"The LORD said to Moses, 'Say to the Israelites: "Any man or woman who wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the LORD is guilty and must confess the sin they have committed. They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged."'" - Numbers 5:5-7
Have you ever said, "It's more than I can bear!"? If you haven't, you should. Because it is.
In today's verses, we hear that if you've wronged another person in ANY way (people, that's ANY way!) then you 1) are unfaithful to the LORD, 2) are guilty, 3) must confess that sin, 4) must make full restitution, 5) must ADD a fifth of the value of the offense, and 6) must give all that restitution to the particular person you've wronged.
Moreover, #3's requirement to confess ANY wrong as sin is impossible, for God's word says nobody can even know all their wrongs, as in Psalm 19:12, "But who can discern their own errors?"
It's enough to make us all cry out, "It's more than I can bear!"
Hmm! Sounds like Genesis 4:13, "Cain said to the LORD, 'My punishment is more than I can bear'" or John 16:12 where Jesus said to his followers "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear."
In Psalm 130:3, God gives us another way to speak of our burden, "If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?" Are our knees starting to buckle yet under the weight of sin?
However, God desires not the crushed soul or everlasting death of us poor sinners.
In Psalm 32:1, we hear, "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered."
"Forgiven," as in 1 John 1:8-9, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
And "covered," as in God got an animal skin, a blood sacrifice, and covered the first sin in Genesis 3.
Through confession that we are sinners and then faith in Jesus Christ and his shed blood on the cross, we are forgiven and covered in his righteous love forever.
Spread the word because there's a lot of people out there who don't know Jesus and are still crying out, "It's more than I can bear!" Tell them, "Jesus is our Savior."
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
