Daily Devotion | Numbers 15:22–41 | 2026 May 12

Title: Daily Devotion | Numbers 15:22–41 | 2026 May 12

Scripture: Numbers 15:22–41 (ESV, reference only)

Date: 2026 May 12

Speaker: Rev. John Chen

Transcribed, translated & edited by: Joseph Wang (Yufan)

All right, dear brothers and sisters, peace to you. We thank God for His grace. We have come to a new day to study the Daily Devotion. The passage we are studying today is Numbers 15:22–41. Let us pray to God. We thank You, O God. We thank You that You are willing to treat us with such grace and mercy. Once again, You set Your statutes and ordinances clearly before us, so that we may know what is most important in our life. Lord, we ask You to be with us and lead us, so that we may follow You and truly be gained by You. In the name of Christ, amen.

All right, we thank God for His grace. We continue to look at Numbers 15. In Numbers 15:17–21, He tells them to take this new dough as a contribution, to offer it to the LORD, showing that they belong to the LORD. This meaning is very clear. Also, you may understand this new lump in another way. It points to Jesus Christ, this new grain, who finally becomes the firstfruits of the grain. After He is offered to God, it shows that the later grain, that is, we who mature afterward, must all belong to God. Jesus Christ became the firstfruits offering, offered to God, and we also may be raised together with Christ. You may also understand it from this angle, from the perspective of Christ, to understand the meaning of offering the firstfruits.

All right, next we look at the regulations for offering sacrifices when they sin. First, it concerns the whole congregation of Israel. Verses 22 to 26 speak about what the whole congregation of Israel should do when they commit some sin unintentionally. Let us see what the text says. If they do not keep all these commandments that the LORD has spoken to Moses, that is, all that the LORD commanded you by Moses, from the day that the LORD gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations. So here it reminds us that to obey God’s statutes and ordinances is absolutely not something about which you may say, “I may do it or I may not do it.” From the day He gave the commandment until all your generations, they must be obeyed. So, brothers and sisters, we must remember what kind of people we are.

What is our mission? Our mission is to obey God’s statutes and ordinances. We must remember this clearly, so that we do not become confused. Under the revelation of the New Testament, we know that we simply cannot do it. It is impossible for us to fulfill the whole law. Christ fulfilled the whole law for us. But this absolutely does not exempt us from responsibility. On the contrary, the Lord Jesus obeyed the law for us so that we may obey the law more courageously. That is the logical relationship. It is not that Jesus obeyed, and therefore I do not obey. It is not such a relationship of exemption.

We need to be clear about this. Also, I hope to remind everyone of one point. This is also something we often overlook in Christian anthropology, in the anthropology section of systematic theology. That is, for a human being, what is the most important thing? Or what is his most important attribute? We rarely think about this. For example, let us look at how we view people, how we classify people. We divide people into those who have money and those who do not have money, those who have power and those who do not have power. Or we say this woman is beautiful or ugly; this man is handsome, or it seems that he is not handsome, and so on.

This is how we classify people. But God does not classify people in this way. What God values in His sight is your moral attribute. Have you obeyed the law? Have you trusted in Christ? From the New Testament perspective, that is whether you have truth, righteousness, and holiness. These three things. Truth refers to whether you know God and whether you believe in Jesus Christ. Righteousness refers to whether you live out a life of love in your daily life. Holiness refers to whether your life is holy. This is God’s point of concern. This is also the mark of a person, the mark of a new man.

So when you look from this angle, our view of people is completely wrong. In our eyes, there are those who have money and those who do not have money, those who have a house and those who do not have a house, those who have a car and those who do not have a car. You are a PhD; you are a wealthy boss. This is how we view people. But God does not view people in this way. God thinks all these things are not important. God thinks your moral attribute is the most important. I think this is a great reminder to us here, brothers and sisters. Actually, what we do in this life is not important. I am a food delivery worker, I am a street sweeper, I am someone who goes to pick up scraps. This is not important. It is not important at all. At least, it is not as frightening as we imagine. “Oh, this person picks up garbage.” “Wow, that person is a big boss.”

