Is God Angry?
Scripture: Numbers 15:22-25, 30-31
“But suppose you unintentionally fail to carry out all these commands that the Lord has given you through Moses. 23 And suppose your descendants in the future fail to do everything the Lord has commanded through Moses. 24 If the mistake was made unintentionally, and the community was unaware of it, the whole community must present a young bull for a burnt offering...and they will be forgiven...30 But those who brazenly violate the Lord’s will, whether native-born Israelites or foreigners, have blasphemed the Lord, and they must be cut off from the community. 31 Since they have treated the Lord’s word with contempt and deliberately disobeyed his command, they must be completely cut off and suffer the punishment for their guilt.”
Observations:
From God's perspective, He understands the difference between sins that are accidental and those that are done on purpose. The bad news is that regardless of whether the sin was done on purpose or by accident has no bearing on whether on not the person who committed it is guilty before the Lord. However, God seems to take into consideration that mankind will sometimes do things against His will or unknowingly ignored His commands. The great thing about God's mercy is that He takes into account man's imperfections and grants the possiblity of forgiveness. Even in the Old Testament, God's first response to man's sin is not immediate judgment, but creating an exception to the "rules" that would make it possible for him to be restored to a right relationship with His Creator. Having said that, God is also fully aware that sin many times is not an accident but instead a consicous choice to disobey or simply disregard His commands. When such is the case, God's judgment, rather than His mercy, is always to be expected.
Application:
The reality of life is that all of us have done enough wrong or left enough good undone to qualify us as "sinners" from God's persepctive (Romans 3:10-11,22-23). The fact that none of us deserve God's mercy or can earn His approval is exactly why Christ sacrificed His life so that we could be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with our Creator. The good news about Christ is that His shed blood on our behalf now covers all of our sins, both intentional and unintentional, and allows God's mercy to cover our past mistakes and our future transgressions so long when we turn to Him in repentance. The danger, however, that lies in deliberate, persistant, unrepentant sin is that it jeopardizes our relationship with God and invites God's judgment. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way, "Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. 27 There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. 28 For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us." (Hebrews 10:26-29).
Prayer:
Father, thank You for the sacrifice of Christ that has taken away our sins and made us right with You. Forgive us today of all of our sins and help us to be aware of the things, thoughts, decisions, attitudes, and actions that are contrary to Your Word so that we might never take Your mercy for granted. Bring our will in line with Your will today. Amen.
Daily Bible Reading Plan
“But suppose you unintentionally fail to carry out all these commands that the Lord has given you through Moses. 23 And suppose your descendants in the future fail to do everything the Lord has commanded through Moses. 24 If the mistake was made unintentionally, and the community was unaware of it, the whole community must present a young bull for a burnt offering...and they will be forgiven...30 But those who brazenly violate the Lord’s will, whether native-born Israelites or foreigners, have blasphemed the Lord, and they must be cut off from the community. 31 Since they have treated the Lord’s word with contempt and deliberately disobeyed his command, they must be completely cut off and suffer the punishment for their guilt.”
Observations:
From God's perspective, He understands the difference between sins that are accidental and those that are done on purpose. The bad news is that regardless of whether the sin was done on purpose or by accident has no bearing on whether on not the person who committed it is guilty before the Lord. However, God seems to take into consideration that mankind will sometimes do things against His will or unknowingly ignored His commands. The great thing about God's mercy is that He takes into account man's imperfections and grants the possiblity of forgiveness. Even in the Old Testament, God's first response to man's sin is not immediate judgment, but creating an exception to the "rules" that would make it possible for him to be restored to a right relationship with His Creator. Having said that, God is also fully aware that sin many times is not an accident but instead a consicous choice to disobey or simply disregard His commands. When such is the case, God's judgment, rather than His mercy, is always to be expected.
Application:
The reality of life is that all of us have done enough wrong or left enough good undone to qualify us as "sinners" from God's persepctive (Romans 3:10-11,22-23). The fact that none of us deserve God's mercy or can earn His approval is exactly why Christ sacrificed His life so that we could be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with our Creator. The good news about Christ is that His shed blood on our behalf now covers all of our sins, both intentional and unintentional, and allows God's mercy to cover our past mistakes and our future transgressions so long when we turn to Him in repentance. The danger, however, that lies in deliberate, persistant, unrepentant sin is that it jeopardizes our relationship with God and invites God's judgment. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way, "Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. 27 There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. 28 For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us." (Hebrews 10:26-29).
Prayer:
Father, thank You for the sacrifice of Christ that has taken away our sins and made us right with You. Forgive us today of all of our sins and help us to be aware of the things, thoughts, decisions, attitudes, and actions that are contrary to Your Word so that we might never take Your mercy for granted. Bring our will in line with Your will today. Amen.
Daily Bible Reading Plan
Comments
Post a Comment