“Also if one person sins unintentionally, then he shall offer a one year old female goat for a sin offering. 28 `The priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the person who goes astray when he sins unintentionally, making atonement for him that he may be forgiven. 29 `You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the sons of Israel and for the alien who sojourns among them. 30 `But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 31 `Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him.'” 32Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day. 33Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation; 34and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him. 35Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” 36So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.” (Numbers 15:27-36)
The apostle Paul wrote “the wages of sin is death”. (Romans 6:23) In that context Paul was speaking of spiritual death or separation from God. In the passage before us now, God called for immediate punishment for breaking the Law of Moses. How wonderful that God does not deal with us now as He did then. His grace and longsuffering should provide for our salvation by causing us to obey the gospel and become a Christian through the blood of Jesus Christ. Read about the benefits of the blood of Jesus in the articles “Power of the Cross”.
