Leviticus 4

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:32:09utc

d. The Sin Offering 4:1 - 5:13.

This section can be divided in two at the beginning of chapter 5. The following part would seem to belong to the "Guilt Offering," if it weren't for the fact that the name "Sin Offering" is used for this section also in vs. 6.

The Hebrew word is chatta'ah. Strong defines this: "an offense (sometimes habitual sinfulness), and its penalty, occasion, sacrifice, or expiation; also (concretely) an offender." The root word has the meaning of "to miss" as in missing the mark. From this the word for sinning is derived. According to the above definition, this can refer to a habit of sinning, or sinfulness. The emphasis, therefore, in this sacrifice is not, primarily, upon the sinful act, as upon the person who sin, upon his sinful nature. In the Guilt Offering the stress is upon what man has done; in the Sin Offering it is upon who he is.

This becomes particularly clear in chapter four. A distinction is made between a priest who sins, (vs. 3 - 12), the whole Israel community who sins, (vs. 13 - 21), a leader of the people who sins, (vs. 22 - 26), and a member of the community who sins, (vs. 27 - 35). The sacrifice varies according to the position of the person and also the way in which it was brought.

There is a sense in which all people are equal. The American Constitution says: "All men are created equal." We are all equal before God because we are descendants of Adam and we all bear the consequences of his fall. We are all sinners. We all have the same rights because we all bear the image of our Creator. On the other hand, no two people are equal. It is not true that God created two people who are the same in every respect. In his book That Hideous Strength, C. S. Lewis lets the main character say: "Yes, we must all be guarded by equal rights from one another's greed, because we are fallen. Just as we must all wear clothes for the same reason. But the naked body should be there underneath the clothes, ripening for the day when we shall need them no longer. Equality is not the deepest thing, you know." The lady to whom he says these things answers: "'I always thought that was just what it was. I thought it was in their souls that people were equal.' 'You were mistaken,' said he gravely. 'That is the last place where they are equal. Equality before the law, equality of incomes - that is very well. Equality guards life; it does not make it. It is medicine, not food.' "

This, however, is not too important in the study of the sin offering. The distinction made in this chapter is in the relationship of a person to God and to one another; it is the spiritual and social aspect. The priest is the mediator between God and the people. The leader represents the authority of God over the individual. The priest, the whole community of Israel, the leader of the people, and the "man in the street" have all been affected by sin; they all fall short of the glory of God. Man, whoever he is and in whatever position God has placed him, is a sinner.

All the sacrifices in this chapter pertain to sins committed unintentionally: things we didn't mean to do, but we did them. This chapter underlines our terrible human failing as well as the fact that Jesus died in our stead. He died, not only for our sins, but for ourselves.

The first person who fails is the priest, the mediator between God and man. The horrible consequences of this fact are not detailed in this chapter. The man who had been anointed to be a priest, who had been prepared by the Holy Spirit to stand between God and the people is, himself, a sinner like everybody else. And he does not sin alone. Being a priest, he represents all the people and brings, therefore, guilt upon the whole of the nation. This sacrifice has a collective character, which reminds us of what happened to the whole of mankind when the first man sinned.

For this kind of sacrifice the best of animals is used: a young bull without defect. This is the most precious of all cattle. We shall see that this sacrifice differs from all the following ones. First of all, there was the identification with the sacrificial animal by laying his hands on the head of the bull. In doing so, the priest confessed his sin and acknowledged that what happened to the animal should have happened to him. The bull is presented before the Lord and killed before the Lord.

Sometimes we feel pity for animals that are slaughtered. People react differently. Their reactions can range from pity to sadism. How does God react to the death of one of his creatures? Jesus says that God is moved with the fate of a little sparrow. "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father."[ 1 ] The sight of the blood of an animal touches the heart of God. The death of animals was not included in God's original plan of creation either.

This is the only sacrifice in this series of which some of the blood was brought into the Tent of Meeting, where it was sprinkled in front of the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. This ritual was different from the one that was performed at the Day of Atonement when the blood was sprinkled on top of the atonement cover, which the KJV calls "the Mercy Seat." [ 2 ]This sacrifice comes closest to expressing a complete atonement. As far as I can see, this is the only instance where blood is applied to the horns of the altar of fragrant incense. This is probably due to the fact that the stress in this sacrifice is upon the ministry of the priest. The altar of fragrant incense was the place to which he brought worship and praise to God. Now this worship is covered by blood which cleanses it from impurity. The remainder of the blood is poured out at the foot of the burnt offering altar which symbolizes the cross of Golgotha.

Seen from a chronological viewpoint, this sacrifice goes opposite to the reality it represents. The blood is, first of all, applied to the altar of fragrant incense then to the burnt offering altar. Maybe we should say that it emphasizes the order of importance instead of chronology: first to the Lord, then to the priest and his ministry and finally to the people who had become guilty.