How many assets does he own? Is his company listed on Wall Street? Where is he a big boss? Does he own a factory? In God’s eyes, these things are actually small matters. These circumstances are all given by God. What is His purpose in placing you in each situation? It is so that you may obey God’s statutes and ordinances. We need to be clear about this. What God values most, if you understand it in ordinary language, is your moral attribute. The main thing that makes a person a person is also his moral attribute, not his wealth, power, status, or external things. It is like the way we look at people. We always look at whether his clothes are good or bad, whether there are wrinkles, whether he has done cosmetic treatment. These things are false. The point is the person himself, his body and limbs. That is what is most important. I think God is also very interesting in this. No matter how rich you are, you still grow in the shape of a human being, right? You cannot grow four hands and four feet. I think this is God reminding us that what He values more is not our appearance, not the external clothing, but our moral attribute.

I think from this point, for every one of us, you must turn your eyes around. That is, how do you depart from this world and turn to Christ? You must care about what God cares about. God values your moral attribute. Your value comes from your moral attribute. Of course, it is only because the robe of Jesus Christ is placed upon us that we have value. But in Jesus Christ, our moral attribute is valuable. All the other things—wealth, reputation, status, houses, cars, work—these are all external. If we have food and clothing, we should be content.

If God gives you many things and makes you very prosperous, then thank the Lord. But you still need to remember to give, and remember to help the poor. If you do not have these things, that is also all right. The point is your moral attribute. Even if you are a beggar, you must still pay attention to your moral attribute. So I think this is an extremely great reminder. You see, in chapter 15, what is repeatedly mentioned is sin, right? How do you obey the law? You must think this matter through clearly. If you do not think it through clearly, if your anthropology goes wrong, then your soteriology will certainly have problems.

Why? Because you begin to think about how to save yourself. Should I have money? Is my body healthy? These kinds of things. The Bible never speaks of these things in that way. So you also should not care about these things in that way. What the Bible speaks of is what your moral attribute is like. Have you obeyed the statutes and ordinances of the LORD? From that day onward throughout your generations. This is the main point we must pay attention to.

All right, then if someone commits a wrong, what should be done? The whole congregation sins unintentionally. Remember, it is unintentional. Then they must bring the young bull, the grain offering, and the male goat as a sin offering. This is a little different from Leviticus. There are some differences. But the difference is not important. This simply tells you how to offer the sacrifice. It is possible that Leviticus speaks about the situation in the wilderness, while this passage is speaking about after they enter Canaan, because the whole context is speaking about entering Canaan. So it is very normal for there to be differences.

All right, so this is what sacrifice is to be offered for sin: a young bull, a grain offering, a drink offering, and also a male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for the whole congregation of Israel. This atonement means that all the people sinned unintentionally, or did not know, or lacked the strength to obey. What should be done? This sin is something the people committed unintentionally, so atonement must be made. This is speaking about the sin offering. Then if it is one person who sins, it is divided into two situations. One is, what if he sins unintentionally? He is to offer a female goat as a sin offering, as the sacrificial animal for his sin. After a person sins, he needs atonement. This is also something we must remember. When a person sins, through laying his hand on the sacrificial animal, he transfers his sin to that sacrifice, so that the sacrifice may die in his place. This model is applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. This model is that the Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins and was nailed to the cross. Therefore Jesus Christ becomes our Savior. Our sins have already been placed upon Him. That is the meaning here.

Then what does verse 30 speak about? It speaks about acting with a high hand. This person is to be cut off from among the people. What exactly does acting with a high hand mean? What it speaks about here is actually not whether your behavior has violated the law. Very clearly, whether it is the one who sins unintentionally or the one who acts with a high hand, they have both violated the law. That is certain. But where is the difference? Unintentional sin refers to the motivation. You did not know, you did not understand, or you were weak and did not carry it out. But acting with a high hand refers to what? It refers to this person who fully knows God’s command and also understands God’s law, yet he despises the word of the LORD and violates His command. So on the level of motivation, this person is deliberately violating it. God says it cannot be done, right? “It cannot be done, but I insist on doing it.” “Whatever You say, I will go against You.” “I simply do not believe You.” This is called acting with a high hand.

So from this angle, I think that our Gentile friends cannot really be said to be acting with a high hand, because they do not understand the law. Their sins are unintentional sins. Therefore we must preach the gospel to them, hoping that they will repent. So this is very important. If a person has believed in the Lord and then still commits sin, he must be especially careful. You need to look carefully: is it acting with a high hand? Is it that he could not restrain himself, could not withstand the temptation, could not stand under the pressure? Or is it because he is determined in his heart to oppose God? These are obviously two different things. If you are very weak, cannot withstand the pressure, or cannot resist temptation, these all belong to unintentional sins. Through prayer, confession, and asking God, there can still be forgiveness. But if a person is determined in his heart to oppose God and to be against God, then this person must be cut off from among the people, because he has despised the word of God.

