Numbers 15, Pitfalls to the Promised Land: Sin

Security in God’s Promise of the Promised Land

Numbers chapter 15. Originally thought just kind of skip over this or summarize it and go to 16, but As you'll you may see why after I read it. But it's not that we'll do chapter 15 after all we'll be reading all of numbers chapter 15 beginning verse 1 the whole Chapter all 41 verses.

Here the word of the Lord the Lord spoke to Moses saying Speak to the people of Israel and say to them when you come into the land you are to inhabit which I am giving to you and you offer to the Lord from the herd or from the flock of food offering or a burnt offering or a Sacrifice to fulfill a vow or a freewill offering or at your appointed feast to make a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

Then he who brings his offering shall offer to the Lord a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah fine flour mixed with a quart of a hen of oil and you shall offer With the burnt offering or for the sacrifice a quarter of a hen of wine for the drink offering for each lamb or for a ram you shall offer for a grain offering two tenths of an ephah the fine flour mixed with the third of a hen of oil and for the drink offering You shall offer a third of a hen of wine a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

And when you offer a bull as a burnt offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a bow or for peace offerings to the Lord. Then you shall offer with the bull a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah fine flour Mixed with a hen of oil and you shall offer to the drink offering half a hen of wine as a food offering a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

Thus it shall be done for each bull or ram or for each lamb or young goat as many as you offer. So you shall do with each one as many as they are many as there are. Every native Israelite shall do these things in this way and Offering a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

And if a stranger is so journeying with you or anyone is living permanently among you and he wishes to offer a food Offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. He shall do so do as you do for the assembly there.

For the assembly there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you a statute Forever throughout your generations you and the sojourner shall be alike before the Lord. One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the people of Israel and say to them when you come into the land to which I bring you.

And When you eat of the bread of the land, you shall present a contribution to the Lord of the first of your dough. You shall present a loaf as a contribution like a contribution from the threshing floor.

So shall you present it some of the first of your dough you shall give to the Lord as a contribution throughout your generations. But if you sin Unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses all that the Lord has commanded you by Moses From the day that the Lord gave commandment and onward throughout your generations then if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the Congregation all the congregation shall offer one bull from the herd for a burnt offering a pleasing aroma to the Lord With its grain offering and his drink offering according to the rule and one male goat for a sin offering and the priest shall make Atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel and they shall be forgiven because it was a mistake.

And they have brought their offering a food offering to the Lord and their sin offering before the Lord for their mistake and all the congregation of the people of Israel shall be forgiven. And the stranger who sojourns among you because the whole Population was involved in the mistake.

If one person sends unintentionally He shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering and the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person Who makes a mistake? When he sends unintentionally to make atonement for him and he shall be forgiven.

And you shall have one law for him who does anything Unintentionally for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them. But the person who does anything with a high hand Whether he is a native or a sojourner reviles the Lord and that person shall be cut off from among his people because he has despised the word of the Lord and Has broken his commandment that person shall be utterly cut off his iniquity shall be on him.

While the people of Israel were in the wilderness They found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day and those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation they put him in custody because it had not been made clear what should be done to him and the Lord said to Moses the man shall be put to death all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp and All the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones as the Lord commanded Moses.

The Lord said to Moses speak to the people of Israel and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their Generations and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner and it shall be a tassel for you to look.

To look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them not to follow after your own heart. And your own eyes which you are inclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do all my commandments and be holy to your God.

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. What do you think of that chapter?

Typical. Committed to memory kind of thing. Oh, well, maybe you have a goal you desperately want a great career a loving relationship a successful business. Enough money to live and eventually retire comfortably.

Maybe your goals aren't so grand right now. Maybe it's just to lose so many pounds to get in shape to graduate to make a team. To learn a language maybe to save more money stay out of debt. So you're gonna apply yourself and to get that goal, you know, there's steps to take.

Disciplines to embrace maybe classes to take, you know, Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University something like that. Often though it's a matter of knowing what not to do. What are the mistakes to avoid.

What are what are the pitfalls. A Pitfall by definition is it is a hidden in danger literally up it comes from a pit. Which is covered over by leaves or something like that. And if you're not careful you step onto it and you fall in pitfalls.

