Overall Question: What were some of the special instructions given by God to Israel as recorded in Numbers 15?

Memory Text: Ezekiel 20:18-19 ASV “18 And I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their ordinances, nor defile yourselves with their idols. 19 I am Jehovah your God: walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them;”

Sunday – Thankfulness
Numbers 15:1-10 CEV “1 ¶ The LORD told Moses 2 to give the Israelites the following laws about offering sacrifices: 3 Bulls or rams or goats are the animals that you may burn on the altar as sacrifices to please me. You may also offer sacrifices voluntarily or because you made a promise, or because they are part of your regular religious ceremonies. The smell of the smoke from these sacrifices is pleasing to me. 4 If you sacrifice a young ram or goat, you must also offer two pounds of your finest flour mixed with a quart of olive oil as a grain sacrifice. A quart of wine must also be poured on the altar. 5 (SEE 15:4) 6 And if the animal is a full-grown ram, you must offer four pounds of flour mixed with one and a half quarts of olive oil. One and a half quarts of wine must also be poured on the altar. The smell of this smoke is pleasing to me. 7 (SEE 15:6) 8 If a bull is offered as a sacrifice to please me or to ask my blessing, 9 you must offer six pounds of flour mixed with two quarts of olive oil. 10 Two quarts of wine must also be poured on the altar. The smell of this smoke is pleasing to me.”
Numbers 15:18-21 ESV “18 "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land to which I bring you 19 and when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall present a contribution to the LORD. 20 Of the first of your dough you shall present a loaf as a contribution; like a contribution from the threshing floor, so shall you present it. 21 Some of the first of your dough you shall give to the LORD as a contribution throughout your generations.”
Romans 12:1 CEV “Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That’s the most sensible way to serve God.”
2 Corinthians 2:15-16 CEV “15 In fact, God thinks of us as a perfume that brings Christ to everyone. For people who are being saved, this perfume has a sweet smell and leads them to a better life. But for people who are lost, it has a bad smell and leads them to a horrible death. No one really has what it takes to do this work. 16 (SEE 2:15)”
Ephesians 5:2 CEV “Let love be your guide. Christ loved us and offered his life for us as a sacrifice that pleases God.”

Monday – The Stranger Within Your Gates
Numbers 15:14-16 NKJV “14 ‘And if a stranger dwells with you, or whoever [is] among you throughout your generations, and would present an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD, just as you do, so shall he do. 15 ‘One ordinance [shall be] for you of the assembly and for the stranger who dwells [with you], an ordinance forever throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD. 16 ‘One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you.’"”
Numbers 15:14 COMMENTARY BY ADAM CLARKE When the case of the Jewish people is fairly considered, and their situation with respect to the surrounding idolatrous nations, we shall see the absolute necessity of having but one form of worship in the land. That alone was genuine which was prescribed by the Almighty, and no others could be tolerated, because they were idolatrous. All strangers-all that came to sojourn in the land, were required to conform to it; and it was right that those who did conform to it should have equal rights and privileges with the Hebrews themselves, which we find was the case.
Galatians 3:26-29 NRSV “26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”
Colossians 3:11 NRSV “In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!”
1 Kings 8:41-43 NRSV “41 "Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name 42 —for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm—when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house, 43 then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so that they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built.”
Isaiah 56:6-7 NRSV “6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant— 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Tuesday – Sins of Ignorance
Numbers 15:22-27 NIV “22 ¶ "’Now if you unintentionally fail to keep any of these commands the LORD gave Moses— 23 any of the LORD’s commands to you through him, from the day the LORD gave them and continuing through the generations to come— 24 and if this is done unintentionally without the community being aware of it, then the whole community is to offer a young bull for a burnt offering as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, along with its prescribed grain offering and drink offering, and a male goat for a sin offering. 25 The priest is to make atonement for the whole Israelite community, and they will be forgiven, for it was not intentional and they have brought to the LORD for their wrong an offering made by fire and a sin offering. 26 The whole Israelite community and the aliens living among them will be forgiven, because all the people were involved in the unintentional wrong. 27 "’But if just one person sins unintentionally, he must bring a year-old female goat for a sin offering.”
Numbers 15:27-29 NLT “27 "If the unintentional sin is committed by an individual, the guilty person must bring a one-year-old female goat for a sin offering. 28 The priest will make atonement for the guilty person before the LORD, and that person will be forgiven. 29 This same law applies both to native Israelites and the foreigners living among you.”
Numbers 15:22-29 COMMENTARY BY MATTHEW HENRY We have here the laws concerning sacrifices for sins of ignorance; the Jews understand it of idolatry, or false worship, through the error of their teachers. The case here supposed is that they had not observed all these commandments…The ceremonial observances were so numerous, and so various, that, it might easily be supposed, some of them by degrees would be forgotten and disused, as particularly that immediately before concerning the heave offering of their dough: now if, in process of time, upon consulting the law, there should appear to have been a general neglect of that or any other appointment, then a sacrifice must be offered for the whole congregation, and the oversight shall be forgiven (Nu 15:25,26) and not punished, as it deserved, with some national judgment.

