Title: Obedience and Holiness (Numbers 15:32-41)
Content: God is perfectly holy.
In order to approach God like that, holiness is required in our lives as well.
After bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, God did not lead them directly to Canaan, their destination, but led them into the wilderness.
And in the wilderness, he carries out rigorous training to approach the holy God.
He gives detailed training on how to obey God's word thoroughly and how to live a life of distinction and purity in the world.
According to today's text, a certain person in the Israeli community cut wood on the Sabbath. Perhaps he cut wood and made a fire to feed his family. As the head of a family, it was a means of survival to feed the family, so it was understandable, and it may be understandable.
However, God told Moses to bring the man out of the camp and stone him to death. In the end, the man left Egypt together, and he was brutally stoned to death by the hands of his fellow countrymen who had risked their lives and walked through the wilderness together.
No matter what the circumstances and good reasons, nothing can stand on the Word of God. Nothing can be rationalized or justified under the authority of the Word. Only obedience is required.
Along with obedience, another thing God wants is 'holiness'.
God tells the Israelites to make special clothes for them to wear.
“Make tassels on the hem of your garment, and add a blue string to the fringes of your ears” (verse 38).
The purpose of this garment is to protect the people of Israel from all the sins of fornication according to the lusts of one's heart and eyes that lead them to indulgence.
It was God's special device that made us remember God's commands and turn away from sin by looking at the special fringes on our clothes.
Today we also need these special devices.
My own special device to turn my heart and my eyes away from sin...
God requires obedience and holiness from us today.
In the face of obedience and holiness, no circumstance or reason is acceptable.
It's so strict that it seems suffocating, but if we don't, we'll never be able to come before God. Because God is perfectly holy without any blemish.
Let's live without forgetting the two words 'obedience and holiness'...to go before God without fear today.!!!