Are not obvious if you want to lose weight. Obviously don't eat a bowl of ice cream after every meal if you want to save money. Don't buy a car that requires a payment more than you can afford if you want to have a successful business.

Don't hire more employees than you can afford to pay. Those aren't pitfalls. Those are just obvious mistakes. A Pitfall is a trap. You don't see it first. It's it's not obvious. You know if you want to get in shape, so you throw yourself into dieting and working out that's obvious.

What are you gonna do. Well, you're gonna drink only water no more coca-cola. Did you know you can drink too much water. A Kidney doctor told me that you can get so obsessive about your weight. You can develop an eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia.

Those are pitfalls. You can push yourself so much, you know into exercise working out you can get injured and end up being Able to do less than you could before that happened to me when I began college.

I had a goal of being a college athlete and the coach told me that I needed to run 60 miles a week. Without telling me he didn't tell me that I needed to work up to it gradually. The result was I went out and tried to run 60 miles a week.

Immediately and I got shin splints that kept me out of my first season of cross-country. I went after a goal Without knowing the pitfalls and so I was set back even further. What about you? You have goals.

Are you are you aware of the pitfalls on your way to those goals? Well here Israel has a goal right there come out of Egypt. They have a goal the promised land. That's what they left Egypt to do. That's what they're for going out for but they've just been told.

Just just prior to this if you remember last last year about this time. We were going through numbers and we ended at the end of chapter 14. They've just been told that the current adult generation.

Won't make it.

They're not gonna make that goal. They didn't really stumble on a pitfall. They disobeyed because they wouldn't believe that should have been obvious. Now they've been sentenced to wander the desert for almost 40 years until the entire older generation with two exceptions Joshua and Caleb until they die off.

The goal is still the promised land. But now I'll be much further down the road and the entire that entire 40 years Is passed over and the next few chapters of numbers that we'll be looking at for about the next month It's all about summarized very quickly in just a few chapters in the next Numbers those higher entire 40 years.

So as they're trudging through the desert. Now on their extended journey Still to the promised land but much extended. They'll have to watch out for pitfalls and We see that here in four parts.

The Assurance of God’s Covenant Promise

First the security.

Second the sacrifices third the sins and finally the signs. Noah is satisfied. That's good. I always aim to satisfy Noah with my alliteration. First on their way to their goal they are graciously given an assurance of Security.

Now we start out reading chapter 15 and it may sound kind of normal you get this promise. But remember where we've come from. They've just been told that everyone over the age of 20 isn't going to make it.

That they'll all be buried in the hot sands of this horrible desert. They're wandering in. God had promised to give them the land but when the twelve spies came back With glorious news, you know. They came back with this great news of how bountiful the land was that it was exactly what the Lord had described.

You know just flowing with milk and honey. They even brought evidence in the form of a cluster of grapes So huge they had to carry it on a pole between two men but they also said How you know how powerful the Canaanites were that there were giants in the land, you know.

Like the kind David would take on later. So even though the Lord had just overcome The most powerful kingdom on earth probably even the most powerful kingdom on earth at the time Egypt. You think after that they would they would know hey the Lord could conquer anybody for us.

That's not what they thought they had seen the Lord take to Overcome the most powerful kingdom of our own earth Egypt and divided the Red Sea and drowned Pharaoh's army. They didn't think that he could or that he would overcome Canaan for them so that he so they refused to march into the land and then the Lord told them that their Punishment would be that they would all die off over the next 40 years as they wandered around in this desert just eating manna day after day and when they heard that You know, they mourned it says and then then they decided okay, that's the that's the other alternative.

We'll attack the land after all and Moses told no don't do that. You're transgressing. Your sentence has been passed. Your judgment has come. It's not gonna work, but they wouldn't listen. That's always their problem.

They didn't listen. They wouldn't listen when God told him to go in they wouldn't listen when God told him not to go in. But and so they're easily beaten back when they tried to attack the land without God's help.

So they weren't going to get their goal at least not in the in the lifetime of the adults but the promise Was still valid or was it what do you think they're thinking? That they've just been told that they've been beaten back.