Wednesday – Sins of Defiance
Numbers 15:30-31 God’s Word to the Nations “30 ¶ "But any native–born Israelite or foreigner who deliberately does something wrong insults the LORD and must be excluded from the people. 31 That person has despised the word of the LORD and broken the LORD’S command. He must be excluded completely. He remains guilty."”
Numbers 15:32-36 God’s Word to the Nations “32 While the Israelites were in the desert, they found a man gathering wood on the day of worship. 33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole community. 34 They kept him in custody until they decided what to do with him. 35 Then the LORD said to Moses, "This man must be put to death. The whole community must take him outside the camp and stone him." 36 So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses.”
Numbers 15:32 COMMENTARY BY ADAM CLARKE The law of the Sabbath being a plain and positive commandment, this transgression of it was a known and wilful sin, and it was marked by several aggravations. For the deed was done with unblushing boldness in broad daylight, in open defiance of the divine authority--in flagrant inconsistency with His religious connection with Israel, as the covenant-people of God; and it was an application to improper purposes of time, which God had consecrated to Himself and the solemn duties of religion. The offender was brought before the rulers, who, on hearing the painful report, were at a loss to determine what ought to be done. That they should have felt any embarrassment in such a case may seem surprising, in the face of the sabbath law (Ex 31:14). Their difficulty probably arose from this being the first public offense of the kind which had occurred; and the appeal might be made to remove all ground of complaint--to produce a more striking effect, so that the fate of this criminal might be a beacon to warn all Israelites in the future.
Numbers 15:36 – COMMENTARY BY ADAM CLARKE ON LEVITICUS 24:33 The Jews themselves tell us that their manner of stoning was this: they brought the condemned person without the camp, because his crime had rendered him unclean, and whatever was unclean must be put without the camp. When they came within four cubits of the place of execution, they stripped the criminal, if a man, leaving him nothing but a cloth about the waist. The place on which he was to be executed was elevated, and the witnesses went up with him to it, and laid their hands upon him, for the purposes mentioned Le 24:14. Then one of the witnesses struck him with a stone upon the loins; if he was not killed with that blow, then the witnesses took up a great stone, as much as two men could lift, and threw it upon his breast. This was the coup de grace, and finished the tragedy.

Thursday – Tassels of Blue
Numbers 15:38 ESV “"Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner.”
Numbers 15:38 COMMENTARY BY JAMIESON, FAUSSET, AND BROWN These were narrow strips, in a wing-like form, wrapped over the shoulders and on various parts of the attire. "Fringe," however, is the English rendering of two distinct Hebrew words--the one meaning a narrow lappet or edging, called the "hem" or "border" (Mt 23:5; Lu 8:44), which, in order to make it more attractive to the eye and consequently more serviceable to the purpose described, was covered with a riband of blue or rather purple color; the other term signifies strings with tassels at the end, fastened to the corners of the garment.
Numbers 15:39-41 Holman “39 These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the LORD’s commands and obey them and not become unfaithful by following your own heart and your own eyes. 40 This way you will remember and obey all My commands and be holy to your God. 41 I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the LORD your God.””

It must surely have been fully justified because God ordered it. And He is always just. Perhaps its because we don't understand the reason as completely as we might that makes it seems so awful to react in this way. This man was totatly irreverent toward God (on purpose) and he was part of the 'mixed multitude' whose tendency was idolatry. In this case it seems like he was really trying to 'fly in the face of God' - and God really didn't want his influence in the camp.