Your ShelfYour Projects

Old Testament History

3%

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 15, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 15.

Read the full edition

Old Testament History.

OFFERINGS FOR SIN.

(Lesson 17, April 27, 1889.)
1. WHAT has God represented himself as most willing to do?
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Isa. 55:7.
2. In what does he delight?
"Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy." Micah 7:18.
3. How great is his mercy?
"For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him." Ps. 103:11.
4. What will he do for our iniquities, and where will he put them?
"He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Micah 7:19.
5. How far does he remove our transgressions from us, if we but repent?
"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." Ps. 103:12.
6. What assurance have we of all this?
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. 8:31, 32.
7. What is it that cleanses from sin?
"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" John 1:29.
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:7.
8. Yet what were the Israelites required to do when they committed sin?
"And if any soul sin through ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin-offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the Lord, to make an atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him." Num. 15:27, 28.
9. Tell the particulars of this sin-offering.
"And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin-offering, and slay the sin-offering in the place of the burnt-offering. And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt-offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace-offerings; and the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savor unto the Lord; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him." Lev. 4:29-31.
10. In case the entire offering was burnt, what was done with the blood? Lev. 4:5-7, 11, 12.
11. What is said of the blood?
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." Lev. 17:11, last part.
12. When only the fat of the sin-offering was burnt, what was done with the flesh?
"The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it; in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation." "And no sin-offering, whereof any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile withal in the holy place, shall be eaten; it shall be burnt in the fire." Lev. 6:26, 30.
13. In this case, what was the flesh considered as bearing into the sanctuary?
"And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin-offering, and, behold, it was burnt; and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron which were left alive, saying, Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin-offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy, and God hath given it to you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord?" Lev. 10:16, 17.
14. Was there any power in these offerings to cleanse from sin?
"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices, which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect." "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." Heb. 10:1, 4.
15. Yet were not the people actually and fully pardoned when they made these offerings? Num. 15:28; see also Lev. 4, noting especially verses 20, 26, 31, 35.
16. Then what must have been the significance of those offerings?—They represented the death of Christ, "who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness" (1 Peter 2:24), by whose stripes we are healed. God's promise makes future things as real as though they had been already performed, and so the blood of Christ was as powerful to cleanse from sin in the days of Moses as it is now. The sin-offerings that the people brought, simply showed their faith that the Lord had laid upon Jesus the iniquity of us all, and that there is cleansing in his blood. It was by faith that all sacrifices that were of any value were made. Heb. 11:4. It was faith that made the people whole in those days, as well as in the days of Christ, or at the present time; and without faith it was as impossible to please God then as it is now.
17. If there was not true repentance, would any sacrifice avail?
"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Ps. 66:18.
18. What does the Lord require of us?
"For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings." Hosea 6:6.
"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He that showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Micah 6:6-8.
19. What are the real sacrifices of God?
"For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; thou delightest not in burnt-offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Ps. 51:16, 17.