sin. Doing *something* was necessary, because they were in covenant with God Himself—the God above all gods, who had already proven Himself mighty by means of delivering Israel from Egypt. Nobody with any sense wanted to be at odds with that God!

And yet that’s exactly what sin does—puts us at odds with God! It separates. It divides. It creates an impassable gulf between a person and his or her source of life itself—a necessary gulf, given that God is altogether holy and therefore cannot be approached by that which is unholy.

Through the practice of these regulations when sin had been committed, Israel came to see—in particularly vivid terms—how costly sin was and how necessary atonement is…with all of this, of course, looking forward to what Jesus our Christ—the Lamb of God—accomplished for us at Calvary.

I’m grateful I’ll never have to actually follow the procedures I read about today. But I certainly need to know of them, for they anticipate the price Jesus paid to accomplish my reconciliation and give me life.