They've been defeated what's going through their heads. Well, look at the first two verses the Lord speaks to Moses and tells him to assure the Israelites. Think of the context of this but the Lord speaks to them to him tell them Israel when.

Not if you know if you make it if you if the next general if you finally get there. No, when you come into the land that you are. Not that you might or you may be you know, maybe if you make it no you are to inhabit.

Which I am God says.

Definitely.

Giving to you.

They might have been tempted to think the promise was revoked. Not that it was just put on hold, but it had been canceled. They might be wondering whether they're they aren't just being disciplined, but whether they've been rejected completely.

You know, we Christians what Paul calls the Israel of God in Galatians chapter 6 verse 16. We have a goal. We have a promised land. To which we're heading and like Israel. We're not gonna make it there in this lifetime unless the Lord comes first and we're on a journey and There are pitfalls along the way and we'll be disciplined from time to time.

We'll wonder be tempted to wonder to doubt. Maybe we've been rejected. Whether this life that began with such great power being led out of death to life out of the realm of Satan into the kingdom of God by his outstretched arm.

You know that whether that that sense of new life We had at one time that sense of God's nearness to us. We've had from time to time that that ought us now. You know, sometimes it seems. It's just drudgery.

Day in day out. We're not going anywhere and I'm making any progress tediously wandering in circles. Waiting this never seems to end. We're tempted to wonder as We wander if the promises are for real and for that.

We too we have words of assurance of a security like to Israel here when you enter. You will inhabit. I am giving to you. And we need to constantly remind ourselves of those exceedingly great and precious promises.

Rodney talked about some this morning in Sunday school. We need there's much of what we do in church is to remind you of what's already been said. Because we need to constantly be bringing in to our own attention.

We need to constantly remind ourselves of the of those promises of our security that our eventual arrival.

Is.

Certain.

That it doesn't rely on our. You know trying to take on the fortresses of sin and Satan by our own willpower by our own effort. No that were heard held firmly in his hand like in Psalm 73 You hold me by the right hand and we have everything we need for life and godliness Security is in part.

What the Lord's Supper is for? It's when we do this the Lord Jesus told us to do this as often as you do. He said in remembrance, it means to remember him what he did for us. That he was crushed for our iniquities like that like the bread is torn apart.

That the his blood of the New Covenant was shed for us. And so we continue to do this, you know. Why we're doing the same thing over here. Sometimes I think Christians just think this is you can skip this.

This is not so important. We can do it just very rarely because it's the same thing over and over again. Why. But it's for that way on purpose. It's to recount that our salvation was secured by him to remind ourselves that even if we haven't entered it all yet We will as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord's death.

We that that secured us. It's what he did that secured us and we proclaim it until He comes or until we come to him and then we then when that happens. We won't need to remember because then we'll be in the promised land.

We'll be seeing him face to face. I'll have fellowship with him. But until then we need to remember where our security comes from. Well here in numbers just after judging them. He's got the Lord's disciplining them.

He's telling them you can't enter yet. He's not enabled them to take the land. He gave them a taste of defeat. And they attempted to doubt and then he gives him assurance. He gives them a reminder of Security you're going to get in.

The Necessity and Generosity of Sacrifice

Next he tells them about Sacrifices. You're gonna avoid the pitfalls. You need to know about sacrifices that get you over the pitfalls. But this is one of those, you know, you probably wondering about a half this chapter.

This is tedious priestly instructions. You know, you're reading about offerings and bulls and goats and feasts and strange measurements like an ephah and a hen. You have no idea what that means. You know, this is one of those passages that most of us kind of hard to get through.

You know, it's like the fine print or maybe that the terms and conditions. Maybe on some thing you're doing online some website some agreement. You just click. Yes, you don't read all that. Because you just you think you hope it's just some legally some company got a lawyer to draft up for them to protect themselves.

This is especially so for us. Because we think that since we. Since we don't have to offer bulls and goats and grain or wine offerings. And of course, we don't then all this doesn't apply to us. Not only is it a contract.

