Judgment and Forgiveness (pt 7 of 7)

We’ve been talking about Yahweh’s Holiness and how our offerings also become Holy. But I suppose a reasonable question would be why I have spent so much time dealing with this?

Judgment and Forgiveness (pt 6 of 7)

In the last post we began talking about “Holy Property,” and how the moment you commit to make an offering it becomes Yahweh’s property, and to violate his property is a serious sin.

Judgment and Forgiveness (pt 5 of 7)

This is the fifth day of our study and we have witnessed some pretty troubling things, haven’t we? The God we thought of as an old grandfatherly figure who winked at our transgressions, doesn’t seem too gentle anymore. What happened? Has he changed on us? Well, turn your Bibles to Acts 4. We are going to start reading at verse 32, and continue reading on into Chapter 5; we will end with 5:11.

Judgment and Forgiveness (pt 4 of 7)

We had just witnessed two of Aaron’s sons fry in God’s judgment. Then we read in verses 6 and 7 that Aaron and his two surviving sons were not to participate in the customary mourning-of-the-dead procedures. In fact, they were told if they do mourn their kin’s passage, they too will be struck dead. Whoa! On top of that, because they are priests, and represent the entire nation of Israel, the whole community will be subject to God’s wrath if they join in the bereavement. Now how fair is that? They couldn’t mourn the lost of their brothers, and Aaron couldn’t mourn the loss of this sons? Wow!

Judgment and Forgiveness (3 of 7)

In the last post we were trying to understand how the two oldest sons of Aaron offended God—which caused their untimely deaths. In the process we saw that Nadav and Avihu were both ordained and separated common priests and whatever their offense was, they should have known better. When we ended, we just began to discuss that they were “near” to God, and what that meant.

Judgment and Forgiveness (2 of 7)

We are trying to examine the Biblical understanding of Judgment and Forgiveness. So first, let’s look at the story of Nadav and Avihu which is told in the first few verses of Leviticus chapter 10; then we will compare that with the New Testament account of Ananias and Sapphira, as told in Acts 5. In both cases the common element is that Yahweh took the lives of these folks for offending Him. In both cases it involves Believers; in fact Nadav and Avihu were priests—Ananias and Sapphira were early disciples of Jesus. And on the surface, both cases the offenses seem to be little more than breaches of protocol; hardly the thing you would expect a God who places such a high value on life, love, and mercy to pronounce the death sentence over. Let’s read about it:

Judgment and Forgiveness (1 of 7)

Several years ago, while I was teaching, I was talking about God’s willingness to judge, punish, and even destroy when necessary. I wasn’t too far into the teaching about these attributes of our Lord, a man who (along with his wife) regularly attended the class, raised his hand and made a terse comment; he said something like: “. . . I don’t come to Church to hear about God’s judgment; I come to hear about His love. My God is love, and that’s all I am interested in.” That was his last Sunday with us, he never came back.

Judgment and Forgiveness (pt 2 of 7)

We are trying to examine the Biblical understanding of Judgment and Forgiveness. So first, let’s look at the story of Nadav and Avihu which is told in the first few verses of Leviticus chapter 10; then we will compare that with the New Testament account of Ananias and Sapphira, as told in Acts 5. In both cases the common element is that Yahweh took the lives of these folks for offending Him. In both cases it involves Believers; in fact Nadav and Avihu were priests—Ananias and Sapphira were early disciples of Jesus. And on the surface, both cases the offenses seem to be little more than breaches of protocol; hardly the thing you would expect a God who places such a high value on life, love, and mercy to pronounce the death sentence over. Let’s read about it:

Judgment and Forgiveness (pt 1 of 7)

Several years ago, while I was teaching, I was talking about God’s willingness to judge, punish, and even destroy when necessary. I wasn’t too far into the teaching about these attributes of our Lord, a man who (along with his wife) regularly attended the class, raised his hand and made a terse comment; he said something like: “. . . I don’t come to Church to hear about God’s judgment; I come to hear about His love. My God is love, and that’s all I am interested in.” That was his last Sunday with us, he never came back.