Confession
in the OT. Genesis 42
1
John 2:2 NASB “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins…” and
there we have the preposition PERI [peri] which is a substitutionary preposition;
it is a real substitution. He satisfied the righteousness and justice of God
for everybody “…and not for ours only, but also for {those of} the whole
world.” It is a universal propitiation. God’s justice is satisfied by Jesus
Christ’s death for everyone. That means the price for sin, even post-salvation,
sin is paid for.
What
is interesting is that the verse that comes right before that is one where John
says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not
sin.” The point is, just because you confess your sin and get forgiveness
doesn’t mean it is okay to sin. There is a place in the Christian life where we
are supposed to deal with sin, not in terms of confession but in terms of not
making those choices so that we can stay in fellowship, abide in Christ,
continue walking by the Spirit, and grow. The problem that some people have is
that they think all they need to do is confess, confess, confess; and there
have been some who have reacted to that and come up with false solutions.
John’s solution is, if you do sin (you ought not) “…we have an Advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” God is a realist. He recognizes that
we are going to sin because we still have the sin nature, and He has provided a
grace solution. He is not sinking at sin; he is not minimizing the sin; He is
not condoning the sin, but He has provided a recovery solution, the confession
of sin: the admission or acknowledgment of wrongdoing. It is not just listing
the sins; it is a personal admission of wrongdoing.
Leviticus
5:5 NASB “So it shall be when he becomes guilty in one of these,
that he shall confess [yadah] that in which he has sinned.” The previous verses in the
chapter give a list of legal infractions. If one of them was committed then
that person had to go and have ceremonial cleansing, bring a guilt offering
into the temple, sacrifice it, and confess what he had done. Notice that
touching an unclean thing was not a sin, it was a ceremonial violation. What
God is showing here is that when you touched something dead (death comes from
sin) God is reminding that anything involved with sin separates from God. This
is why when a woman gave birth, seven days later she had to go and bring a
sacrifice in the temple for cleansing. It is was not a sin to give birth but
pain was multiplied in childbirth, so anything associated with the curse of sin
was a basis for these ceremonial distinctions and there had to be ceremonial
cleansing. Notice there is no mention of repentance or remorse.
The
result of confession: Leviticus 5:13 NASB “So the priest shall make
atonement for him concerning his sin which he has committed from one of these,
and it will be forgiven him; then {the rest} shall become the priest’s, like
the grain offering.” That word for sin has to do with violating the law but if
the requisite guilt offering was brought then it would be forgiven.
The
next to look at has to do with the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16:21 NASB
“Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and
confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their
transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head
of the goat and send {it} away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who
{stands} in readiness.” Aaron had to choose two goats, one of which would be
for the Lord and would be killed, and the other one would be a scapegoat. This
is the greatest picture that we have in the Old Testament of what confession
is. The other offerings are related to salvation but the scapegoat offering has
to do with confession. He has already done this in the offering that was for
the Lord, v. 18. The sins were put on that goat which was then sacrificed, and
that is a picture of the payment price for that sin. Then in verse 21 with the
other goat, the sins are named, he admits, confesses all the sains of Israel
for the past year, and then he takes that goat, takes it out into the
wilderness and lets it go. The picture is that once you confess your sins God
separates those sins from you as far as the east is from the west, and they are
completely forgotten and removed; they are no longer an issue. The goat bears
the sin as a substitute for the nation, but how does confession operate here?
There is no sack cloth and ashes, no mourning, no grieving, no wailing, no
emotion, no remorse, no repentance; there is simply the admission of guilt. The
sins are put on the goat which is led out into the wilderness and the sin is
gone. This lays the foundation for understanding and forgiveness in the Mosaic Law
and for the Old Testament. Everything else that we face from this point on has
to take into account that this particular sacrifice on the Day of Atonement
pictures what happens at confession.
Numbers
5:7 NASB “then he shall confess his sins which he has committed, and
he shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add to it one-fifth of it,
and give {it} to him whom he has wronged.” This has to do with sin against
another person, that when you offend someone, do something against them, then
the individual who has committed the sin shall confess that sin. Note that
there is no mention here that he has to feel sorry about the fact that he did
the sin. He just admits that he did it, and he has to make restitution. That
indicates two separate acts. One is the admission and one is something
consequent to that, making the restitution. They are not identical. The
confession is not incomplete without the restitution. Fulfilling the law would
be incomplete, but there are two separate acts. One is the confession, the
second is the restitution. He is not going to fulfil the law unless he does
both of those things, but they are not the same thing. Restitution isn’t part
of the confession, it is a separate act.
Leviticus
26 is a crucial passage. There are several prayers of confession later on in
the Old Testament but they are grounded on this passage in Leviticus 26, the
chapter where we find the five stages or cycles of discipline, ending with the
most severe case where the Jews would be taken out of the land promised them
because they were not worthy to stay there. They would be blessed in the land
if they were obedient; if they disobeyed they would be dispersed. In verse 40
we have the resolution.
