failure to honor LORD God is directly linked to failure to honor people
sin against people is sin against LORD God (e.g. Genesis 39, Joseph refuses to sleep with Potiphar and says, “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”)
sin describes how easily we deceives ourselves and spin illusions to redefine our bad decisions as good ones
Genesis 4:7, “If you do what is right/good, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right/good, sin is crouching at your door; you are its object of desire, but you must master it.”
sin is rooted in our evil desires and selfishness that causes us to act in our own benefit at the cost of others
James 1:14-15, “each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death”
Iniquity (Hebrew avon - Greek)
behavior that is crooked
primitive word - avah - to be bent or crooked
wickedness, perverted, distortion
Job 33:27 a person who morally fails is someone who avahs what is right
our conscience and choices are avah-ed
LORD God’s responses to human avon:
letting people experience the crooked consequences of their choices. In other words, “to bear your iniquity” or “to carry your avon”. LORD God gives us the dignity in carrying the consequences of our bad choices.
LORD God also offers to carry the avon of corrupted people as shared generosity. This is the most common phrase of LORD God’s forgiveness. Psalms 32:5, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” And you forgave/carried the guilt of my sin.”
Isaiah appoints The Servant, who embodies LORD God’s forgiving love by carrying the avon of many, The Servant would absorb humanities crookedness letting it overwhelm and destroy Him. The Servant would emerge out the other side of death so He could offer His life to other
Transgression (Hebrew Pesha - Greek Paraptoma)
breaking trust of a relationship that expects trust
rebellion, trespass, treachery, falsehood
2 Kings 1:1, “After Ahab’s death, Moab rebelled against Israel”
pesha involves the violation of trust. thus it’s not pesha against someone, but more pesha with someone
Genesis 3, humanity breaks trust with LORD God and seizes authority to discern good and evil on their own terms
Romans 5:15, “But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!”