Author: Erin Newton

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Atonement is Not Permission to Sin

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 15 Listen: (5:09) Read: Galatians 4 Listen: (4:13)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 15: 32–36

32 While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, 34 and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. 35 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.” 36 So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.

Reflection: Atonement is Not Permission to Sin

By Erin Newton

Israel’s relationship with God was founded on the covenant. Much like marriage, this relationship was built on trust and fidelity.

Numbers 15 talks about the ritual required for sins committed unintentionally. These are sins that had no premeditation; they just happened. Determining the intentionality of sins was based on the motivation of the person. Was this due to forgetfulness or naivety? Or was this something that was openly acknowledged and then willfully ignored? Those would be called “intentional sins.”

Thankfully, God provided the people with rituals to enact when unintentional sins were committed. The guilty parties would offer the proper sacrifice and a clean slate would be issued.

The process of atonement seems like a way to guarantee forgiveness—a biblical get out of jail free card. The law is easy to measure and to judge oneself against. Any flaw could be erased. Any error could be corrected.

Sort of.

The problem of oversimplifying life under the law is that we risk using atonement as permission. Or as Paul said, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” (Rom 6.1).

Should we? Even before Christ, they had a way out for unintentional sin. But the law is clear about those who sin with a high hand. Such actions were the equivalent to breaking a marriage vow. The person who chooses to sin against God’s command is choosing not to be in covenant with him.

The man caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath has chosen to work when he was told to rest. (How many of us could fall prey to the spirit of the workaholic?) Taking a day off was more than observing self-care. For ancient Israel, it was specifically the sign that they were in a relationship with God, their Redeemer from slavery and their Provider in the wilderness.

The death penalty for such high-handed actions sounds harsh. The punishment fit the crime of treason (in this perspective, it was treason against their King).


Although we are no longer under the law, we are still bound to God in the same relationship of trust and fidelity. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life” (Rom 6.12-13).

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “Everything now covered up will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. For this reason, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed from the housetops.” — Luke 12.2-3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime

 by Phyllis Tickle

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Read more: Wandering Sin

We don’t get to say, “I didn’t intend this” or “I didn’t do that.” We are connected to these sins and must confess them.

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Nothing More, Nothing Less

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 7 Listen: (12:50) Read: James 2 Listen: (3:32)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 7:3-5, 9

3 They brought as their gifts before the Lord six covered carts and twelve oxen—an ox from each leader and a cart from every two. These they presented before the tabernacle.
4 The Lord said to Moses, 5 “Accept these from them, that they may be used in the work at the tent of meeting. Give them to the Levites as each man’s work requires.”
9 But Moses did not give any to the Kohathites, because they were to carry on their shoulders the holy things, for which they were responsible.

Reflection: Nothing More, Nothing Less

By Erin Newton

We talk a lot about giving to others, ministry, and the church. Numbers details how one should bring offerings (what kind and in what measure) and how someone could be symbolically dedicated to the Lord through financial giving.

But what about the receiving end? What if you are responsible for the finances of a church, ministry, non-profit, etc.? How are you handling that which is given for the work of the Lord? Do you know how to ethically receive?

With the new tabernacle built, a series of “housewarming” gifts are brought. The tribal leaders bring six carts and pairs of oxen to pull each one. They were not to be slaughtered or burned as a sacrifice. These are practical and useful offerings to the Lord and distributed for the work.

The Kohathites received none of these gifts. But this was not a punishment! Their duties were to carry the most holy items on their shoulders. These were items too precious and sacred to be carried by mere oxen. It was a privileged duty. Carts and oxen simply were not part of their equation.

As Roy Gane states, “The gifts meet needs created by the Levite job descriptions.” The job requirements determined what was given and who got what. No special favors were done.

I’m sure the Kohathites could have found some alternative use for carts and oxen, perhaps to carry personal belongings. But that would have been a misuse of gifts and would have taken items that belonged to another part of tabernacle ministry.