Next, this case speaks about the matter of gathering sticks on the Sabbath. Regarding the Sabbath, we know that Exodus 35:3 speaks of not kindling a fire on the Sabbath. Why did this man gather sticks on the Sabbath? This is a question. Why did he openly gather sticks on the Sabbath? On the Sabbath, no work at all may be done. This was stated very clearly, right? This was already said when the Ten Commandments were given. Why did this man gather sticks on the Sabbath? Very clearly, this man is the kind of person spoken of above, one who acts with a high hand. Other people, at ordinary times, because we know that to cook manna, one had to gather sticks, right? At ordinary times, there were many people gathering sticks.

Everyone went together to gather them. On the Sabbath day, there certainly would not be many people, right? Since there were not many people, would not the sticks be easier to gather? Right? Since they were easier to gather, I will go gather sticks. But although they were easier to gather, the act of gathering sticks, for this person, was actually despising the word of the LORD and violating the command of the LORD. So he was brought here to Moses and Aaron. What should be done? They were not clear how to deal with it. The LORD said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” All right, this is the execution of the law. So this man was stoned to death. Therefore this man, among the Israelites, before they were about to enter Canaan, became a case in which God especially wanted to establish the commandment of the Sabbath. Because the Sabbath commandment, for the Israelites, was a very crucial commandment. Why was that?

Let us first speak about the importance of the Sabbath from the earthly perspective. The Sabbath could cause the Israelites to remember that they were God’s people. On this day, they could not do any work. On this day, they gathered together, studied God’s law, and understood God’s will, so that they would be reminded, and remind themselves, that they were God’s elect people.

The meaning of the Sabbath day being set apart is to let them, first speaking from the earthly perspective, think and understand that they were God’s people, study the law, and cause their lives to live a holy life, a life according to the moral law. This is what the Sabbath was meant to remind them of. Then from the heavenly perspective, what does the Sabbath remind them of? The Sabbath reminds them that, in fact, the purpose of the giving of these statutes and ordinances is not essentially to make them rely on the law to be justified. They must enter into a kind of rest. This rest is the rest accomplished for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. Only by fully trusting in Him can we be saved. Do not busy yourself with your own work. Do not think of saving yourself through your own ways. This is the heavenly meaning of the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath you violate the Sabbath, and you also do not keep the Sabbath, then from the earthly perspective, you will not learn the statutes and ordinances, and you will not be able to enter into the heavenly life.

To this day, Reformed churches still hold to the Sabbath, because the Sabbath, on earth, can help us know God better. It also allows us to understand more deeply the way of salvation that Jesus Christ accomplished for us. So here, this ordinance of the Sabbath must be kept. Therefore this man was put to death. Of course, some people then ask, “If we now keep the Sabbath, does that mean we also cannot eat, cannot kindle a fire, and cannot have a love feast? Can we only chew cold steamed buns with pickles?” There really are churches that do this. Their love feast is steamed buns with pickles. Why? Because they believe that the Sabbath does not allow kindling a fire, according to Exodus 35:3. As for me, my present understanding is that no, it is not that strict. This includes whether you can go out to eat on the Lord’s Day, right? Because if you go out to eat, you are also not helping others keep the Sabbath, right? So is there such a concern? I think it is not that strict. In the New Testament, must we keep the Old Testament ordinance completely in this way? I think there is a question here. At least, I myself have not been convinced. Whether I will be convinced in the future, I do not know.

We thank the Lord. I think the meaning of the Sabbath is very clear. In our standards for believers, it is stated very clearly. The ordinance of the Sabbath, the setting apart of this day as holy—these meanings still have a very good warning function for us. So we still need to hold to the Sabbath. All right, verses 37 to 40 speak about their clothing. They were to have tassels on the edges of their garments. In the ancient Near East, only honorable people, only nobles, had tassels. So God wanted every Israelite to have a tassel. Of course, this was not to show that they were honorable, but to show that they were people in the covenant. They were covenant people. They were to put a cord of blue on the tassel. We all understand very clearly the meaning of putting on a blue cord. The meaning of the blue cord is the heavenly color. The priestly robe was blue. So this blue showed that they were heavenly people. Such a group of heavenly people were to wear tassels on their garments. Why? So that when they saw the tassels on their clothes, they would see and remember.

