One Law for the Lion and the Lamb Text: Numbers 15:14-16
Introduction: The Grammar of a Godly Nation
We live in an age of managed chaos, an era where our civic masters are dedicated to the proposition that there are no propositions. They want a nation without a shared identity, a law without a transcendent standard, and a people without a common worship. The result is the multicultural mess we see all around us, a society that is not a melting pot but a balkanized collection of resentful tribes, each with its own set of rules, its own set of grievances, and its own petty gods. And at the root of this is a rejection of the very idea that there could be one law, one standard, one way of life that is good and true for all men.
Our political discourse is dominated by two equally wrongheaded ideas. On one side, we have a secular globalism that wants to erase all distinctions in a bland, godless soup of humanity. On the other, we have a pagan nationalism that wants to elevate blood and soil, race and ethnicity, to the place of God. Both are idolatries. Both are rebellions against the created order. Both reject the plain teaching of Scripture.
Into this confusion, the law of God speaks with a startling and refreshing clarity. Here in the dusty middle of the book of Numbers, a book many modern Christians skip over in their race to get to the more "exciting" parts, we find a principle that is absolutely foundational for building a just and godly society. It is a principle that demolishes both the racist idol of blood-worship and the globalist idol of a borderless world. God, in His law, is laying the groundwork not just for the nation of Israel, but for the Christian commonwealth, for Christendom. He is teaching us the grammar of a godly nation, and it is a grammar that has room for both the native-born and the foreigner who throws his lot in with the people of God.
This is not some obscure ceremonial law that was nailed to the cross. This is a revelation of the character of God. It tells us that God is not a respecter of persons, that His justice is impartial, and that His covenant has always had room for those who were once far off. This passage is a quiet prophecy of the day when the Gentiles would be grafted in, a preview of the mystery revealed in the New Testament. It is a foundational text for a right understanding of Christian civics.
The Text
And if a sojourner sojourns with you, or one who may be among you throughout your generations, and he offers an offering by fire as a soothing aroma to Yahweh, just as you do so he shall do. As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the sojourner who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the sojourner be before Yahweh. There shall be one law and one judgment for you and for the sojourner who sojourns with you.
(Numbers 15:14-16 LSB)
One Worship (v. 14)
We begin with the basis of all true unity, which is common worship.
"And if a sojourner sojourns with you, or one who may be among you throughout your generations, and he offers an offering by fire as a soothing aroma to Yahweh, just as you do so he shall do." (Numbers 15:14)
The first thing to notice is the condition. We are talking about a "sojourner," a foreigner, an immigrant. This is not a tourist or a spy. This is someone who has come to live among the people of God. And what is the defining characteristic of this sojourner who is to be welcomed? He wants to worship Yahweh. He desires to offer "an offering by fire as a soothing aroma to Yahweh."
This is the fundamental principle of godly assimilation. True unity is not based on skin color, or country of origin, or native language. True unity is theological. It is unity in the worship of the one true God. The gate into the community is the gate of the Tabernacle. The price of admission is faith. This man, this foreigner, sees the glory of Yahweh and wants in. He wants to approach God on God's terms, with the prescribed sacrifice, which is a picture of Christ.
And what is God's response? "Just as you do, so he shall do." There is no second-class worship. There is no foreigner's section at the back of the Tabernacle. There is no discount sacrifice for the Gentile. He comes the same way the native-born Israelite comes. He brings his offering, he confesses his sin, and he is accepted on the same basis as everyone else: by grace, through faith, signified by the blood of the substitute. This is the gospel in Levitical terms. The ground is level at the foot of the altar, just as it is level at the foot of the cross.
This demolishes the idea of an ethnic, racial church or a nation defined by blood. Israel was a church-nation, a commonwealth, and the door was open to any who would confess her God. Rahab the Canaanite and Ruth the Moabitess are the famous examples. They were grafted into the covenant people, and into the line of the Messiah, not because they were ethnically Hebrew, but because they confessed that "Yahweh your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath" (Joshua 2:11).
One Statute (v. 15)
From the unity of worship flows the unity of law. Verse 15 makes this explicit.
