Word of Salvation – March 2011

 

Numbers 15 – IT’S ALL ABOUT FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD – by Rev John Westendorp

(Sermon 15 in a series on Numbers)

Scripture reading: Numbers 15:1-7 & 22-41

Singing: Book of Worship 331 / 199 / 73a / 190.

 

Introduction: Sin wrecks relationships. And we’ve all experienced it in one way another.

Some years ago I was very friendly with a man involved in church leadership.
But one day this man had an affair and walked out on his wife and family.
He justified his actions by claiming that he felt that what he had done was okay by God.
Our relationship deteriorated to the point where we were no longer on speaking terms.

Some years went by and I eventually caught up with this man who had moved interstate.
I told him I didn’t want to hold any grudges and that if God had forgiven him, so would I.
Very soon thereafter we were together at a wedding celebration.
The Bride and Groom had unknowingly put us together at the same table.

I have to confess that this was a very strained and difficult evening.
Sin wrecks relationships. It breaks down fellowship.
And some of you have found that out the hard way.

 

Sin also wrecks our relationship with God. It breaks down our fellowship with Him.
Many of us have struggled with that too. It often goes something like this:
We sin in some special area of weakness in our life. Perhaps pride or maybe lust.
We repent of that sin and we confess it to God and we know we’re forgiven.
But tomorrow we do exactly the same thing… and again the day after.
And we get to the point where we feel God couldn’t possibly have fellowship with us.
Like the apostle Peter we feel like crying out: ”Lord, depart from me for I am a sinful man.”

 

A] THE FOCUS ON FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.

 

1. That makes Numbers 15 an amazing chapter of the Bible.

Also a rather curious chapter. Many have said: “This chapter doesn’t belong here!”
We’ve got chapter after chapter of story telling…. Israel in the wilderness.
And suddenly a chapter of detailed instructions about burnt offerings. That seems out of place.

 

More importantly: there is especially this very stark contrast between chapters 14 and 15.
In chapter 14 we have that watershed decision made by the Israelites in their unbelief.
And God, for their unbelief, sentences them to forty years of wanderings in the wilderness.
Think about it. The whole context here is rebellion.
This chapter of Numbers is preceded by rebelliousness.
And it is followed by another remarkable example of rebellion.
Korah, Dathan and Abiram are swallowed up by the earth.

 

And yet… notice how Numbers 15 begins:
“The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘After you enter the land…’”.
It would have been perfectly understandable if instead the chapter began:
”The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘No more intimate fellowship with me…’”

 

But God doesn’t say that. Instead He assumes the fulfilment of His promises to bring them home.
God has just told them about their 40 years in the wilderness. But now suddenly he says:
You are going into Canaan… and here are some instructions for you when you get there.

 

Do you see how God just continues on as if nothing has happened…?
It reminds me a little of John Calvin who, on one occasion was kicked out of Geneva.
People didn’t like the reforms he brought about in their society. They thought he was too strict.
So they gave Calvin the boot. But things grew worse and worse in Geneva.
Finally they sent for Calvin and asked him to come back.
On the first Sunday after his return to Geneva it would have been tempting to say: I told you so!
But he didn’t. Instead he just opened the Bible and announced the text he would preach from.
It was the very next chapter of the Bible after the one he had preached from some years earlier.
It was as if nothing had happened in between.

 

In a much more wonderful way in Number 15 – God simply continues on as if nothing has happened.

That is grace… God’s loving favour at work on behalf of His people.
God deals with our sin… and then He puts it away gets on with things.
He will not allow sin to destroy fellowship between Himself and us His people.

 

2. What we have in the opening verses of the chapter are some regulations for sacrifices.

But these sacrifices are not the main sin offerings to appease God.
It’s especially fellowship offering that are in view… and special feast-day sacrifices.
Or maybe sacrifices brought in fulfilment of a vow.
In other words they are the kind of sacrifices that highlight the closeness of God and His people.

 

The instructions are that some flour (mixed with oil) accompany the sacrifices to make a sweet aroma.
Some wine is also to be included along with the offering.
And it’s all to be in proportion to the size of the burnt offering that is being brought.
Neither is any of this to be done with scrooge-like stinginess.
As if a cup of flour and a glass of wine will do the trick.
No! There ought to be a certain generosity of spirit in those additional gifts.
For a lamb it’s 1½ litres of flour, ½ a litre of oil and ½ a litre of wine.
For a bull it’s 4½ litres of flour, a litre of oil and a litre of wine.

