Chapter 15

Chapter 15 is a return to instructions for how to present a sacrifice to God. There are a lot of things to remember, so let’s break it down into a précis:

• Whenever you present an offering by fire to the Lord, you are to also present an amount of fine flour mixed with oil. The amount of flour and oil to be presented varies with the beast, but there is a fixed quantity.
• The rules are the same for native born Israelites and foreigners living with them (more about this later).
• When you make bread from each seasons’ first batch of dough, make a loaf to be presented to God.
• When the Assembly sins unintentionally, there is a particular sacrifice to be given.
• There is a similar (obviously smaller) sacrifice to be given if an individual sins unintentionally.
• If a person sins defiantly – that is, unrepentantly – he or she is to be ostracised from the community.
• All clothes are to have tassels on the corners. This is a little weird. But there is a logical reason for it. It is to be yet another way that the people are to be reminded of to whom they belong.

One important thing that comes out of this passage is a seemingly minor part of the passage, specifically v16. In this passage we learn that the rules are to be the same for those who are native born Israelites and those who come from outside the community. This is really significant when you look at the level of stratification you find in ancient societies. Generally speaking, communities either kept to themselves or, when they met, they traded or fought. There was little other that could happen.

When you understand this, it makes sense of the way that the gods were seen – for the most part there was a “god of the amalekites,” a “god of the Canaanites,” “gods of Egypt.” There was something inherent in this – a god was therefore uninterested in those who were not a part of their own nation.

But the God of Israel was different. This is again expressed completely in the Cross, but even here we can see that God is demonstrating an active interest in those who are not nominally His own.

God cares about all, regardless of their birthplace.

A troubling part of this passage (for me at least) is when a man is executed by the community for violating the Sabbath (vs 32 – 35). At first glance this seems awful – such a severe punishment for something which in our world isn’t even a crime. Isn’t God being harsh?

The first hint that it’s not necessarily that way is when you see that the man was not caught by an act of God – it was people from the community who caught him and dragged him before Moses. So firstly we can see that to the people of Israel it wasn’t a trivial thing – it was too serious to be dealt with by the usual procedure of bringing the person before the magistrates. They took him straight to the head honcho. More than that it was serious enough that Moses had to ask God what needed to be done.

So at least to the people, it mattered.

Why was it so important to them?

I have to confess that I don’t really know for certain. But I have an idea. In order to survive, the Assembly depended on a high level of unity and togetherness. This man was doing busywork during the time that was important to the people in connecting with their God.

It was doubly significant when you realise that in all societies of this period – the people of Israel being no exception – there was no separation of Church and state. Therefore a person who absented himself from the Sabbath Day events wasn’t just declaring his indifference to God – a serious matter, but one between himself and God – he was declaring indifference to the entire community around him.

It is for this reason that he faces execution. The manner of execution – stoning by the entire community – sounds awful, and indeed it is; but there’s a reason for that too. By forcing the entire community to participate, you eliminate the disconnectedness we see in executions today (in those countries that still have capital punishment). Today it is usually cold, clinical and handled by professionals. Among the population of Israel, there was no such disconnect – if someone was to die, the blood was clearly and unambiguously on the hands of everyone.

This makes you much less likely to condemn someone to death – you know that it won’t be someone else handling it, it will be you. Can you look the man in the eye that you falsely condemn to death?

Okay, so what do we get out of this?

I can tell you one thing that’s important – I can’t think of a place that’s much farther from ancient Israel than Sydney 4000 to 5000 years later! I am about as different from the Israelites as a person can possibly be.

If God was only interested in Israelites, there is no chance that he’d be interested in me.

So it’s critically important to me that God cares about ALL people. The fact that God saw no difference between the Jews and the foreigners in the area is a comfort. Since God hasn’t changed, that means He still cares about me!

The other thing that I learn from this is that God doesn’t see things the way I do.

Partly this is negative. Sins that I think are trivial in fact matter immensely to God. My perceptions are warped by sin, and I want to justify myself. So often I think “Well, it’s actually not that bad.” But to God, it may well be.

“I only told a little lie.” No – I told a lie. And that’s sin.

“Speeding – that’s not a sin.” No – you broke the laws that God commanded you to keep (the laws set down by the secular authorities). And that’s sin.

“It’s not a sin if I don’t actually say it.” No – Jesus says that if you hate your brother, that’s just as bad as committing murder.

So it’s possible that things that I see as completely unimportant may be a terrible stench to the God who loves me; I could be hurting him without intent to do so.

On the other hand, there’s a positive side to this. Just as the things that we think are unimportant may matter to God, so things that we think are unimportant may matter to God!

No, I’m not repeating myself!

You think you’re just having the depressed person over for a coffee. But God sees that as looking after a child of His!

You think you’re telling someone what you believe. But God sees you sharing the words of life to someone who desperately needs it!

You think you’re just worshipping as you do every week. But God sees it as entering the place where He can work through you!

What is important to you is different to what is important to God. That may be bad news (it was for Mr Collecting-Sticks-On-The-Sabbath). But it could also be the very best of good news.