Refusing a Direct Order

If I have the story right, a few years ago my nephew drove an ax into his own foot while chopping firewood at camp. I imagine it hurt a fair bit. He made his way to one of our northern doctors, who performed a rough and ready repair without anesthesia, which made for an interesting series of sensations he had little desire to repeat.

Life is full of such learning experiences. I’m pretty sure my nephew has had occasion to pick up an ax since, but no such mishaps have resulted. Perhaps he stands differently to cut wood, or hews from a different angle, away from his own body. Maybe he takes care to work undistracted. I don’t know what the change might be, but whatever it is, it seems to have worked.

We all know the dawning horror of realizing something we did has just resulted in consequences we never anticipated. My nephew’s error only affected himself, thankfully. Imagine if it had been someone else’s foot!

A Stone Thrown at Random

Numbers 35 describes just such an error, and it’s the reason God commanded that Israel set up cities of refuge. A man throws a stone at random, and it just happens to hit his neighbor on the head and kill him. Maybe he bumps into someone clumsily while working on a roof and sends him to his death. A small child once ran into the road in front of a friend’s car. He was able to stop in time to save the child’s life, but not in time to avoid serious injury. It could easily have been worse.

These things happen in life. What puts them on a different moral level, as Numbers 35 describes, is the absence of intent. They are not the result of enmity or hatred. They are not planned or calculated. Events just happened too fast, and somebody hurts or kills somebody else with no malice aforethought. It’s why Western law distinguishes between the concepts of manslaughter and murder. Still, you did something that had permanent consequences, and something has to be done about it. Like most people, I’d rather be tried for manslaughter than murder, but I’d far rather the incident had not occurred at all.

Broadening the Concept

The same Hebrew word appears in Leviticus 4, where it broadens the concept of unintentional error beyond construction site injuries or hunting accidents. It’s possible to sin in precisely the same thoughtless manner against God as it is against our fellow man. The chapter begins with these words: “If anyone sins unintentionally”. The KJV reads “in ignorance”, but most modern translations have something similar to the ESV’s “unintentionally” — either “inadvertently”, “unwittingly” or even “accidentally”. The chapter goes on to prescribe God’s remedy, from which we get Israel’s law for sin offerings. Sins of this sort can result from carelessness, inattention, lack of understanding, immaturity or plain old bad luck.

We should note that despite the fact that these sins were unintentional, they nevertheless incurred guilt. They created an ongoing debt to God that needed to be discharged. Israel’s law made provision for that eventuality. Responsibility followed the choice-maker, not the victim of the choice.

A Heaping Plate of Tasty Meat

For example, a man might enjoy a heaping plate of tasty meat at a feast and later discover the animal from which that meat came had been dedicated to God. It was holy, set apart only for priests. Something had to be done about that.

Israelite law had lots of commandments, something like 613, and its people had a tendency to overlook the less-familiar requirements of the law from time to time, especially when their neighbors weren’t practicing them either. Something had to be done about the laws everyone forgot.

A visitor to Israel from another nation might not be familiar with God’s laws and inadvertently violate one of them. Something had to be done about that.

Such sins could be verbal. Sometimes men made rash vows, unaware of the potential consequences, underestimating the cost of making them or their own ability to make good. Something had to be done about that.

Rebellion and Mistakes

These were not rebellious sins. They were mistakes. Some of them were undoubtedly stupid mistakes, mistakes that could and should have been anticipated. Perhaps with a little more education from mom, dad or the local rabbi, they might never have occurred. Nevertheless, these errors did harm, causing guilt and estrangement from God. Had the Lord judged all sins on the basis of the damage they caused without taking the question of intent into consideration, it’s quite possible no Israelite teen would have made it to adulthood. Thankfully, the law took the failings of men into account.

If Israelites, with the Law of Moses to inform all their dealings with God and with one another, could sin inadvertently from time to time, how much more the Gentiles, who never had God’s law? Paul speaks in Athens of the “times of ignorance” in this context, a whole era during which Gentiles believed that the divine being was like gold, silver or stone. Errors about the character of God are not trivial issues, yet these times of ignorance, Paul says, “God overlooked.” He declined to react in precipitous judgment to such sins, though he was very much aware they happened. Not so in Israel, where “every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution”. As it ought. They had God’s law.

Ending the Times of Ignorance

We should take note of the fact that times of ignorance are not endless. They have their terminus. Christ has been raised from the dead, and God has appointed him to judge the world in righteousness. The moment Paul proclaimed these facts, whether in Athens, Corinth, Ephesus or anywhere else, the entire situation changed. The citizens of every Gentile city in which Paul preached the gospel became accountable to God for what they did with their new knowledge about him, just as our Lord condemned the cities of Chorazin and Capernaum for their unrepentant spirit despite the mighty works he had performed in their midst. Greater light means greater accountability.

Faithful, accurate proclamation of the gospel changes ignorance to rebellion in those who reject the word about Christ. God will not overlook that. Under law, an error committed inadvertently could be graciously forgiven, but a sin committed “with a high hand”, thumbing one’s nose at God, had no such remedy.

Failing to seek God incurs a certain quantum of guilt. Rejecting Christ is on another level. It’s refusing a direct order.