The Theology of Forgiveness in the Old Testament
Forgiveness is ...
What is "forgiveness"? To understand this we will, of course, go back to the Scriptures to find our answers. First we will look at some Hebrew words for "forgiveness". The concept of forgiveness is central to the big story of the Bible and must be seen in the wider context of Biblical theology.
From the very beginning of Genesis we find the LORD God active in forgiveness in various covenants He makes with humanity:
The Adamic covenant in His promise of Genesis 3:15;
The Noahic covenant in saving a remnant from sinful world Genesis 6:13-22;
The Abrahamic covenant in God choosing Abraham to be His chosen people in Genesis 12:1-3.
From the very beginning God is actively involved with His creation, he is determined to save and restore His people into fellowship with Him.
Please be mindful that the God
of the Bible is radically very different to the other deities of other
religions.
The God of the Bible is not distant, but chooses to reveal Himself; He is not a mystery that His subjects cannot predict when He will be angry and when He will show mercy.
The God of the Bible presents Himself as a covenant God of promise who will always keep the door open for relationship and while His judgement on evil is certain, He is merciful to those who sincerely repents and He forgives.
While other deities needed to be
pacified by a series of offerings, including human sacrifices and
self-mutilation:
2 Kings 3:27 Then he (king of Moab) took his oldest son
who was to reign in his place and offered him for a burnt offering on the
wall.
1 Kings 18:28 And they (prophets of Baal) cried aloud and
cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood
gushed out upon them.
The Old Testament God had nothing to do with such a mechanically ambitious religion. The LORD could not be bought off because of elaborated nature of the sacrifices nor was His righteous anger averted because of the sacrificial process:
Psalm 51:16 For you (the LORD) will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
The sacrificial process in the Old Testament was part of a wider relationship encompassing the ethics and the whole culture of the people of God. Other things needed to be in place, externally and internally, in order for sacrifices to be efficacious.
In the Old Testament, the God of Israel was a God who could be known and He spoke to His people. He is a God who is intricately involved in the lives of the humanity He created man and woman and He loves and cares for them and He wants to have a fellowship with them.
Therefore, in order to maintain fellowship, provision was required for the problem of sin which spoiled the divine-human relationship and we are then introduced to the concept of a God who is able to forgive.
Here we find a God who not only choose to show mercy and overlook wrongdoings at certain times, He initiates a cosmic plan of forgiveness and salvation.
The God of the Bible is in the business of forgiveness and we find that forgiveness is central to His very nature and the verb "forgive" is seen in a series of Hebrew words which portrays a series of images.
"salach" is often translated "pardon" and always has God as the subject.
Psalm 25:11 For thy name's sake, O LORD, pardon (salach) mine iniquity; for it is great.
The act of forgiveness tie God with the glory of His name because if God did not forgive the genuine penitent, it would imply that He is being unfaithful to His very self. In Psalm 103 forgiveness is the first of the many benefits on the psalmist lists:
Psalm 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul and forget not all the benefits:
Psalm 103:3 Who forgives all thy iniquities (salach); who heals all thy diseases;
Adonai Tov ve'salach = the LORD is good and forgiving
Psalm 86:5 For you, O LORD, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
Numbers 14:19 Please pardon (salach) the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now."
Numbers 14:20 Then the LORD said. "I have pardoned (salach), according to your (Moses' intercession) word.
If we look at the numerous references to salach, the breadth of the concept becomes obvious. Guilt incurred by a particular offence is annulled, people are released from the power of that guilt and are restored into a state of reconciliation with the LORD. Salach does not only lead to spiritual blessings but may also refer to physical or material blessings such as health, security, honour or children.
Another Hebrew word for forgive is "kaphar".
It conveys the idea of atonement or the paying of a debt or ransom price. It is found over a hundred times in the Old Testament and features prominently in the first five books of Moses because of the importance of reconciliation to the whole sacrificial system.
It incorporates more than forgiveness because it refers to a complete and satisfactory reconciliation between two parties - the divine and the human.
Leviticus 4:20 And he shall do with the bullock as he did with the bullock for a sin offering, so shall he do with this: and the priest shall make an atonement (kaphar) for them, and it shall be forgiven (salach) them.
Leviticus 19:22 And the priest shall make an atonement (kaphar) for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven (salach) him.
Often, as in the above verses, kaphar will be used along with salach, showing the close bond between atonement and forgiveness, and in the divine-human relationship the former is certainly always seen as a prerequisite for the latter.
Atonement must be made before forgiveness can be expected.
Another Hebrew word for forgive is "nasa".
The first use of the word in the Bible is in the pivotal verses in Exodus 34 which relates the renewal of the covenant of the tablets of the Law which was broken. The verse provides a list of testimonies to the character of God. The Hebrew word is "nasa", it means to take away an offence.