There's not a contract. We're not even entering anymore. We think so we just skip it but here in the middle of the story of is in the this middle of the story of Israel on the way to the promised land.

Sits these 19 verses. About instructions on sacrifices and Will stumble into a pitfall if we don't take them seriously. We see five vital truths here about. That we need to know about sacrifices to avoid pitfalls.

They are one important. Are we even necessary. Second generous? Third pleasing. Fourth shared. And Five-fifth practical. Well first sacrifices are important. You know, that's why we have these instructions here.

This critical juncture in numbers these aren't shoved off somewhere like in Leviticus where you can kind of avoid the whole thing right here in the midst of the story as Israel turns back into the desert for 40 years.

In other words. God is saying now that you're Not getting the land. Well, you are getting the land but not right away. You need to know all about this sacrifice. Along with the blood of sacrifices the bull or the sheep or the goats that you offer.

Which which like Leviticus and other places to talk about in elsewhere, but here along with that. You're also to offer.

Grain.

With some oil in it and.

Wine.

In other words a full balanced meal the blood of the sacrifice. Which we may understand. The blood of the sacrifice may be for your sin. But here God isn't just dealing with our sin. Some about that. He'll talk about the atonement later, but he wants us to have fellowship with him.

And when you have fellowship, what do you do?

You eat.

Yes, sure without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness of sins. There's no bloodless sacrifice here but along with the bloody sacrifices comes Flour or grain mixed with oil to bake the bread and bake in the bread and and some wine.

And and remember except for the whole burnt offering the people ate much of what was offered. Other way, they would take this offer it to the Lord. Maybe some whole bird offerings were totally burned up.

But but the other kinds of offerings the priests would get some they would keep some of the rest and they would eat it there. They were eating with the Lord. They were having fellowship with the Lord and so to the Lord Jesus left us a way of remembering him.

That involves eating but you notice. Our when you call it sacrifice so to speak really it's our way of remembering a sacrifice. Has no blood in it. It's a symbol for blood but no real blood in it. The Lord suffered a bloodless meal because Jesus himself Shed all the blood that is needed to be shed to cleanse us of our sins.

All of those all of these Old Testament sacrifices were bloody and they only foreshadowed. They were only a foreshadowing of his true sacrifice. Because the reality is that the blood of bulls and goats does not take away sin.

It never could. Okay, Hebrew says that it doesn't take away sin. So this here numbers isn't an Old Testament way of salvation. The way some people to be this is their old way of salvation and now it's not relevant to us.

No. This is a way of teaching the idea of how salvation will come the idea of atonement that a bloody sacrifice Was necessary. Once that true sacrifice is offered. Then the foreshadowing stops, right?

So when Jesus died on the cross the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. Showing that God did it and the animal sacrifices from then on out were unnecessary. But here God is teaching the Israelites about the importance of sacrifices that they are important that without the one true sacrifice.

There is no forgiveness of sins that God doesn't just you know, I didn't just excuse sin. We talk about God forgiving our sins. It's not just he's just as excuses. He just got a wing set it. He we feel sorry for it.

So he lets us go. He shrugged his shoulders and sigh, you know, it says he'll let us slide. No, that's not how God forgives sin. That's that's the pitfall. That many people in our day have fallen into that thinking sin is just excused.

It's just it's just it's not a tone for. And so they fall into the trap of this indulgent God who accepts even the unrepentant Sins and all it's a crossless Christianity and there's really no Christianity at all.

But here we see in numbers that God absolutely requires a Sacrifice and that sacrifice is the basis of fellowship with him. So it's important to know that we also here see here that second the sacrifices are to be.

Generous.

The amounts here and we lose this but I wish they would just tell you the amounts and measures we understand.

But the.

We we don't really see it because we don't understand what the amounts mean. Unless you really dig into the details, but the amounts here are large amounts. I mean, this is this is generous portions of food and drink.

He wants his people to be giving a lot in verse 4 The offerers are supposed to give almost a gallon of a fine flour. I guess you're not supposed to talk about gallons of flour. Are you whatever the dry measure would be you figure it out, you know, you know what a gallon is.

