But whoever acts high-handedly [i.e., "defiantly" (NET), "brazenly" (NLT)], whether native-born or an alien, affronts the Lord and shall be cut off from among the people. Because of having despised ["treated with contempt" (NLT)] the word of the Lord and broken his commandment, such a person shall be utterly cut off and bear the guilt. (NRSV)As I've described, the high-handed, brazen, and defiant sin falls outside of sacrificial remediation. The individual was to be "cut off" to "bear the guilt."
Now, if such a calamity befell a person could that person ever be welcomed back into community? The answer seems to be yes, and one place where we see that happen is in the case of David and Psalm 51.
You know the story of David and Bathsheba, and how David conspired to have Uriah killed. In 2 Samuel, David's sin is described as being high-handed. As Nathan says to David:
"Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.”
As set out in Numbers 15, David despises and utterly scorns the Lord. The sin falls outside of sacrificial atonement. And yet, the Lord elects to extend grace. However, as Nathan recounts, David must, in the words of Numbers 15, "bear the guilt" of his sin. David will face hard consequences, consequences that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
Psalm 51 is described as being the prayer of David in light of his sin with Bathsheba and against Uriah. Scholars have noted that the prayer is that of a high-handed sinner. Without sacrificial recourse, the sinner must appeal directly to God for mercy:
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
The lack of sacrificial remedy is also highlighted later in the prayer:
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
The relationship is not repaired with sacrifice but through a profoundly repentant posture and broken spirit.
Also, as described in Numbers 15, the high-handed sinner of Psalm 51 fears being "cut off" from the Lord:
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Finally, the sinner of Psalm 51 "bears the guilt," suffering punishment from the Lord:
Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
I'll have more to say about the restoration of the high-handed sinner in the next post. But for now, the case of David and Psalm 51 illustrates a few things I'd like to underline for the purposes of my train of speculation:
- The vision of a sinner being cut off from the covenantal community and the sacrificial remedies for sin.
- How, without sacrificial remedies, the sinner must "bear the guilt" of their sin and suffer the painful consequences.
- The sinner's return requiring a profoundly repentant posture and broken spirit.
- Finally, the sinner making a direct appeal to God for a mercy that comes from outside of the sacrificial system. There is a grace at work here that falls beyond what Leviticus and the Day of Atonement imagines.