"As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the sojourner who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the sojourner be before Yahweh." (Numbers 15:15)
The key phrase here is "one statute." The Hebrew word is chuqqah. It refers to an established, binding ordinance. There are not two sets of books. There is not one law for the Israelite and another, perhaps more lenient or more severe, for the immigrant. The standard of righteousness is the same for all. Why? Because there is only one God, and His character, which the law reflects, does not change.
This is a "perpetual statute." This is not a temporary policy to be revisited later. It is to last "throughout your generations." This principle of one law for all is an enduring aspect of divine justice. It is not culturally conditioned. It is not a suggestion. It is a command.
Notice the glorious phrase: "as you are, so shall the sojourner be before Yahweh." The standard is not the native-born citizen. The standard is Yahweh. Both the Israelite and the sojourner stand on the same ground, under the same law, before the same God. This protects the sojourner from oppression, because the Israelite cannot invent special rules to exploit him. It also holds the sojourner to the same standard of righteousness, preventing him from importing his pagan ways into the land. You come to Israel, you live by Israel's law because you worship Israel's God.
This is the biblical model for immigration. We are to have open arms for those who want to come and live in submission to our God and our law. But for those who want to come and set up their own law, their own gods, their own standards, we are to have a fortified wall. Biblical hospitality does not mean national suicide. We are to welcome the Ruths, not the Jezebels.
One Judgment (v. 16)
The principle is repeated for emphasis, driving the point home with the force of a hammer.
"There shall be one law and one judgment for you and for the sojourner who sojourns with you." (Numbers 15:16)
Here we have "one law" (torah) and "one judgment" (mishpat). Not only is the written statute the same, but its application by the judges in the gates must also be impartial. A judge cannot look at the man in the dock, see that he is a foreigner, and decide to apply a different standard of evidence or a different penalty.
This is the foundation of the rule of law, as opposed to the rule of men. Justice is to be blind to ethnicity, to social status, to wealth, and to country of origin. This is a radical concept in the ancient world, where justice was routinely for sale and where the foreigner was an easy target for exploitation. But in God's economy, justice is a reflection of His own character. "You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike" (Deuteronomy 1:17).
Our modern legal system, with its labyrinth of identity politics, hate crime legislation, and affirmative action, is a direct repudiation of this principle. We have created a system with multiple laws and multiple judgments, depending on which victim group you belong to. This is a return to pagan tribalism, and it is a path to ruin. When you abandon God's law, you do not get no law; you get a multitude of man-made laws, and they are all tyrannical.
The Gospel of One Law
This passage from Numbers is not simply a lesson in civics. It is a pointer to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The entire Old Testament system, with its distinction between Jew and Gentile, was a temporary arrangement, a picture of a greater reality to come.
The sojourner in Numbers who wanted to worship Yahweh was a foreshadowing of the great mystery that the Apostle Paul speaks of in Ephesians. The Gentiles, who were once "strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world," have now been "brought near by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:12-13).
How were they brought near? Paul tells us that Christ Himself "is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances" (Ephesians 2:14-15). Now, we must be careful here. The law that was abolished was not the moral law of God, the torah and mishpat that Numbers says is for everyone. What was abolished was the ceremonial law, the temporary "dividing wall" that kept Jew and Gentile separate for a time. The temple veil was torn, the sacrifices were fulfilled, and the ceremonial distinctives were rendered obsolete.
The result is that now, in Christ, there is one new man in the place of two. There is one assembly, one body, the church. And in that assembly, there is one statute and one judgment for all. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). This does not erase our created distinctions, but it means that before God, in the matter of our justification and our standing in the covenant, these things are irrelevant.
We all come the same way: as sinners in need of a savior. We all approach the same God through the same one mediator, Jesus Christ. We are all subject to the same law of liberty. We will all face the same judgment seat. The principle laid down in the wilderness for a nation of herdsmen finds its ultimate fulfillment in the global, multi-ethnic, perpetual kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is gathering a people for His name from every tribe, tongue, and nation, and He is making them one people, with one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one law: the law of love.