But it's notice is fine flour too. It's not that rough kind of cheap stuff. But it's the best and it's to be mixed with about a quart of oil. You know what a quart is right of oil. To just bake it with and then to drink gotta have a drink, right?

You go through Bojangles drive-thru in order to tailgater you get so many sides and a drink. Here, it's a quart of wine. So this isn't just kind of a like we do. Symbolic thimbles full of of juice and maybe a little piece of bread that we take for the Lord's Supper.

This is enough for a full meal with every sacrifice and then if you offer a ram which is a bigger animal than just a sheep you the Amounts go up if you offer a bull even bigger. You need more sides, right?

The more chicken you order at Bojangles the more sides you get and and so the amounts of grain the wine here. They go up and the Lord here is saying that he will bless them bountifully. And so he expects them to give bountifully.

Later in the history of Israel during the time of Malachi, you know, they they were back in the land. But they're barely scraping by and they were kind of they were thinking, you know, we can hardly make it we're not even a kingdom anymore where things are.

We're poverty stricken and they forget this and they thought they could get by offering Measly animals of damaged animals whatever scraps they had but God rebuked them and challenged them, you know, he says try me.

To see if if I won't rain down blessings on you if you are generous with your sacrifices now some Christians today I think that's all passe. That's all Old Testament legalism, but as before God here is teaching a principle that will bloom in the New Testament.

So now in our time he doesn't just call us to give an offering a tithe but to give our whole lives as a living sacrifice to be generous and Pouring out ourselves as an offering and so now God is calling us not just give 10 of our income.

But 100 of everything we have and to be generous. That's the New Testament law.

Worship That Pleases the Lord

Generous.

With giving to others.

Third.

Sacrifices are to be pleasing. Pleasing to the Lord make sure you know who you're pleasing who your audience is now six times in this chapter. You notice that phrase probably you notice it occurred over and over again an aroma pleasing to the Lord.

That's what worship is about. It's about pleasing. The Lord smells good to God and in John chapter 4 the Lord Jesus said that God seeks what he's seeking. We're seeking to be pleased by what he's looking for.

He's seeking people who are worship in spirit and in truth right worship. Pleases God, it's like the fragrance of a fine food. Maybe of a barbecue pleases us certainly pleases me. But in order for it to be a pleasing aroma the kind of worship God seeks it has to be done his way.

That's why I got all these meticulous instructions on how much to give according to each animal and seem so tedious to us. But because he wants to worship done his way. That's what when Jesus talked about in truth.

It's not just sincerely. As though God will accept my worship as you know, as long as I do it sincerely I mean what I'm doing, but according to the truth of his word now people fall into a pitfall. Today when they think they can offer anything to God.

You know. Just they'll totally ignore what Scripture says about singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs about the public reading of Scripture about the preaching of the word to do this and remembrance of Jesus or to give our lives as a living sacrifice.

Like it are like in verses 20 and 21 here where they give the first of the dough you go into the land. Give us first of the dough like to give we give the first of our lives like we are to seek first the kingdom of God.

We're not just we don't just give the Lord our leftovers. We paid our bills. We've had our fun and then we have we'll give Lord a little what we have left over. That's a pitfall. It's a pitfall if we invent our own ways and we think we mean well.

You know, he seems to work for us. It's pleasing to us. It makes us happy have a comedian and a skit and you know. Dramatized song and laser lights and fog machines that makes us happy. But is that what the Lord wants?

Worship is about what's pleasing to the Lord. Is He pleased and he is pleased if it's done his way. Then it's a pleasing aroma to the Lord so it is your life. Does it smell good? To the Lord. Well, we need a sacrifice to please the Lord.

People today have fallen into this. Really? It's a pitfall of arrogance this our this belief that The many people have we're kind of pleasing to the Lord just as we are God just pleased with every one of us.

Because we're just all such great darlings we're all just so cute to him. He can't help himself, but to be pleased with us because we're just worth so much. Don't you know God has to be pleased with us?

That which I just mocked it is passed off in some places as the gospel today. You know that the some people's our preachers say, you know, the cross. Shows us how much we're worth. That God sees us as worth dying for and so we could do gonna help himself to die for us.