They were to obey all the commandments of the LORD, and not follow their own heart, nor commit whoredom, as they had been accustomed to doing. So here, verses 39 to 40 again remind them: which road do you want? One road is to listen to God’s commands. The other road is to listen to your own will, and act in evil and corruption. When you see it, you remind yourself, saying, “I must obey God’s commandments and become holy. I must constantly remind myself that I am God’s people.” So this is also what we repeatedly remind ourselves of at the Lord’s Supper. Jesus says that whenever you eat, it is for the purpose of remembering Me. We must think that we are those who have been purchased and redeemed by Jesus Christ. Therefore we must live a holy life.

This is the moral attribute I spoke about at the beginning today. This is a very important part of anthropology. In Christian Reformed systematic theology, within anthropology, this is a very important part. What is the most important thing about you? It is your moral attribute. This point must be emphasized repeatedly and clearly to the brothers and sisters. You must think it through clearly. Otherwise, if your identity comes from whether I have money or not, whether I have power or not, whether I live in a big house or a small house, then this becomes your goal, right? You hope to live a different life. “Before, I lived in a rented room of four or five square meters. Now I sit in a large house, a large office of one hundred square meters. From now on my life is completely different. I have become a big boss. Finally, it seems that I am completely different from before. I am going home in glory.”

Actually, that is not the matter. Whether you live in a rented room of three or five square meters, or you sit in a large office of one hundred square meters, your essence is exactly the same. If you have not believed in Jesus, you will still go to hell. The point is your moral attribute. And I have already said this very clearly, so we will not repeat it here. Therefore, so that today you may obey all My commandments, become holy, and belong to your God. We must live holy lives.

Verse 41 is a very beautiful verse. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD your God.” When speaking about this, I reminded everyone before that as soon as we hear that someone wants to be our God, we become unhappy. We want to be our own god. It is as if, once we have to listen to commands and live a holy life, our faces become full of sorrow. But actually, do not misunderstand this. When God says, “I am your God,” it also means that He wants to give all His good things to us. When He says that He is our God, it shows that we are His offspring, we are His children. Everything He has—His life, His never-ending eternal life, the eternal inheritance in the new heavens and new earth, and the relationship of being with God forever—He also gives to us.

We have said that God is a righteous God. What He pays attention to is the correspondence between responsibility and right. Since He calls you to obey His law, He also lets you enjoy His rights. What rights? That in Christ, you are a people who possess the heavenly inheritance. So I think all of this sets the whole logic in order. Then why should we be people with moral attributes? Because only people with this attribute can enter the kingdom of heaven. Of course, the premise is the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Let us not speak this wrongly. Do not think that good morality can enter heaven. There is no such teaching. It means that a person who trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ must live out a life with moral quality. You may enjoy the heavenly inheritance and possess eternal life.

By faith, by firmly believing in Jesus Christ, you begin to enter into this covenant community. A tassel is added to your garment, and on it there is a blue cord, proving that you are a heavenly people. You and I are heavenly people who belong to God. This is my attribute. Then for the people of this kingdom that belongs to God, the most important thing is their moral life. Then the other things are not important. How much money can I make? Am I a rich man? Have I improved my life? Do I have reputation? Actually, none of these things is important at all. So I think, brothers and sisters, when we understand our Christian life from this angle, we will live out an entirely different color.

We are people of heaven. What we care about is the heavenly kingdom. We must possess a life like God’s. We are God’s children. We must live out the life of God’s children. The eternal kingdom of heaven—what is my task? It is to live on earth like a child of God, like the people of God. To live a holy life, a life according to the moral law. This has nothing to do with my identity, whether I have money or do not have money, whether I am in the city, whether I am on Wall Street in New York, or whether I am in some remote village in northern Jiangsu. It has nothing to do with that at all. So I think we must repeatedly be reminded that we are heavenly people. We should live a holy life. We must learn to hold to the Sabbath. Under the covering and sprinkling of the precious blood of Jesus Christ, in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we receive peace. In the rest of Jesus Christ, we may enter into that true heavenly rest. This is the Christian worldview, view of life, and value system. May God help us, so that in the Lord Jesus Christ, our lives may display an entirely different color. All right, we will simply stop today’s sharing here. Thank you, everyone.