LifeLink Devotions for Friday, April 11, 2025

We have a weight problem. We carry far too much weight. I’m not refer to physical weight.  It’s much more serious than that. We carry too much sin and unforgiveness.

In Numbers chapter six Moses is being given some of the laws for community life as the chosen people of Israel. He is specifically addressing the requirements of the Nazarite vow, a vow that could be taken to declare oneself completely separated unto God.

One of the requirements of the separation was that the person making the vow was never allowed to be in the presence of a dead person, not even if his wife, children, or parents died. This would make him unclean, and the vow would be broken.

In verse nine we read an additional requirement concerning the dead. “And if any man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. Even if the Nazarite accidentally came in contact with a dead person, he was declared unclean.

Well that seems harsh. It wasn’t the Nazarite’s fault that someone near him died. He couldn’t help it. But the eternal principle at work here isn’t about whether or not we think we are right, but whether or not we highly respect the righteousness and holiness of God.

The point is this: God’s holiness is not to be taken lightly. We who claim to be in Christ have been called to be separated unto Christ. Therefore, absolutely anything that we do that is contrary to the righteousness of God is sin and places a huge weight on our lives. We need to be forgiven and we need to be people who forgive.

The Hebrew word translated forgive is used some 650 times in its root form in the Old Testament. The word means to lift, to carry, and to take away.  The first time the word is used in the Bible is in Genesis 4:13, where following the murder of his brother Abel, Cain is punished by God and responds to Him by saying, “My punishment is more than I can bear.” 

But Cain’s problem was that he cared more about the weight of the punishment than He did the weight of the sin. That reflects a prideful condition in our hearts that is more concerned with our own hurts than we are the hurt we caused to God or to others. If our focus is on the consequences we have the wrong understanding of the holiness of God.

Over the next few days we are going to study the subject of forgiveness. But for today, start with this. When you sin, and a consequence for the sin is enforced, what do you care most about? If it’s the pain of the consequence, then take some time to break the spirit of pride that keeps you from seeing the pain of offending the holiness of God. Fall on your knees in prayer and release the weight of your sin and experience the forgiveness of Jesus. Then you will be able to begin to forgive others.

Pastor John