A Glimpse Into What a Loving Father is like.

Leviticus 26:40-46 The Promise of Restoration

Day 30 of self-isolation. Had my outing for the week – an essential trip to our pharmacist to pick up our prescriptions and a much-needed excursion to Costco for groceries. Two new things at the drugstore today – they don’t take any leftover tablets you don’t need any longer and they re-arranged their store so you can only go in at the very front, the rest is closed off. If you want something from their shelves, one of the staff have to get it for you. And did I mention that they haven’t accept anything but debit and credit cards for the last few weeks. Meanwhile over at Costco, long line-ups outside [but much more comfortable and less congested inside], and now you don’t touch your purchases at the check-out [they take them out of your cart and put them back in or scan them in your cart], and there’s no more check what you have in your cart at the exit – they just count you so they can let someone else in.  Interesting times. There’s talk of a “re-opening of the country” and the world soon – two to six weeks depending on progress. But that will come in three phases – churches still left shut.

We press on with our study of the Word. Thanks for joining us and feel free to comment.  Hang in there.

The Passage

⁴⁰ ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me— ⁴¹ I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, ⁴² then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. ⁴³ For the land will be abandoned by them and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, ^[a]because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”

⁴⁶ These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the sons of Israel ^[b]through Moses at Mount Sinai.

Footnotes:

a.     Leviticus 26:43 Lit because and by the cause

b.     Leviticus 26:46 Lit by the hand of

Thoughts on the Passage

The last part of this passage is God’s promise that there is hope even if we have seriously disobeyed Him for a long time. There are still some conditions, but God so much wants to forgive His people. Verse 40 requires us to confess our sin and the sin of our fathers. We need to recognize that when we sinned (and still sin today), while we may think it is usually against people (the store owner from whom we stole, the business contact we cheated, the spouse we betrayed), it is indeed a sin committed against God. It is an act of hostility against Him.

I find verse 41 most interesting. This is God admitting that He was acting in a hostile way towards His people in response. Is this admission related to the last phrase of verse 40? Not sure.

But if we humble our hearts and make amends for our sin, God says [in verse 42] that He will remember His covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham to have His people multiply. And God says He will remember the land. [God loves the earth that He created for His people.]

In verse 43, God expects that while the land is being replenished, God’s sinful people will be making amends for their sin as they recognize that they rejected his laws and that their soul hated His commandments.

And still, even during this time, even though His people have not fully repented (verse 44), and while they are in the land of their enemies, God will not reject them or abhor them to the point where He would destroy them as a people forever.  For doing so, would be breaking His covenant with them. He can’t do that – because is the Lord their God.

Instead in verse 45 He says He will remember them (for the sake of the covenant He made with their forefathers), and because He brought them out of Egypt in broad daylight (in the sight of all people) so that He could be their God.

Matthew Henry says that this restoration has basically three steps to it:

-- First, confession is required. This is confession by which God’s people are to give glory to God and take shame to themselves.
-- Second, there must be remorse and godly sorrow for our sins (verse 41) whereby our “uncircumcised hearts must be humbled”.
-- Third, submission to the justice of God in all His dealings with them, even in light of their sins.

And in return, Henry says, they will not be abandoned by God, and they will be remembered by Him.  

Chuck Smith summarizes this passage as follows:

[In other words, God says,] "I will preserve them as an ethnic group," which God has done. He kept His promise. He kept His word. No other nation; no other nation has had that same fate. Every other nation who has been without a homeland has disappeared as an ethnic group. Not the Jew; he has remained a Jew to the present day. God kept His word.

That’s the incredible God that we have as our God. He rewards our obedience; he punishes our disobedience; but He never totally rejects His people. If that is not what a loving Father is all about, then I have no idea what a loving father is.

For the Christian going through this Covid-19 experience in 2020, these promises of God can be claimed without hesitation – God will not abandon us and He will not forget us, regardless of the earthly outcome we or our loved ones may face.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Who Defines Restoration In The Case of A Wrong?

Leviticus 6:1-7:

¹ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 

² “When a person sins and acts unfaithfully against the Lord, and deceives his companion in regard to a deposit or a security entrusted to him, or through robbery, or if he has extorted from his companion, 

³ or has found what was lost and lied about it and sworn falsely, so that he sins in regard to any one of the things a man may do; 

⁴ then it shall be, when he sins and becomes guilty, that he shall restore what he took by robbery or what he got by extortion, or the deposit which was entrusted to him or the lost thing which he found, ⁵ or anything about which he swore falsely; he shall make restitution for it in full and add to it one-fifth more. He shall give it to the one to whom it belongs on the day he presents his guilt offering. 

⁶ Then he shall bring to the priest his guilt offering to the Lord, a ram without defect from the flock, according to your valuation, for a guilt offering, 

⁷ and the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and he will be forgiven for any one of the things which he may have done to incur guilt.”

Thoughts on the Passage

The beginning of chapter six (first seven verses) offers us more instances where the guilt offering is required. (It could easily have been included in chapter five.) And then the rest of chapter six and all of chapter seven deal with instructions on administering the various offerings (The Burnt Offering – 6:8-13; the Meal Offering – 6:14-23; The Sin Offering – 6:24-30; The Guilt Offering – 7:1-10; and The Peace Offering – 7:11-36). The last few verses of chapter 7 (verses 37 and 38) give us a neat Summary of the Offerings.

But our current passage is still talking about other occasions when the Guilt Offering is to be made.

God, through Moses, turns His attention, to business inter-relationships between people.  There is to be no lying between seller and buyer; loaner and borrower; between the person effecting fraud and the victim; etc. The deception can be as a result of one self-admitting it or when on is caught-lying. Confession, restoration (full amount plus 20%), and then the guilt offering is required. Then the forgiveness is guaranteed.

However, I note in verse 7 that the phrase is “forgiven for any one of the things which he may have done to incur guilt”.  It is possible that if I have cheated someone, or stole several things from someone, etc. – that is, I committed several acts of this kind of sin referred to here – then I have to confess each one, make restoration plus 20% for each one, and offer a guilt offering for each one.  This seems to go along with earlier thoughts that God does not just want us to say “forgive me, I have sinned” but He wants us to be fully aware of our specific sins and to repent in each case.  People come to us, especially children, and say, “I’m sorry.”  What is our natural response?  “What exactly are you sorry for?”  And God, in whose image we are made, is like that too.

Matthew Henry points out that we need to observe that while these types of sins relate to our neighbor, they are rightly called sins “against the Lord”. The neighbor suffers the immediate consequence, but the offence is against your neighbor’s Maker – regardless of who your neighbor is what he thinks or does not think of God.

Henry also suggests the concept of the extra 20% to be paid back is to get across the idea that restoration is not restoration until the person receiving it feels his/her loss has been restored.

What is the lesson for us? Well, we know what restoration looks like when we have been wronged, but do we think about what restoration looks like when we wrong others?

Similarly, we as human beings cannot dictate to God what He accepts as ‘restoration’ for our sins agains Him. Only He can set the terms.  And in this case, we can’t meet them.  So, He provided another Way through His own Son.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.