Numbers 15:25

_THEN IT SHALL BE, IF OUGHT BE COMMITTED BY IGNORANCE WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CONGREGATION, THAT ALL THE CONGREGATION SHALL OFFER ONE YOUNG BULLOCK FOR A BURNT OFFERING, FOR A SWEET SAVOUR UNTO THE LORD, WITH HIS MEAT OFFERING, AND HIS DRINK OFFERING, ACCORDING TO THE MANNER, AND ONE KID OF THE GOATS FOR A SIN OFFERING._ If ought be committed by ignorance. The Mosaic ritual was complicated, and the ceremonies to be gone through in the various instances of purification which are specified, would expose a worshipper, through ignorance, to the risk of omitting or neglecting some of them. This law included the stranger in the number of those for whom the sacrifice was offered for the sin of general ignorance....

22-29 Though ignorance will in a degree excuse, it will not justify those who might have known their Lord's will, yet did it not. David prayed to be cleansed from his secret faults, those sins which he himself was not aware of. Sins committed ignorantly, shall be forgiven through Christ the great Sacrifice, who, when he offered up himself once for all upon the cross, seemed to explain one part of the intention of his offering, in that prayer, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. It looked favourably upon the Gentiles, that this law of atoning for sins of ignorance, is expressly made to extend to those who were strangers to Israel....

Verse Numbers 15:25. _THE PRIEST SHALL MAKE AN ATONEMENT_] Even sins committed through ignorance required an atonement; and God in his mercy has provided one for them....

The heavy punishments which had already overtaken the people might naturally give rise to apprehensions for the future, especially in view of the fact that on the approaching entrance into Canaan the complete observance of the Law in all its details would become imperative on them. To meet such apprehensions a distinction is emphatically drawn between sins of ignorance (Leviticus 4:13 ff) and those of presumption Numbers 15:30. The passage deals separately with imperfections of obedience which would be regarded as attaching to the whole nation Numbers 15:22, and those of individuals Numbers 15:27....

EXPOSITION VARIOUS LAWS OF SACRIFICE (Numbers 15:1). NUMBERS 15:1 THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES. IT must have been during the years of wandering, but within those limits it is impossible even to conjecture the probable date. There is no external evidence, and the internal evidence is wholly indecisive. Neither can it be reasonably maintained that these regulations were designed to revive the hope and sustain the faith of the rising generation. Incidentally they may have had some effect in that way, but it is evident that the primary object of their promulgation was simply to supply certain defects and omissions in the Levitical legislation. Why that legislation should have had the frag

AND THE PRIEST SHALL MAKE AN ATONEMENT FOR ALL THE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL;.... By offering a sin offering for them, a type of Christ, the propitiation not only for the sins of the people among the Jews, but throughout the whole world, 1 John 2:2; AND IT SHALL BE FORGIVEN THEM; as the sins of the Lord's people are forgiven them through the blood of Christ, and on account of his stoning sacrifice and satisfaction made for them: FOR IT [IS] IGNORANCE; a sin of ignorance, for which reason Christ pleads for pardon on the foot of his sacrifice, and his people receive it, Luke 23:34; for that this sin was forgiven on the score of a sacrifice appears by what follows: AND THEY SHALL BRING THEIR OFFERING, A SACRIFICE MADE BY FIRE UNTO THE LORD; the bul

ATONEMENT (_ See Scofield) - (Exodus 29:33). _...

5. VARIOUS LAWS, THE SABBATH-BREAKER, AND THE TASSELS ON THE GARMENTS CHAPTER 15 _ 1. Concerning offerings in the land (Numbers 15:1)_ 2. The second communication concerning offerings (Numbers 15:17) 3. The Sabbath-breaker (Numbers 15:32) 4. The tassels on the garments (Numbers 15:37) The historical account is here interrupted. What the critics have to say about this chapter speaking of it as an evidence of the patchwork of different persons, we care not to follow. Our space is too valuable for that. The chapter is beautifully in order at this point. God gave two communications to M

NUMBERS 15. A NUMBER OF DETACHED REGULATIONS (from P). NUMBERS 15:1. THE QUANTITIES OF FLOUR, OIL, AND WINE APPROPRIATE TO VARIOUS SACRIFICES. The practice of adding such accompaniments to flesh-offerings preserves the primitive idea that certain sacrifices were meals of which the deity partook (_cf._ Judges 9:13; 1 Samuel 1:24, Bel. 3- 6). The use of corn and wine in sacrifice could have come into vogue only after Israel had ceased to be a pastoral and had become an agricultural people. Wine probably replaced milk, which, though it does not occur among the offerings prescribed in the Jewish law, was offered by the Arabs, as also by the Carthaginians (a Phœ nician race). Milk formed the libation at the earl

ATONEMENT. See note on Exodus 29:33. SACRIFICE MADE BY FIRE. Hebrew. _'ishsheh._ App-43....