45.y. “Wilderness” – 10.d. “Not only confession, but restitution, in every possible case”

 

Num 5:5-7  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the LORD, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong. (This expression does not merely refer to the actual criminality of the person, but to his consciousness of guilt respecting it. For this case must be distinguished from that of a person detected in dishonesty, which he attempted to conceal.) “he shall bear his iniquity”,”and he realizes his guilt”, “when he comes to know it, and he realizes his guilt in any of these” (Not only confession, but restitution, in every possible case, is necessary in order to obtain forgiveness.)

 Leviticus 5:17   “If anyone sins, doing any of the things that by the LORD’s commandments ought not to be done, though he did not know it, then realizes his guilt, he shall bear his iniquity.

 Psalms 32:5   I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. 

 Proverbs 28:13    Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

 1 John 1:8-10   If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Part of this section (Numbers 5:6-8) is supplementary to the regulations in Leviticus 6:1-7. It is there laid down that if anyone incur guilt through wronging his neighbour by robbery, or oppression, by appropriating something committed to his keeping as a deposit, or by concealing the fact that he has found lost property, he must confess, and restore the property plus one-fifth, and offer to God as an atonement for his sin a guilt-offering of a ram. It is, to use a modern phrase, ‘conscience money.’ In the present passage it is further provided that if the neighbour whom he has wronged be dead, and there be no gô’çl (see note below) to whom the property can be restored, it is to be paid to the priest. The ram of the guilt-offering is, of course, to be offered as well. (Cambridge)

I say, furthermore, that “ a sin,” to speak more particularly, consists in doing, saying, thinking; or imagining, anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God. Of course I need not tell any one who reads bjs Bible with attention, that a man may break God’s law in heart and thought, when there is no overt and visible act of wickedness. But I do think it necessary in these times to remind my readers that a man may commit sin and yet be ignorant of it, and fancy himself innocent when he is guilty. Sin is a disease which pervades and runs through every part of our moral constitution and every faculty of our minds. The understanding, the affections, the reasoning powers, the will, are all more or less infected. Even the conscience is so blinded that it •cannot be depended on as a sure guide, and is as likely to lead men wrong as right, unless it is enlightened by the Holy Ghost. He must dig down very low if he would build high. The plain truth is that a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity. The first thing, therefore, that God does when He makes any one a new creature in Christ, is to send light into his heart, and show him that he is a guilty sinner. If a man does not realize the dangerous nature of his soul’s disease, you cannot wonder if he is content with false or imperfect remedies. I believe that one of the chief wants of the Church in the nineteenth century has been, and is, clearer, fuller teaching about sin. Sin, in short, is that vast moral disease which affects the whole human race, of every rank, and class, and name, and nation, and people, and tongue. I admit fully that man has many grand and noble faculties left about him, and that in arts and sciences and literature he shows immense capacity. But the fact still remains that in spiritual things he is utterly “ dead,” and has no natural knowledge, or love, or fear of God.

We, on the other hand,—poor blind creatures, here to-day and gone to-morrow, bom in sin, surrounded by sinners, living in a constant atmosphere of weakness, mfirmity, and imperfection,—can form none but the most inadequate conceptions of the hideousness of evil. We have no line to fathom it, and no measure by which to gauge it. The blind man can see no difference between a masterpiece of Titian or Raphael, and the Queen’s Head on a village signboard. The deaf man cannot distinguish between a penny whistle and a cathedral organ. The very animals whose smell is most offensive to us have no idea that they are offensive, and axe not offen¬ sive to one another. And man, fallen man, I believe, can have no just idea what a vile thing sin is in the sight of that God whose handiwork is absolutely perfect,—perfect whether we look through telescope or microscope,—perfect in the formation of a mighty planet like Jupiter, with his satellites, keeping time to a second as he rolls round the sun,—perfect in the formation of the smallest insect that crawls over a foot of ground. But let us nevertheless settle it firmly in our minds that sin is “ the abominable thing that God hateth. No proof of the fullness of sin, after all, is so over¬ whelming and unanswerable as the cross and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the whole doctrine of His substitution and atonement. Terribly black must that guilt be for which nothing but the blood of the Son of God could make satisfaction. Heavy must that weight of human sin be which made Jesus groan and sweat drops of blood in agony at Gethsemane, and cry at Golgotha, “ My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ?.” (Matt, xxvii. 46.) Nothing, I am convinced, will astonish us so much, when we awake in the resurrection day, as the view we shall have of sin, and the retrospect we shall take of our own countless shortcomings and defects. Never till the hour when Christ comes the second time shall we fully realize the ” sinfulness of sin.” (Ryle)

4.e. “Separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers”

Nehemiah 9:1   Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God.

Leviticus 26:39-40    And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies’ lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.  “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me,

Psalms 106:6-7    Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.  Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.

Daniel 9:3-10     Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.  I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,  we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.  We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.  To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you.  To us, O LORD, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.  To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him  and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

1 John 1:7-9    But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When we come to God’s word with a desire to know Him and gain understanding and wisdom we will become aware of His Holiness and our sinfulness.  We will see self-centered sin.  We will see worldly sin.  We will see how far we have departed from honoring and glorifying Jesus Christ. God’s word will become vital and active in our life.  We will see the need for confession and change.  We will no longer be blind to His handiwork or deaf to His leading.  We will be changed and our lives will be changed because we will know the truth of our sinfulness and the steadfast grace, mercy, and love of Jesus Christ.  It is in this truth that we confess and rely on forgiveness.  It is in this truth we are being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is in this truth we can come before God in confession and thanksgiving.

Sin

“I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.”

“Do not forsake me, O LORD! O my God, be not far from me! Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!”

Psalms 51:3  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Job 31:33   if I have concealed my transgressions as others do by hiding my iniquity in my heart,

Proverbs 28:13   Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Psalms 32:5   I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Psalms 38:15  But for you, O LORD, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.

2 Corinthians 7:7   For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

1 John 1:8  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

There is nothing like having done something wrong to a person and being forgiven.  How much more so with the Creator of all heaven and earth.  We can sin knowingly and unknowingly.  Knowingly when we hear God’s quiet small voice speaking to our heart and mind and we deny it, or even worse we choose to close our heart and mind to His voice and leading.  Knowingly, when we choose not to stay in His word and unknowingly when that word of warning, direction, or command is not planted in our heart and mind.  Choosing to neglect His word does not give us, by any means, an excuse.  Set time apart each day to read His word, listen to His quiet small voice, and humbly serve, honor and obey.