Leviticus
26:40-42 NASB “If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of
their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and
also in their acting with hostility against Me—I also was acting with
hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—or
if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for
their iniquity, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will
remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and
I will remember the land.” Note: There is no “if,” no conditional particle in
the Hebrew. There is no temporal particle in the Hebrew. This is a statement of
future fact using the future imperfect tense in the Hebrew. Verse 40 starts
with the waw
consecutive, which is the conjunction “and.” It is to be translated, “And they
shall confess”—it is a clear statement of fact that when the Lord takes
them out of the land and they have gone through all of this discipline they
will confess. It is prophetic, a definite statement that in the future they
will confess—“ their iniquity and the iniquity of their
forefathers…”—Daniel is going to read this and will confess the sins of
the nation in Daniel 9 and he uses the same verbiage, recognizing that God is
the enemy of Israel in their carnality—“then at last shall their obdurate
heart humble itself and they shall make restitution…” That is exactly what
happened. When Israel went out under the fifth cycle of discipline they had to
make restitution for those seventy sabbatical years they had violated. There is
a definite promise there that they will confess their iniquity. Notice there is
no mention of remorse there, or repentance; it is simply the admission of guilt
if you take the word at its core value.
What
we will see is that when we get to Daniel chapter nine, and when we look at
Ezra chapter ten, where we have these two prayers of confession in the Old
Testament, they are very grieved. They put on sackcloth and ashes and they
wailed because the Jews are very demonstrative people, it hurt them to get
kicked out of Jerusalem and they are mourning the fact that they disobeyed God
and lost the land. It is extremely emotional. The point is that it is not wrong
for them to be emotional, what is wrong is when emotion is thought to impress
God. Emotion is not what brings about the forgiveness. Emotion may or may not
be there but it is not what is efficacious. What is efficacious is confessing
the sin, and that is what is stated in Leviticus 26:40-42.
If
we want to understand what confession prayer is then let’s see how a confession
prayer is made in Scripture. Is this a prayer of repentance in the sense that
we are never going to do this [the sin] again? Is this a prayer where there is a lot of remorse in order to
impress God with the genuineness and sincerity of the confession? There is
remorse there but it is not to impress God with the genuineness of the
confession. As we look at Daniel 9, Daniel is aware of the prophecy in Jeremiah
25:11, 12 that God is going to discipline the nation for a period of seventy
years. He realizes that time is about up because he knows the chronology.
Daniel
9:1, 2 NASB “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of
Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans—in
the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the
years which was {revealed as} the word of the LORD to Jeremiah
the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, {namely,}
seventy years.”
Daniel
9:3 NASB “So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek {Him by}
prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.” The whole thing
with sackcloth and ashes was that it was a sign of mourning. When they were
sorrowful and grieving this is how the Jews culturally expressed it. They were
demonstrating what was going on in their souls, the sorrow that was there and
the grief.
Daniel
9:4 NASB “prayed to the LORD my God and confessed [yadah] and
said, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and
lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments…” So this is
confession to God and he is immediately going back to the covenants. This
prayer is totally based on Leviticus 26. “… we have sinned, committed iniquity,
acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and
ordinances.” That is the confession. He is stating exactly what Israel did in
terms of violating the covenant.
Daniel
9:6-8, 11-13 NASB “Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants
the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and
all the people of the land. “Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us
open shame, as it is this day--to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of
Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in
all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful
deeds which they have committed against You. Open shame belongs to us, O Lord,
to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You….
“Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your
voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is
written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him. Thus He has confirmed His words
which He had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on
us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has not been done
{anything} like what was done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has
come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by
turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth.”
Note
verse 13 “…yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our
iniquity and giving attention to Your truth.” The word “turn” is the Hebrew
word shub,
which is sometimes translated “repent.” In the Greek Septuagint it was EPISTREPHO [e)pistrefw], which means
you are going in one direction and turn in another direction. But this is
separate from the confession. The confession had to be made but then they also
had to turn from their ways of wrongdoing. If they confessed there would be a
restoration of fellowship but there would not be a return to the land unless
they quit doing what they were doing which was wrong. They had to move from
being disobedient to being obedient; otherwise God is not going to take them
back into the land. That is the point: confession simply restores that
relationship with our Father. That is not a growth issue; that is a relational
issue. Repentance has to do with changing our behaviour so that we are growing
in the Christian life. It doesn’t just happen. God the Holy Spirit doesn’t just
zap you; you walk by the Spirit but He doesn’t take over your volition, He
doesn’t make the decisions for you. We have to make decisions to apply the Word
and not do the things that we want to do, but we do that in the power of God
the Holy Spirit.
Daniel’s
confession is the admission of their wrongdoing. Then he calls upon God to
treat them in grace. There is not mention of repentance in the sense that I
need to repent in order to get forgiven. Confession is what brought about the
forgiveness; repentance had to do with the fact that they are not going to get
the blessing unless they are obedient.