Thoughts on Numbers 15 & Hebrews 9

Today’s reading: Numbers 15; Hebrews 9

Today’s reading is a great example of why I really like reading different parts of Scripture simultaneously. There are just certain connections that are so much clearer when you are reading two passages at the same time, and today’s combination of Numbers 15 and Hebrews 9 is actually a pretty important one.

Until relatively recently I have misunderstood a big part of the argument of the book of Hebrews. When the author of Hebrews contrasts the old covenant and the new covenant, he is clearly saying the new covenant is better, and one of the ways he argues that point here in Hebrews 9 is that under the old covenant the high priest had to enter into the most holy place to make the sacrifice every year, but Jesus only had to make His sacrifice once for all time. In my mind this translated to, “These two covenants accomplish the same things, but under the Levitical priesthood you had to continue going back for forgiveness, while in Christ forgiveness is permanent.”

This understanding has led me to be very confused by a couple arguments the author of Hebrews makes, and honestly led me to a weird theology around the expectation of sin and guilt in the conscience of a believer out of the beginning of Hebrews 10 (maybe we will talk about that in tomorrow’s post).

But Numbers 15 gives us a very important point of clarification that I had missed in the past. Throughout the middle of the chapter we are given all the sacrifices and offerings that had to be made to atone for unintentional sin, but then, to close out that section, we find the following in verses 30-31: “But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is 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.” Sinning “with a high hand” means to sin intentionally, actively and willfully violating the Lord’s command. And what is important to pay attention to is that there is no sacrifice, and therefore there is no forgiveness, for such a sin under the Law.

This is a big deal. What this means is that the sacrificial system was never intended to resolve moral guilt before God. As we have talked about in previous posts, the Levitical system was about sacred space, either purifying sacred space itself (like on the Day of Atonement), or purifying individuals to occupy sacred space, so that God’s presence could continue to dwell among His people. But being cleansed from ritual impurity is different from being cleansed from sin, and the Levitical system had no means by which a person could be cleansed morally before the Lord.

So what the author of Hebrews is really getting at is that these covenants are fundamentally different and the new covenant is categorically better. All the sacrificial system was able to accomplish was allowing God’s presence to continue to dwell among His people, but even His people could not draw too near to His presence, and that first covenant did nothing for their eternal standing before the Lord. But under the new covenant, we are not just made ritually clean, we are made morally clean. Jesus’ sacrifice isn’t just a more permanent cleansing from impurity and unintentional sin, but a true cleansing from all unrighteousness, including sin which, under the old covenant, could never be forgiven!

Jesus’ death on the cross doesn’t just supersede the old covenant’s sacrificial system by being longer lasting, but it supersedes it by accomplishing so much more than the old system ever could. In Christ we now have bold and confident access to the throne of grace, and that access would never have been possible before the cross. We are not just ritually cleansed to be near sacred space, but, in Christ, we are morally cleansed to become sacred space, God sending His Spirit to take up residence in our hearts. 

The more I understand just how different Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself was from every sacrifice made under the Levitical priesthood, the more grateful I am for the amazing grace that has been poured out on us through the cross.