Leviticus 5:1-41And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. 2Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty. 3Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatsoever uncleanness it be that a man shall be defiled withal, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty. 4Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these. (Leviticus 5:1‑4)
WE NOW pass to the trespass offering which in many aspects is like the sin offering. Hover, the sin offering refers more to God’s holy nature and tells of the awfulness of sin is in His sight so that He must deal with it in judgment, whereas the trespass offering perhaps looks more at God’s government with, each of us. We have confession brought in, and one must make restitution.
“And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, he shall bear his iniquity.”
Swearing here does not mean using bad language, but it is a case where one is called upon under oath, as in a courtroom, to tell what he knows about a matter. This was a solemn thing for an Israelite when we remember that the Lord dwelt in their midst to judge. He was there to deal according to His law and to their relationship as His people. If one shrunk back from telling the truth, he must bear his iniquity.
We remember how our blessed Lord was silent before the hypocrisy of the priests and the false witnesses brought in to testify against Him, yet when the wicked high priest adjured Him “by the living God” to tell whether He was “the Christ, the Son of God,” He answered at once, though He knew it would seal His condemnation unto death (Matt. 26: 59-66). He ever walked in perfect obedience to His Father; He turned not back. He would rather die than disobey. May we ever seek to be obedient too, to be like Him, to whom we now belong by grace, bought with His precious blood.
Speaking of making promises, God would warn us against making a promise we might not be able to keep. Think of Jephthah’s vow (Judges 11:29-4029Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon. 30And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, 31Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. 32So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hands. 33And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. 34And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. 35And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. 36And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. 37And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. 38And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. 39And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel, 40That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. (Judges 11:29‑40)). It is a solemn thing to give one’s word about a matter and then break it. Be sure, dear young Christian, that you have the Lord’s mind before you make a promise. Then once you have given your word, (unless the prose prove to be a sin against God), ask the Lord for grace to carry it out. It is a day when many think all too lightly of promises made, but God looks upon a broken promise as a serious sin.
Then came cases of defilement from contact with death, either unclean beasts or cattle, or crawling things (things of earth), or again from uncleanness of man, defiling things, in whatever form they might be. Here again we are reminded that this is a defiling world in which our lot is cast, and that God’s measurement of sin is not ours. We become so accustomed to the sin around us every day that we are liable to think very lightly of it. Yet sin is SIN before God and nothing less than a sacrifice appointed by Himself can put it away from before His holy eyes.
How blessed to know that the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross has settled the sin question forever for all those who trust Him as their Saviour, not according to our estimate of sin, but according to God’s.
ML-08/08/1971