The blood is sprinkled seven times before the curtain. We can hardly doubt the symbolical significance of this number. The fat and kidneys of the bull were the only parts that were burned upon the altar. This is the same process as in the bringing of the Fellowship Offering. But here ends the similarity. The Sin Offering was not to be eaten. Vs. 11, 12 tell us: "But the hide of the bull and all its flesh, as well as the head and legs, the inner parts and offal -- that is, all the rest of the bull-- he must take outside the camp to a place ceremonially clean, where the ashes are thrown, and burn it in a wood fire on the ash heap." It was to be treated as garbage. There is another similarity here with the sacrifice brought on the Day of Atonement. We read in ch. 16:27, "The bull and the goat for the sin offerings, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to make atonement, must be taken outside the camp; their hides, flesh and offal are to be burned up." The author of the Hebrew epistle sees a parallel between this burning and the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. "The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore."[ 3 ] This burning accentuates the disgrace of our sin. Our sinful nature has no place in our fellowship with God. God throws it away, outside the camp, outside the city gate.

The second sacrifice is described in vs. 13 - 21. The whole Israelite community is considered as one person. Evidently, collective guilt is the same for God as personal guilt. This is the principle that governs God's acting with men. Adam's guilt is imputed to all of mankind. This means that every man stands before God as a sinner. It also means that the righteousness of Jesus can be imputed to everyone who accepts Him as his head and representative.

There is, therefore, no difference between the sacrifice for the priest and the sacrifice for the whole community. The animal is the same, and the way in which it is sacrificed is the same. In both cases the blood is sprinkled in front of the curtain of the Holy of Holies and it is applied to the horns of the altar of fragrant incense, and the rest is poured out at the foot of the burnt offering altar. The kidneys and the fat are burned on the altar, and the rest of the animal goes to the ash heap.

The stress in this sacrifice is upon the unintentional aspect of the sin. The fact that people sin without being conscious of it does not exempt them from guilt. Not many people will intentionally put their hands on a live wire. Whether they intend to do so or not does not make any difference to the electricity. Guilt consists in our wrong relationship with God, not in how we feel about it. So called "psychological guilt" doesn't, necessarily make us guilty, and the absence of guilt feelings does not prove absence of guilt. If we lean against a gate post that has been freshly painted, we will get paint on us whether we want to or not. It was possible for the whole community of Israel to become guilty before God without knowing it, as in the case of Achan. Also, as we have seen, the sin of a priest could bring guilt upon the whole community.

In this sacrifice we find the first mention of forgiveness. Vs. 20 reads: "In this way the priest will make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven."

The third sacrifice is prescribed in case the sinner is one of the leaders or rulers of the people. The Hebrew word for "leader" is nasiy which Strong defines as "an exalted one, i.e. a king or sheik; also a rising mist." In the KJV it is translated as "captain, chief, cloud, governor, prince, ruler, vapor." Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words cites the following about this term: "prince; chief; leader." "This noun appears 129 times in biblical Hebrew. An early occurrence of nashi` is in <Gen. 23:6>: 'Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us....' The books of Numbers and Ezekiel use the word most frequently. Elsewhere it rarely occurs." So, the person mentioned is someone who has authority over others. As we have seen elsewhere, the ruling of one man over other men is the result of Adam's fall into sin. Only after sin had entered the world, did God say to Eve: "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."[ 4 ] Nowhere else in the Bible do we read that God gave a mandate to man to rule over others. Israel was a theocracy. God only ceded reluctantly to Israel's request for a king. We read: "But when they said, 'Give us a king to lead us,' this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: 'Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.' "[ 5 ] It is because man has gone astray that God permits the rule of one man over another, especially in the case in which people are threatened by an enemy. Now it turns out that the ruler has failed also and has become guilty before the Lord. But he does not bring the same sacrifice as the priest, or as the whole community. His guilt is not imputed to others: he stands alone before God.

His sacrifice consists of a male goat without defect. He identifies himself with the animal by laying his hands on its head. There seems to be a deeper meaning in this ritual in view of the choice of the animal. Not only does the leader confess that he deserves punishment which is executed upon the animal instead of on him, but he also admits to the similarity between himself and the animal. A male goat is the incarnation of stupid arrogance. The male prowess of a male goat is expressed in tyranny. A male goat is not the image of meekness, humility, and self-control. He is a caricature of leadership. It is quite a discovery for a leader to see what he did with the task God had entrusted to him. When the leader lays his hands on the male goat he makes a profound confession. For him it means dying and being dumped on the ash-heap.

[ 1 ] Matt 10:29

[ 2 ] See: Lev. 16:14,15

[ 3 ] Hebr. 13:11-13

[ 4 ] Gen. 3:16

[ 5 ] I Sam. 8:6,7