Today’s Scripture Reading (September
26, 2015): Numbers 15
During the
last Republican debate there was a great exchange between Donald Trump and Jeb
Bush over the end result of political fundraising. According to Trump, Bush has
no choice but to exist in the debt of those interest groups who have raised
money for his campaign (Trump on the other hand has turned down all donations
so that he has no one to whom he is beholding.) But Bush’s response was that
there has only been one donor who had ever tried to influence him with money,
and that attempt failed. And the name of the donor who tried to influence Bush
with donations to his campaign – Donald Trump. Trump’s reaction to Bush’s
charge was priceless. His mouth opened wide and he shook his head. No, that was
not true. He had never tried to influence Bush with donations – never. And if he had, he would have gotten exactly
what it was that he wanted – his people were that good.
Of course,
the fact checkers found that Bush’s allegation was true. Trump’s men had indeed
met with Bush’s staff hoping to build a casino in Florida – and Bush had held
his ground and said ‘no’ in spite of the donations that had been made to his
campaign. Bush was right, Trump had tried to influence him with his money. But
the bigger question might be this – did Trump know that he was lying, or was
this attempt something that he had forgotten about or maybe the attempt to influence
Bush was something of which Trump was unaware. And that is something that we
may never know.
But there is
a difference between wrongs that are made innocently and ones that are made
with purpose. If Trump was mistaken and if he didn’t know his error, then he
can apologize and be forgiven. But if he purposely lied about his attempt to
influence Bush, then maybe there is a message about his character here to which
we need to pay attention.
The Mosaic
Law makes provision for sin. In some ways the reason for the provision is simple
– sin happens and we, as imperfect people, need some way of dealing with that
sin. And so there are allowances within the law for our imperfect behavior, and
especially for the sins that we don’t intend to commit. But the Mosaic Law takes
a different approach to sins that are committed defiantly – or literally sins
committed with a “high hand.” Anyone who knows that they are sinning and just doesn’t
care about their sin must be removed from the community. It is very likely this
passage that the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews has in mind in these words
- If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge
of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and
of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God (Hebrews 10:26-27).
Sin happens,
but repeated sin is often us saying that we don’t care about the things that
God cares about. We are being ruled by self, and as long as that is true, then
we are guilty for our sin. True repentance can only happen when we begin to
care about what God cares about – and when we decide to come to God humbly
knowing that it is we who stand in the wrong.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers
16
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