 

So what’s the point of all these instructions about sacrifices? Two things.
First, it’s to make people realise that fellowship with God comes at a price.
Intimacy between God and us rebellious human beings is costly.
An animal has to die to make fellowship happen.
God does want to continue fellowship with His wayward people.
He made us for fellowship with Him. But to make that happen blood now has to flow.

 

Today we know that this was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.
All the OT sacrifices point to Him. He fulfils the OT sacrificial system.
It is through the Lord Jesus Christ alone that we have fellowship with the living God.
You cannot have intimacy with God apart from Jesus Christ and faith in Him.

 

3. But there is a second implied lesson in all these instructions.

God is showing His people something of what life in Canaan will look like once they get there.
These instructions especially assume God’s wonderful generosity to His people.
God will provide them with lambs and rams and bulls to make these sacrifices.
God will provide them with all the flour, the oil and the wine that they need for these offerings.

 

In addition these instructions also mention the first-fruits of grain.
Whenever and Israelite ground up a batch of flour a cake had to be made for the Lord.
Again – it’s a picture of fellowship with God – as if God and man are feasting together.

 

Please keep in mind too that not all of this stuff was burnt in the flames on the altar.
Usually a handful of the flour and oil were burnt… the rest was given to the priests.
The same happened with the wine… a little was poured out beside the altar.
The rest was given to the priests and the Levites… it was their source of income.

However the point is that God will provide what is needed to obey these instructions.
God is a most generous God who will amply provide whatever is needed.
And all of that is so that fellowship with Him will continue.

 

The key idea then is that we must look beyond the sacrifices.
And we need to look further than the idea that God is promising wonderful generosity.
All of those things are true… but all of this is especially about fellowship with God.
It is about intimacy with our glorious God… our divine parent.

 

That raises some questions for us today.
Why do you desire to have a good relationship with God?
Why do you want things to be right between Him and you?
So often it’s because we have a Santa Claus view of God.
We need Him to give us stuff. We are dependent on Him for food and clothes.
We want the blessings God gives.
But do we really want God Himself? Do we long for intimacy with Him?

 

Here in Numbers 15 it’s not just about living the “good life”… it’s about living a “God life”.
It’s not just God promising them wonderful stuff in a land flowing with milk and honey.
It’s about God smelling the aroma that is pleasing to Him… sharing in those cakes they bake.
Despite all that has happened… despite their rebelliousness God desires fellowship with them.

 

All of this is wonderfully encouraging for us in those moments when sin spoils our relationship with God.

In those moments I don’t need to despair… God longs to have fellowship with me.

And He promises and provides… so that this intimacy with Him can continue throughout our life.

 

B] THAT WHICH DESTROYS FELLOWSHIP.

 

1. We see that even more clearly as this chapter progresses.

We see that God is very concerned that nothing… absolutely nothing hinders fellowship with Him.

So we even have some regulations for unintentional sins… accidental sins.

 

You may wonder what that means. Think of it this way:
The law of Moses that was given at Sinai is said to contain a total of 613 commandments.
Can you imagine how difficult it was to remember all 613 of them?
We often think of the law of God as the Ten Commandments… but that’s just a summary.
Maybe I should ask you if you can recite all of the Ten Commandments.
Some of us will have trouble listing them all.
What chance then of remembering all 613 commands of the Mosaic law?

 

So God provides for those moments when a command is overlooked.
There are special sacrifices for unintentional sins.
God does not want a situation where we wake up one night and say:
“Oh dear, I just realised I did something wrong today.”
Or: “Oh dear, I neglected to do something I should have done.”

The problem is that we then feel guilty and that guilt then affects our relationship with God.
No! God even provides for unintentional sins.

 

If that was true for the O.T. system how much more isn’t that true for us today.
The sacrifice of Jesus for sin was perfect and complete in every way.
There is no sin that God cannot and will not forgive in order to maintain fellowship with us.

 

Correction: There is one sin that God cannot and will not forgive.
Vs 30 speaks of those who sin defiantly… deliberately and wilfully.
In the Hebrew text this is literally the sin with the ‘high hand’.
It’s as if this sin takes place while the fist is raised to heaven at God.
That sin is blasphemous and that person must be cut off from His people.
The point is that in the O.T. there is no offering for such deliberate, defiant sin.

 

That raises some questions. What is the difference between a deliberate and an unintentional sin?

Well, it’s a little like the difference between murder and manslaughter.
Murder is usually thought of as calculated and premeditated.
Manslaughter is when someone is killed but it wasn’t intentional.

In fact we even differentiate between premeditated murder and crimes of passion.
Premeditated murder is coldly calculating and plotting the death of someone.
A crime of passion is when someone stabs someone with a knife in the heat of anger.

