FEBRUARY 20 "DON'T FORGET YOUR OWN SIN OFFERING!"

Moses, as directed by God of course, instructs Aaron to bring his sin offering too! " Oh yeah, that's right, I have sin also....I almost forgot!"  It's easy as a Priest/Pastor to become focused on other people's sins, as that is what we often have to deal with. The danger is we become focused on other people's sins and can forget that we also have sin. This can create two problems. The first problem is it can create a frustration in us and lack of empathy towards those that are sinning. Secondly it can cause us to be out of touch with our own sin. The more we concentrate on other people's sins, the less we are aware of our own sins. Moses, wisely instructs Aaron to bring an offering for his own sins. Aaron is the Leader, he is the Priest, he is the Holy one being used by God, but he must also be reminded that he too has sin. This is not just an issue that can cause the demise of leaders, but also that of a churches, marriages and ministries. The more we talk and focus about other people's sins the less aware. we become of our own; the more harsh and rigid we become towards others. The other relevant point to this passage is that Moses also gets Aaron's sons involved in the offering of Aaron's sins. This is not in anyway done to demean Aaron in front of his sons, but to let his sons know that even dad, the great High Priest has sin. This not only helps Aaron, but it helps his sons who are also Priests; who will also struggle with sin and failings through out their lives, even though they are priests. It will also prevent Aaron from putting to heavy a yoke on his children that even he, could never abide by. We often put a yoke of perfection on our children that we ourselves never even came close too. We want them to be perfect in school, nothing but A's, but yet when we were kids our performance was not even near what we are holding them to. You say, "yeah, well that's why, I want them to be better than I was", but the problem is, you cannot live out the life you wish you had lived, through your children. It would have been easy and probably what Aaron would have done, had not Moses intervened. Aaron, in thinking of his past failures and his family name would have put an undue and unreasonable yoke upon his sons to be the perfect Priests, even though he was far from it himself. And every time his sons sinned and failed as people and as Priests they would have felt condemned and hypocritical. Moses nips this in the butt, right from the start, by having Aaron make an offering for his own sins and getting the sons involved. This one act saves both Aaron and his sons from much future hardship, that surely would have hit, had Moses not instructed Aaron to do this one act of humility.  It was good for Aaron's sons to know his father also struggled and sometimes, gave in to sin. Many families today would be doing much better if leaders still instructed parents to make an offering for their sins before their children. No to humiliate, but to bring humility and to keep parents from putting to heavy a yoke of perfection upon their children, when they themselves are full of sin. This keeps the parents humble and keeps the children from thinking "what's wrong with me?"