Leviticus 4:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them.
When I was a freshman in college, I took a physical education class in which they were trying to teach us how to play soccer. Now, I’m not a soccer player, I’m an American! I remember that one day I was standing between my opponent and the soccer goal when my nose got in the way of the soccer ball. I saved the day by accident. I remember the other guys on my team congratulating me on a wonderful save. They thought I had put a head to the ball, but the fact is that the ball had put a hurting on my nose! It felt as if it had broken my nose. As it turned out, I did a good thing completely by accident!
Have you ever done a good or right thing by accident? Have you ever done wrong by accident? All things being equal, we have done a lot more wrong by accident than we have done right by accident. Doing right tends to be a much more deliberate thing.
In Leviticus 4, God has given us an entire chapter about sins of ignorance. He made provision for His people in such a case. For instance, in verse 13 He talks about when the entire congregation would sin through ignorance. It says, “And if the whole congregation of Israel sin through ignorance…” What follows is God’s provision for a sin offering to restore fellowship.
Verse 22 says, “When a ruler hath sinned…through ignorance…” What follows is God’s provision, the sin offering. Verse 27 says, “And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance…” And what follows is God’s provision.
All of us sin. It doesn’t matter whether you are a prince or a pauper. Anyone can be living in ignorance. The Bible talks about the congregation as a whole, the ruler, and any one of the common people individually. So, all of us do sin. Anyone of us can live in ignorance and sin thereby, but none of us should. What you find here is that God makes provision for ignorance, but God puts a premium on fellowship.
For instance, verse 14 says, “When the sin which they have sinned against it, is known, then…” There is a “when, then” proposition. When I come to the knowledge of my sin, then there is something that needs to be done about it. Again, in verse 28, “Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then…” Sometimes we don’t know what we should know because we are ignoring it. We don’t want to know the truth. It is a willful thing which is why it is called ignorance. It is “ignore-ance.” It is ignoring something that I could know.
At other times I may be in the dark even though I honestly have a heart to understand. At such times, I can confess the sins I know, and God will give me knowledge of what I need to know and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. First John 1:8-9 says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
God doesn’t want me wringing my hands about what I don’t know or worrying that I might be in trouble. If I have a heart to be in fellowship with God, then God will help me to know what it is that I need to know. God puts a premium on fellowship, and that comes from knowledge. That means I need to be willing to know what I need to know and not live in ignorance.
The upshot of all this is in the last verse of Leviticus 4, which says, “It shall be forgiven him.” God makes provision for ignorance. God knows we are frail, but God puts a premium on fellowship. None of us should have broken fellowship with God simply because we refuse to know what could be known.