NKJV 365 / A Larger Conscience

NKJV 365 Day Reading Plan

Day 37 of 365 A Larger Conscience Interestingly, not only individuals bring a sin offering to God, but the whole congregation as well. Perhaps that rubs us the wrong way, for we are more prone to think of individuals coming under conviction, individuals repenting, and individuals finding the new life in Christ. People may be saved through a church's ministry, but may a church itself be saved? If nothing else, perhaps the Old Testament, and this passage in particular, will serve as a healthy corrective against exclusive emphasis on individual responsibility and virtual neglect of community responsibility. One can only wonder if our absorption with the individual has more to do with rugged, pioneer Americanism as its antecedent than with biblical thought itself. God's word to Israel was, "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves" (2 Chr. 7:14. It is a word to all His people, not just to some of them. Perhaps the time has come for the church of believers to confess corporately our own sins, even those done "unintentionally." Little progress in God's name will be made while we point the finger at others. Taken from The Devotional Daily Bible Leviticus 4:13-21 NASB 13 'Now if the whole congregation of Israel commits error and the matter escapes the notice of the assembly, and they commit any of the things which the L ord has commanded not to be done, and they become guilty; 14 when the sin which they have committed becomes known, then the assembly shall offer a bull of the herd for a sin offering and bring it before the tent of meeting. 15 Then the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the L ord , and the bull shall be slain before the L ord . 16Then the anointed priest is to bring some of the blood of the bull to the tent of meeting; 17 and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the L ord , in front of the veil. 18He shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar which is before the L ord in the tent of meeting; and all the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering which is at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 19 He shall remove all its fat from it and offer it up in smoke on the altar. 20 He shall also do with the bull just as he did with the bull of the sin offering; thus he shall do with it. So the priest shall make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven. 21 Then he is to bring out the bull to a place outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering for the assembly.