Scott LaPierre's Blog: Scott LaPierre | Living God's Way | Pastor, Author, and Speaker, page 43

How did forgiveness take place in the Old Testament?

Did forgiveness in the Old Testament take place through sacrifices or human effort? Forgiveness was received in the Old Testament the same way it’s received in the New Testament: by grace through faith.

Psalm 25:14 says, “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and the Lord will show them His covenant.” The Lord reveals the New Covenant and the grace and mercy of it through David, before Jesus instituted the New Covenant at the Last Supper (Luke 22:20).

According to God’s Law, David committed two sins that should’ve resulted in death: adultery and murder. A few things made David’s terrible sins even worse:

David’s accountability. He knew God’s Law well.
David had been very blessed. God brought him of that shepherd’s field where he was a nobody born to a no-name family. Then God turned him into the rich and powerful king of Israel.
David’s sins were premeditated. He planned out all the details, even writing a letter to Joab that he had Uriah himself carry. It was one of the darkest moments in the Old Testament.

David’s sins should not have received forgiveness

If anyone deserved death it was David, but this is also why David’s situation provides one of the greatest examples of God’s grace and mercy in all of Scripture. Nathan the Prophet confronted David, and he responded, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Sam 12:13a).

This is how we should respond when we sin. In these few words David provides a number of lessons:

Take ownership: “I have…”
Call it what it is: “sin.”
Acknowledge the sin was “against the Lord”
Avoid excuses and blame shifting.

Then Nathan said, “The Lord also has taken away your sin” (2 Sam 12:13b).

These are some of the most amazing words in the Old Testament. It’s almost hard to capture the greatness of what Nathan said. Despite the enormity and wickedness of what David did, his sin was “taken away.”

Hebrews 10:4 and 11 both state, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Sacrifices couldn’t forgive sins, say nothing of take them away.

So how could David be told this? His sins were taken away the same way ours are taken away:

When John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).
1 John 3:5 says “[Jesus] was manifested to take away our sins.”

If any Old Testament sacrifices had been able to do what Jesus did, His sacrifice wouldn’t have been necessary. David looked forward in faith to a Savior the way we look backward in faith to our Savior.

A window into New Testament forgiveness in the Old Testament

The grace and mercy David received provide a beautiful glimpse – a wonderful foreshadowing – of the New Covenant under the Old Covenant. What did David do to receive this forgiveness? Psalm 51:16-17 records:

For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;

You do not delight in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,

A broken and a contrite heart—

These, O God, You will not despise.

David didn’t offer any sacrifices. He said he would’ve provided them if that’s what God wanted, but he knew no animal’s death could atone for what he did. David had a spiritual insight that was tremendous. He knew parts of the New Testament before they were written, and he knew no Old Testament sacrifices could make up for his sins.

But he did know there was a “sacrifice” he could “give” to God. He knew there was an “offering” God “desired”: “a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.”

So that’s what David offered. That sort of humility and brokenness God would accept. David knew all he could do was humble himself, confess his sin, and it resulted in the taking away of even the horrific sins he committed. This is without personal merit, human effort, or penance. This is New Covenant forgiveness by grace through faith.

Forgiveness that provided life instead of death

David’s sins demanded death, but there’s something else he found: life. Nathan also said, “You shall not die” (2 Sam 12:13c). These words mean David was going to die. The Old Covenant – the Law – demanded what it always demands: death. But David was able to find life.

David recognized the greatness of what took place and wrote about it: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity” (Psalm 32:1).

Discuss: have you wondered how people were forgiven in the Old Testament? What did you previously think?

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Pokemon Go: One of the Big Problems

Why don’t I like Pokemon Go?

We live in a parsonage next to the church. My kids often bring lunch to my office. To reach me they walk through the parking lot. Assuming time permits, while eating I talk with my kids. Here is a conversation that just took place:

My kids: “There are two people in the parking lot.”

Me: “What are they doing?”

My kids: “We don’t know. Just sitting in a truck. We said, ‘hi’ to them, but they didn’t say anything.”

When my kids leave my office, I often stand at the door to watch them walk home. If it’s late, or like the other day when a murderer was on the loose, I walk them home. Since I didn’t know who the individuals are in the truck, I walked out with my kids. Here’s how the conversation went with the two people, although I’m leaving out some details so they remain anonymous:

Me: “How are you doing?”

