despised the word
Numbers 15:31
15:31 despised the word. Nowhere did the Mosaic laws provide any offerings whereby the willful sinner–one who had deliberately and intentionally rebelled against God’s Word–could receive forgiveness. The example in Numbers 15:32-36 graphically illustrates this truth. David’s experience, however, as described in the Psalm 51 (also in II Samuel 12:9-13), illustrates the fact that a genuine believer could be spared and restored through sincere repentance and confession. Nevertheless, even in such a case, severe temporal chastisement was incurred (II Samuel 12:14-18).