Leviticus 4: 13-21, “And if the whole congregation of Israel sin through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done somewhat against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which should not be done, and are guilty; When the sin, which they have sinned against it, is known, then the congregation shall offer a young bullock for the sin, and bring him before the tabernacle of the congregation. And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands upon the head of the bullock before the LORD: and the bullock shall be killed before the LORD. And the priest that is anointed shall bring of the bullock’s blood to the tabernacle of the congregation: And the priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the LORD, even before the vail. And he shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar which is before the LORD, that is in the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall pour out all the blood at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And he shall take all his fat from him, and burn it upon the altar. And he shall do with the bullock as he did with the bullock for a sin offering, so shall he do with this: and the priest shall make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them. And he shall carry forth the bullock without the camp, and burn him as he burned the first bullock: it is a sin offering for the congregation.”
There were times when the nation forgot who they were and Who they belonged to and at those times they went astray and forgot the Law of the Lord. There is a good example of this in Numbers 25: 1-15 but the problem was solved, at that stage, when Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, dealt with the issue and solved the problem with great courage. However, it was also possible that no one realised that there was sin in the community and then the Lord would have to deal with the situation. The example of this situation can be found in 2 Samuel 21: 1-14 where Saul killed the Gibeonites even though Joshua had made a treaty with them many years before. If there was in then it had to be dealt with before Israel could resume their role as God’s representatives in the process of blessing all the families of the earth (See Gen 12: 3). If this happened then the Lord established a process whereby the nation could affect reconciliation with the Lord when the discovered the error. This was a sign of the Lord’s gracious way in dealing with His people and with sin in general.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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