Them: “Good.”

Me: “What are you doing? Can I help you with something?”

Them: “No, we’re just playing Pokemon Go.”

Me: “It brought you to our parking lot?”

Them (laughing): “Yes!”

Me: “My brother-and-sister-in-law live next door. Our associate pastor lives a few houses away. Between their kids and our kids there are lots of children playing, running, and riding around. Next week we’re going to have a lot of kids here for VBS. There are lots of activities throughout the week that have kids here too. This is why we try to limit traffic in our parking lot.”

Them: “Oh yeah, that makes sense. We totally understand.”

While talking to them, another car pulled up and two kids (I’d guess 7 or 8) got out staring at their devices. I thought, “An adult is driving them around for this?” Back to the conversation with the individuals in the truck:

Me: “Are they here for Pokemon too?”

Them (laughing again): “I’m sure.”

Me: “Are there going to be a lot of people coming here?”

Them: “Probably, but you don’t have to worry, because they’ll drive through without stopping. They just need to have visited.”

Let me present these words more accurately: “People are going to be driving around staring at their phones instead of looking at what’s in front of their vehicles.”

Then another car pulled into the parking lot driven by a grown man. There were no kids in the car. In other words, a 50ish-year-old-man was playing. While his car was rolling forward, he was staring at his phone. Three vehicles within 5-10 minutes of each other.

Pokemon Go will make the statistics worse

The number of people getting in accidents because they are texting, looking at their phones, etc is already very high. Pokemon Go will increase these numbers. Here’s my advice:

Be safe out there!
Watch the road when you’re driving.
Take care of your kids.
Look out for other drivers who aren’t looking out for you.

Discuss: What do you think about Pokemon Go? Have you seen it cause any problems?

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If Job wasn’t righteous enough…

Consider the ways Job is described:

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil” (1:1).
God said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” (1:8).
After Satan took Job’s animals, servants – and worst of all – his children, God said the same thing to Satan and added, “And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause” (2:3).

These verses present a fantastic description. As far as earthly righteousness goes, nobody could do better than Job. But this is what God says:

There is none who does good, no, not one (Psa 14:2-3, 53:2-3, quoted in Rom 3:10)
There is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin (Ecc 7:20, also 1 Kin 8:46 and 2 Chr 6:36).
In My sight no one living is righteous (Psa 143:2).

Job was arguably the greatest man in the Old Testament. In our eyes he might be one of the most righteous men in history. But he wasn’t righteous enough in God’s eyes.

“What can we learn from Job?”

Most people would answer, “We can learn about suffering!” That’s true, but just as importantly we learn there’s no righteousness man can attain that’s “good enough.” In the Gospels the religious leaders were the picture of humanly attained righteousness. But Jesus said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:20).

Job said, “How can a man be righteous before God?” (9:2).

This is the most important question anyone can ask, because it’s the question that determines where we people spend eternity. Later in the same chapter we read:

33 Nor is there any mediator between us,

Who may lay his hand on us both.

34  Let [the Mediator] take [God’s] rod away from me,

And do not let dread of Him terrify me.

35  Then I would speak and not fear [God],

But it is not so with me.

A rod is used for administering punishment, and Job wanted it removed from him. But if God took it from him, He would have to administer the punishment to Someone else. Sins can’t go unpunished or God wouldn’t be just. Job expected his Mediator to receive his punishment.

After this happened, Job would no longer “fear God.” But the words “it is not so with me” mean he knew it wasn’t within his power to do any of this. In his best effort, this isn’t something he could accomplish.

Job looked forward to his Mediator by faith

Job couldn’t see his Mediator. He didn’t know who he was, but he could look forward to Him in faith. This is Old Testament salvation, and it’s just like New Testament salvation: justification by faith:

Job isn’t supposed to teach us that a man can be righteous before God.
Job teaches us that a man can’t be righteous before God.

When we read about Job, we should think, “If he couldn’t attain a righteousness that’s acceptable to God, what hope is there for me?” Our hope comes from the righteousness that’s freely available by grace through faith in Christ. Romans 3:21-22 says:

The righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.

This suffering man looked for a righteousness that was outside himself. We should too.

Discuss: Have you been trusting in your own righteousness? Do you recognize the only way to be truly righteous before God is by looking to Jesus in faith?

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