In Acts 2:45, the community of new Jesus-followers shared their wealth and resources; “they sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” Gifts were based on needs.

How do you receive gifts in the spirit of Numbers 7?

It is no small thing to be entrusted with distributing money or resources that are benevolently given. Many church leaders today are criticized for their excessive lifestyles, seemingly taking the financial gifts from the church and increasing their salary in return.

Are these gifts received to meet the need described by the pastor’s duties? Some may claim a private jet is a necessity or a church-funded vacation is justified by their hard work. The luxury accrued by leaders is like Kohathites taking oxen and carts.

God calls his people to serve him with the necessary gifts and resources to get the job done—nothing more, nothing less.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

I will offer you a freewill sacrifice and praise your Name, O Lord, for it is good.
For you have rescued me from every trouble, and my eye has seen the ruin of my foes. — Psalm 54.6-7

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

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Your Net Worth

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 27 Listen: (4:45) Read: Acts 23 Listen: (5:15)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 27:8

8 If anyone making the vow is too poor to pay the specified amount, the person being dedicated is to be presented to the priest, who will set the value according to what the one making the vow can afford.

Reflection: Your Net Worth

By Erin Newton

I look in the mirror and see a tired face, wrinkles setting in on a furrowed brow. Clothes disheveled, uncertain of when I last did laundry. I wonder if I did enough today, if my kids are bored, or if I forgot something that was due yesterday.

What are my efforts worth?

The bank account is low, and the bills are running high. The jar of change echoes a little more. I hope the banker sees our hard work and diligence; we just need a little loan to fix the house.

What is my value in the eyes of the world?

The world calculates manhours and paychecks, zeros and commas, potential and power. Worth is defined by bank accounts and popularity. What can you do for me? What can you do for us? (Are you going to pay taxes? Are you always going to need help?)

When will I be “worth my weight in gold”?

I’m destined to never be on a Forbes list or in the museum’s platinum donor column. Making ends meet is all that we call success these days. But of all the prized possessions and bountiful crops and perfect livestock, my life itself is of greatest worth—at least from a divine perspective.

My life is worth more than my accomplishments.

There was a provision for people to be dedicated to God, a living sacrifice so to speak. This wasn’t servitude or enslavement. The person would go away and return to his or her normal duties. It was a monetary gift to God symbolic of the potential value of one’s wages for many years. It was costly. It was precious. Because we are precious.

My devotion is not determined by my net worth.

The cost of such dedication was not hindered by one’s lack of wealth. A person could be dedicated with equal respectability and with equal expression of devotion but for a cost that was commensurate with one’s financial burdens. Being low-income did not lower one’s dedication.

I can dedicate my life to God without being an employee of the church.

The temple had a prescribed group of workers: the Levites. Others who wanted to dedicate themselves to God could give financially and work in the outside world.

Such is the reality of many Christians today. All of our lives, the work of our hands, the proportion of our gifts are dearly valued by God.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Be merciful to me, O Lord, for you are my God; I call upon you all the day long. — Psalm 86.3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

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Leviticus levels the ground at the entrance to God’s presence. The rich have no advantage over the poor in seeking God.

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Our Role in Holiness

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 20 Listen: (4:18) Read: Acts 16 Listen: (5:53)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 20:7

Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God.

Reflection: Our Role in Holiness

By Erin Newton

What part do we play in holiness? As Christians, we are accustomed to crediting our holiness to the work of Christ imparted to us in faith. Are we holy in and of ourselves? No.

“Consecrate yourselves,” Leviticus 20 says. Consecration means devoting oneself to God. It is the act of separating oneself from that which is “secular.”

Child sacrifice, sexual license, and dietary restrictions—these three categories include the death penalty as a result in most cases. And these practices reflected the culture around them. God, here, describes ways to be different and be devoted.

