PLANNING AHEAD Lesson 6 for the 7th of November, 2009

SACRIFICES OFFERED TO GOD Every sacrifice offered to God must include these additives: FINE FLOUR. OIL. WINE. SALT. This meant recognition of God’s gifts and gratitude (like the first fruits offering)

WHO COULD OFFER SACRIFICES? “You and the alien shall be the same before the Lord: 'One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you.'… You shall have one law for him who sins unintentionally, for him who is native-born among the children of Israel and for the stranger who dwells among them”. (Numbers, 15: 14-16, 29) Why should the foreigner be treated like the Jewish (member of God’s people)?

WHO COULD OFFER SACRIFICES? God has never ostracized anyone. The foreigners had the same means of salvation than the Jewish. “And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant-- these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah, 56: 6-7) Anyone who wanted to join God’s people could offer sacrifices.

WHO COULD OFFER SACRIFICES? Through Jesus’ death, everyone can obtain forgiveness and be a part of God’s universal church. “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Colossians, 3: 11)

SACRIFICES FOR SINS OF IGNORANCE PRACTICAL EXAMPLE Those sins were made without premeditation or without a deliberate intention. It was an unwitting transgression. You receive a counterfeit note. You are not aware of it, so you use it to buy something. Did you commit fraud? Before the civil laws, you did, although you were not aware of it. You have committed fraud before God, too. Then, the person who gave you the note tells you that he realized later that it was forged a counterfeit note. You must go where you used that note and tell it. Furthermore, you must pay your doubt and ask God for forgiveness. If you don’t do it (when you know your sin), you won’t be forgiven before God.

SACRIFICES FOR SINS OF IGNORANCE If the entire congregation or a person committed a sin through ignorance, when they realized they had sinned, they had to offer a sacrifice for his sin. BIBLICAL EXAMPLES THE ENTIRE CONGREGATION Joshua and the elders made a pact with Gibeonites thinking they lived far away (Joshua, 9). The fact of being misled by the Gibeonites didn’t exempt the people from their sin. A PERSON “Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults” (Psalm 19: 12) This must be our daily prayer.

SACRIFICES FOR SINS OF DEFIANCE The phrase used in Hebrew means “with a high hand”, rebelling against the divine law. The offerings system DON’T provide atonement for a deliberate opposition to God’s will. The only possible punishment for those sins was DEATH like when a man went to collect wood in Sabbath (“The act of this man was a willful and deliberate violation of the fourth commandment--a sin, not of thoughtlessness or ignorance, but of presumption” (Patriarchs and Prophets, cp. 36, page 408))

SACRIFICES FOR SINS OF DEFIANCE May our prayer be like David’s prayer: “Keep your servant also from wilful sins; may they not rule over me; Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression”. Psalm 19: 13

OBJECTIVE OF THE SACRIFICES “That you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined. that you may remember and do all My commandments, and BE HOLY FOR YOUR GOD” (Numbers, 15: 39-40) God provided every Israelite with a visual reminder to take with him, a blue tassel in the edge of his clothes.

Though we don’t wear tassels today, we have something so much more powerful: THE CROSS OF CHRIST, which always should bring before our minds the cost of sin, the cost of our redemption, and the promise of salvation for all who, through faith, trust in the merits of Jesus and who “follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).