 

So too Scripture recognises that there are sins that are due to human weakness.
Maybe for you it’s the pride you struggle with day after day after day. Or a lack of truthfulness.
Or maybe it’s the lust that drives you to check out some more porn on the internet.
God provided a sacrifice for sins of weakness… and even for sins of ignorance.

But there is also sin that clenches its fists and defies God.
Hebrews 10:26 says: “If we deliberately keep on sinning…
no sacrifice for sins is left but only a fearful expectation of judgment.”
Israel was to cut someone like that off from the nation.
Today the church still practices discipline and the excommunication of such people.
People who sin defiantly refuse to have fellowship with God… and they pay the penalty.

 

2. In this chapter we also have a case-study of defiant sin.

A man is caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
He’s brought to Moses and Aaron and before the whole community.
He is then executed by stoning.

 

We read that story and it comes across as overly severe to our modern ears.
We’re tempted to say: For crying out loud he was only picking up sticks.
This is out of all proportion. It’s like putting someone in prison for a parking infringement.

 

If we think that way we need to put ourselves into the picture here.
This is happening in the context of Israelite society.
Here are thousands and thousands of people who strictly keep the Sabbath Day holy.
They do that not only because God has commanded that no work be done on the Sabbath.
They do that also because their Sabbath is a sign of the covenant they have with the Lord.

So no Israelite in their right mind would collect sticks to make a fire on the Sabbath.
Yet here is this man who deliberately… openly… in front of the whole nation does just that.
It’s as if he raises his fist at God and defies God to do something about it.
And for this man the result is that his fellowship with God is terminated by his execution.

 

Let me come back to the analogy of a parking fine.
Can a parking fine land you in prison? Absolutely!
You can continue to refuse to pay that fine.
The court may then sentence you to do community service.
If you then refuse to do that you are then, in what is called, ‘contempt of court’.
And the penalties for contempt of court are severe.
Why? Because our whole system of law is threatened by contempt of court.

 

Here in Israel their whole system of law is threatened by this defiant public sin against God’s law.

If this chapter is all about God wanting fellowship with sinful man…
then we have here the one exception to that.
God cannot and will not have fellowship with those who defiantly and knowingly oppose Him.
Do that today and you hold in contempt the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And apart from Jesus fellowship with God is impossible.

 

3. There is one other matter that Numbers 15 mentions.

There is this strange instruction about putting tassels on the hem of their garment.
It’s another thing that at first glance seems totally out of place.
Why mention this peculiarity of Israelite clothing at this point?

 

Yet when we think of it this is not out of place at all.
It’s very relevant to the context.
This was a mark of identification that set them apart and highlighted who they were.

 

The students of Glenvale Christian School wear a uniform of green tops and blue shorts.
That sets you boys and girls from the school apart.. it shows who you are.
That uniform says: I am a student at Glenvale Christian School.

That uniform can work for you in a number of ways.
It can fill you with satisfaction, even pride:
I am a student of this school. Wow!
It can also serve as a warning:
I now have to behave myself and act like a student of this school.
And others may even point to my uniform and warn me.
Do the wrong thing and they will say: Students from this school don’t act like that.

 

Well, here was the Israelite uniform… a tassel on the hem of their clothes.
And that blue cord was a costly thread made with an expensive dye.
It reminded them of royalty and of the priesthood.
It highlighted that they were a royal priesthood under God.
And so that would remind them that they were called to live obediently before God.

It would remind them they were a people who were made for fellowship with God.
The very thing that the nation had forgotten back in Numbers 14.
The very thing this chapter is highlighting.

 

I guess it then worked in those same two ways that a school uniform functions.
First it was a constant personal reminder of who they were.
Every time they saw these tassels or touched them it reminded them.
“Wow! We were made for fellowship with Almighty God.
But secondly it also helped to keep them accountable.
People would say to those who were not living in obedience to God:
Hey! You are a tasselled person and therefore belong to God.
But the way you are acting is contrary to someone in fellowship with God.
Deal with your behaviour… or else take your tassel off and go elsewhere.

 

Years ago I once drove behind a car that had a Christian sticker on the back.
”Honk if you love Jesus!”
But at an intersection that driver cut off another driver and made a rude gesture.
I would have loved to call out to him: Take your sticker off or change your behaviour.

 

Today we don’t have a uniform that marks us as Christians.
We don’t have anything visible that sets us apart.
What we do have is the mark of our baptism that sets us apart for fellowship with God.
And at baptisms in this church we promise to keep each other accountable.
To order our lives and witness
so that the little one might be surrounded by Christian example and influence.

 

We are the people who, through Jesus, are made for fellowship with God.

Let’s live that out in our daily life and let’s keep each other accountable.

 

Amen