Confessing the Sins of our Land

In Scripture there are categories of sin that defile the land. These are often called abominations – moral pollutions that cause blood guilt, like a curse resting on the people of that land. For example, when there was an unsolved murder in Israel, the elders of the nearest city would bring out a heifer and kill it and wash their hands in the blood of the heifer swearing a vow that they were innocent of the blood and with a prayer to God to have mercy on them, and Scriptures says that God would forgive them of the bloodguilt. Of course, if the vow was false, they would be calling down a curse upon themselves.

Jesus seems to be alluding to this principle even as He is dying on the cross: “Father, forgiven them for they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34). In that case, Jesus is the murder victim, but He is also the sacrificial heifer, and the true elder of the city of Jerusalem. Pilate tried washing his hands and the Jews tried claiming His blood, but only those who would turn and repent would be forgiven by Christ’s blood. Ultimately, when Jerusalem refused to repent, all the faithful fled from the city, leaving the land polluted, and God sent His fierce judgment and destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. 

But while the righteous remain in the land, there is real protection even for those still in their sins. Just as God would not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah while there were three righteous left in the city, Christians are true salt and light in our cities. 

This is one of the reasons why we confess sin corporately every Sunday. We are not merely confessing our own sins, we are also confessing the sins of our land, of our city and nation, and we are washing our hands in the blood of the innocent Christ so that the curse may not come upon our land and all men might be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. 

This is why we often finish our prayer of confession with the words, “we know if we in the church regard any iniquity in our hearts, this prayer will be ineffectual.” We are acknowledging that if we are washing our hands in this blood but hiding sin, we will be calling down a great curse on our land.

Photo by Dustan Woodhouse on Unsplash