Exodus 34:6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed: "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
Exodus 34:7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving (nasa) iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.
Inter-personal forgiveness in the Old Testament
Clearly the language of forgiveness in the Old Testament has the LORD God almost exclusively as the subject. What are the implications for inter-personal forgiveness? It is fair to say that in the realm of inter-personal forgiveness the usual forgiveness words mentioned above are conspicuous by their absence.
There are instances where those in power have shown such mercy or kindness (Heb. hesed) but none of these employ the same vocabulary as is used of God's forgiving or pardoning of his sinful people: spies forgiving Rahab and her family, king David shows mercy to Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan).
Even in the most obvious example of human reconciliation in the Old Testament, that of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 33. The phrase used is "to find favour in your eyes".
In Genesis 50 Jacob has died and Joseph's brothers fear that Joseph may abandon them, so they fabricate a dying wish of their father to tell Joseph that their father's dying wish was to forgive the sins the brothers committed against him.
Joseph's phrase: "Am I in the place of God?" tells us that he cannot forgive as God forgives. Instead Joseph reassures his brothers and tells them he will provide financially for them and we can assume the key elements of inter-personal forgiveness were present.
Genesis 50:17 Say to Joseph. "Please forgive (nasa) the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you. And now, please forgive (nasa) the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
Genesis 50:21 "So do not fear, I (Joseph) will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
A theological point has to be made here; Joseph has not explicitly forgiven the sins of his brothers because he is not in the place of God.
In Exodus 7-11, we find Pharoah after the 7th plague, asking Moses to forgive him and to plead the LORD to remove death from him (10:17). The way Pharoah's character has been developed and the progression of the plot-line makes it clear that this request is not a serious repentance but an attempt to buy time and another way to keep the Hebrews from leaving Egypt.
In 1 Samuel 15, we are confronted with Saul, the anointed king of Israel. The plaintiff is not foreign to the Laws of God. Both Saul and Pharoah are confronted with the word of God through a prophet (Samuel and Moses), and both make a type of confession to ask the prophet to forgive their sins (15:25). Once again forgiveness is not granted because it is given by the LORD God alone.
The Old Testament and the Christian understanding of forgiveness.
It appears to be the case that forgiveness in the Old Testament is primarily concerned with the means by which alienated humanity can have their sins dealt with and be reconciled to an all-holy Creator.
It further seems that all human reconciliation never moves very far away from the backdrop of this "macro-reconciliation" which is an awareness that ultimately it is God's forgiveness which is needed.
Forgiveness - its nature and implications
The Old Testament has at times been utilised to defend at best a lack of forgiveness, at worst an active hostility bordering on "jihad" towards the enemy. This can be further from the truth. The answer to a misuse of Old Testament revelation is not a disuse but a proper use.
As we have shown, all the seeds of Christian forgiveness are in the Old Testament.
It is in the Old Testament that we encounter a God who is merciful and willing to save.
It is there that we see revealed bit by bit the amazing plan of grace which we know as the Christian gospel, a plan which would be undertaken by God at supreme cost to Himself purely out of Love. His anger and judgement still holds, but it is this fuller, more balanced, depiction which is the true Old Testament God, not the stereotypical caricature of much popular theology.
Those who would look at Old Testament to undermine Christ's clear command to forgive tend to forget this important principle.
There is a difference between sins against God and sins or offenses against us. The former only God can forgive (cited above). This is the relevance of the distinction between God's forgiveness (salach) and ours (nasa). There is a qualitative difference and because, like Joseph, we recognise that we are not in the place of God, and therefore we are in no position to deny forgiveness to those who ask for it for wrongs they have committed against us.
It is the Holy Spirit who is working through the believer to make it possible to forgive as God has forgiven us.
A transformed heart must result in a changed life that offers the same mercy and forgiveness as has been received from God:
Isaiah 40:2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
Someone who does not grant forgiveness to others shows that his own heart has not experienced God's forgiveness. Throughout Scripture, the heart refers to the centre of one's being, including one's reason, emotions, and will.
The Old Testament when properly understood present to us the amazing possibility of a God who is Love, and Mercy and Grace. He is a God who will even forgive our great sin and wickedness.
Building on that the New Testament makes it clear that such forgiveness applies not only to accidental but also to deliberate sin and no longer requires complex ritual and sacrifices.
Instead, it demands faith in the complete sacrifice of Christ Himself, who at the point of death and without waiting for any signs of repentance on the part of His crucifiers had the grace to pray: "Father forgive".
It is this atonement, an atonement of which Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah could only dream, that brings us to a new relationship with God and enables us to live a life characterised by forgiveness.
Micah 7:18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.
The question underscores the peerless nature of the God who defends and pardons His people because he delights in steadfast love. This is the basis for why God forgives and relents of His anger.
Micah 7:19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depts of the sea.
Micah 7:20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
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