What a distortion what a perversion of the truth that is the cross doesn't show how good we are but how bad our sins are that they required a sacrifice and how gracious God is to give it. There's nothing about us that you know, God couldn't help himself to save he did it because of his own grace.

And so because of his grace Christ gave himself up for us what in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 2. He says is a fragrant offering a sacrifice to God. That's what all these aromas pleasing to the Lord. Sacrifices here in numbers 15.

That's what they all work toward the sacrifice of Christ. Christ on the cross. The pleasing aroma that makes our fellowship with God possible. Fourth. Sacrifices are shared. Did you notice that who they're shared with shared by all of God's people all people have faith.

Notice the verses 15 and 16 and solved a lot of this chapter that the assembly. What's the assembly this gathering? What's it made of just of Israelites? By below is it by blood? Is that how you get in to this assembly?

By ethnicity by race. No, did you notice that? Oh, it's pretty strongly emphasized the assembly. It's the same word that Isaac prayed for Jacob Who became Israel the literal Israel that he would become an assembly of?

Nations, may you Jacob be in may the Lord make you an assembly a gathering of nations. The assembly includes the stranger here who says in numbers the stranger who sojourns with you.

A.

Stranger you mean he's not from Israel you and the sojourner. That means the foreigner who's living with you the the immigrant. You and the immigrant shall be alike before the Lord. Now, it's not clear and obvious as it becomes in the New Testament.

It's still here in the Old Testament a a mystery. It's hidden in the Old Testament, but this is still moving toward the truth. It's eventually celebrated in Ephesians chapter 2 that there is one people of God Made of and that one people is made of people from all nations all races all ethnic groups by faith.

Not by birth. The sacrifices are shared with them with all God's people no matter where they come from and.

Here.

Missions begins with migrants. You know. We've had some hypocrisy and that your people will send missionaries off To countries and reach people of races that they won't reach out to if they live next door to them.

That's strange, isn't it? Well here if we want to spread the gospel to people of all nations. Let's begin with the foreigners who live next door. The Chinese restaurant workers the Mexican construction workers the person of another ethnic group who's right at your doorstep.

Some people think the Old Testament is all about a literal nation. You gotta belong to the right ethnic group but right here in the heart of the law. We're told that anyone is included if they believe and they want to offer.

That sacrifice that's an aroma pleasing to the Lord. They want to please the Lord. They're in. All are welcome. So even here in verse 16 notice that verse 16 says it so clearly one law and one rule. She'll be for you and the stranger who sojourns with you.

Finally. Sacrifices are practical. Look, I figure why why all this is. It just these sacrifices are they just all burned up. They're good for nothing for no one but for God alone. No, the the whole burn offerings were all burned up for that.

There's there are drink offerings that were all poured out. But most of these sacrifices had a practical purpose. At least in part short one is developing fellowship with all the worshipers with the Lord as they came.

But also in supporting the priest. Some of this meal offering with the meat and the flour and the wine was given to the priest and that's how they were supported. You know, the priests were not given land and then we're supposed to be farmers kind of moonlighting his priest.

Well on their day on their times off now. They were given the priest instead were given parts of the sacrifices. So they could then dedicate themselves to being priest all the time. And the Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 verse 14 Says the same principle.

There the rules in the church. He says in the same way as. The priest shared in the sacrificial offerings here in the Old Testament in the same way. Those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

So our financial offerings serve the same purpose to practically support the proclamation of the gospel. You know, we don't take your money out and just burn it in the back and give it to the Lord that way.

That's not what it's for we have a goal. To make it to the promised land. We have.

The Seriousness of Sin and the Need for Atonement

Security.

Promises assuring us that we'll make it that he holds us by our right hand. But there are pitfalls along the way we need sacrifices to get there. Especially the pleasing aroma of Christ on the cross that so amazes us with God's grace.

That we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. We then need to be aware of the pitfalls of sin. Now some sins are obvious he says go in and take the land we say no way. It's pretty obvious, but others are pitfalls.

There are such things as you see here as unintentional sins. Now many modern people don't understand this they think in order for it to be a sin it has to be intentional. I have to have intended to offend God or break his word.