From the way they worshiped to their intimate relations to the foods they consumed—in short, every part of life was to be consecrated to God.

Consecrating everything would be a lot easier with a long list of do’s and don’ts. Or so we think. The list here is lengthy but not comprehensive.

On top of that, some laws were seemingly rejected with Christ. Separate clean and unclean food? God tells Peter, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” (Acts 10.15). The death penalty for adulterers? Even Jesus sends the crowd away and raises no stone against the woman in John 8.

Jesus came not to abolish the Law, but he certainly understood its purpose better than we do. “Be holy” appears throughout Leviticus, nestled among commandments. It serves as a prelude to the whole litany of commands in chapter 19. It is the core truth among a myriad of rules.

We still live under the call, “Be holy as God is holy” (1 Peter 1.16), but we don’t have to worry about eating ham or keeping a pet lizard. Those rules are easily dismissed today. Yet we shudder at the mention of child sacrifice or many of the sexual practices listed in Leviticus 20.

How, in the twenty-first century, do we consecrate ourselves to God? Sometimes we’d like to reduce our faith down to a laundry list of do’s and don’ts, especially if we can check boxes and point out others’ shortcomings. But no list in the universe would be adequate to achieve our own feeble participation in holiness. In a pursuit of consecrating ourselves via ticking boxes, we’ve merely adopted legalism as our plan of salvation.

As we learn to consecrate our lives in a modern world, may we pray for wisdom to know the difference between being devoted and being legalistic.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

With my whole heart I seek you; let me not stray from your commandments. — Psalm 119.10

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

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The Stigma of Disease

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 13 Listen: (9:34) Read: Acts 9 Listen: (6:05)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 13:2

2 “When anyone has a swelling or a rash or a shiny spot on their skin that may be a defiling skin disease, they must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest.

Reflection: The Stigma of Disease

By Erin Newton

When my son came home from the hospital, he had a glaring, visible physical disability. There would be no hiding this. We were prepared to have a child with disabilities, but after months of medical treatment, we realized his disease would be a billboard.

Stigma comes with diseases and disabilities. People form conclusions and assumptions without information. My love for our son was no less the day he received his tracheostomy, but I knew the stares and whispers would come the moment we stepped out of the building. I imagined them saying, Who sinned, this boy or his parents? (John 9.1-3)

Leviticus 13, unfortunately, has been misunderstood as support for associating disease with moral failure. A series of scale diseases are listed: things that cause discoloration, shiny marks, boils, burns, even baldness. Long ago, these descriptions were misidentified with leprosy, or Hansen’s disease. Combined with stories of scale diseases inflicted on a person for sin, such as Miriam in response to her criticism against Moses (Numbers 12), modern readers began to assume that God judged all those suffering from Hansen’s disease.

Diseases affecting the skin are not the only ones to carry such stigma. Amy Kenny (My Body Is Not a Prayer Request) details how people in the church have approached her with remedies or assessments of her faith just because of her disability.

How do we read Leviticus 13?

The visual aspect of scale diseases resembled skin peeling away. It was a reflection of death; it reminded them of decay. Death has no place in the presence of God. It was not a moral judgment on the person with boils but a recognition that death deteriorates the body. God bestows life and order; death brings decay and disorder.

More than anything, we must read these chapters with eyes heavenward. We are not being given a rulebook on how to judge others based on disease or disability. This chapter points up to God by pointing down toward death.

Diseases should ignite our sympathy, not our stigma.

And what of those that have no “scales” to the naked eye? What reaction will I get when I tell you of my anxiety or my OCD?

Learning to see the world through the eyes of God means being quick with sympathy and slow with accusations. It means knowing the real enemy is the disorder brought on by death and not pinpointing supposed faults.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

The Lord is near to those who call upon him, to all who call upon him faithfully.
He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he hears their cry and helps them.
The Lord preserves all those who love him, but he destroys all the wicked. — Psalm 145.19-21

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

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