Numbers 15:27

"And if one person sin unwittingly, then he shall offer a she-goat a year old for a sin-offering. And the priest shall make atonement for the soul that erreth, when he sinneth unwittingly, before Jehovah, to make atonement for him; and he shall be forgiven. Ye shall have one law for him that doeth aught unwittingly, for him that is home-born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them. But the soul that doeth aught with a high hand, whether he be home-born, or a sojourner, the same blasphemeth Jehovah; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of Jehovah, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him."

This gives the regulations for individual sins: (a) in the instance of their having been committed unwittingly; and (b) in case they were "high handed" sins committed presumptuously and flagrantly.

"High hand ..." indicates the challenging of authority. Thus, when God brought Israel out of Egypt with a "high hand," it was a frontal challenge of all the gods of Egypt. Similarly, when one who with "a high hand" disobeys the specific commandment of God, it constitutes a challenge of Divine authority, called "blasphemy" in Numbers 15:30. It is also "despising" God's Word (Numbers 15:31). In this connection, we should recall what the N.T. says of a presumptuous violation of God's command for Christians not to neglect the assembling of themselves together:

"Not forsaking our own assembling ourselves together ... For if we sin willfully, after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire that shall devour the adversaries ... he hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an holy thing, and hath done despite unto (despised) the Spirit of grace" (Hebrews 10:25-29).

A reading of the whole passage just cited makes it absolutely certain that the sacred N.T. writer had this very passage in mind when the passage was given.

The following verses at once record an instance of such a willful and presumptuous sin in the case of the sabbath-breaker.