The Sin Offering.
This sacrifice is for sins committed in ignorance. Unintentionally. God is the one making the distinction between willful sin and unintentional sin. We’ll unpack that more in a minute.
There are 5 variations of this offering for 5 categories of people: priest, congregation, ruler, commoner, and poor commoner.
Here we go… 🔪
Sin Offering – Priest
This offering is nearly identical to the one for the ordination, (Ex. 29:10-14). And that makes sense because it’s almost like re-ordaining or reinstating them. The sin has made them unholy so they need to be consecrated again.
🐂 Offering: 1 Bull Calf
🤚🏽 Lay his hands on the head of the bull and kill it.
🩸Blood sprinkled. But this time the blood is sprinkled 7x before the veil in the holy place instead of on the priests.
🩸Blood on horns of the altar. Instead of the 4 horns of the brazen altar as in the ordination offering, the blood is smeared on the 4 horns of the golden altar of incense. (It’s like- you don’t need to get saved again but your worship and prayer and ministry need the blood applied. That’ll preach.)
🩸Rest of the blood poured out at the brazen altar. (same)
🔥 Fat, kidneys, lobe of the liver burned on the altar. (same)
🔥 Rest of the bull is burned outside the camp. Not eaten. (same)
Sin Offering – Congregation
What do you do if the whole congregation sins together? Like with the golden calf incident?
It’s exactly the same as above, only the Elders are the ones who lay their hands on the head of the bull calf and kill it.
Sin Offering – Leader/Ruler/Prince/Chief
🐐 Offering: 1 Male Goat Kid
🤚🏽 Lay his hands on the head of the goat and kill it. (same)
(No sprinkling of blood in the Holy Place)
🩸Blood on the 4 horns of the brazen altar
🩸Rest of the blood poured out at the brazen altar. (same)
🔥 Fat burned up. (No mention of kidneys or lobe of the liver.)
🥩🍽️ The meat from Sin Offerings for Rulers may be eaten by the priests- but only in a holy place- the Tabernacle court. This detail is actually coming in chapter 6 but it’s helpful here.
“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the sin offering: in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, the sin offering shall be slaughtered before the Lord; it is most holy. The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it. It shall be eaten in a holy place, in the courtyard of the tent of meeting. Every male among the priests may eat it; it is most holy. But no sin offering of which any of the blood is brought into the tent of meeting to make atonement in the Holy Place shall be eaten; it shall be burned with fire.” Leviticus 6:24-26, 29-30 NASB2020
The Sin Offerings for the Priest and the Congregation have that added step of sprinkling the blood 7x before the veil. Those are the offerings that may not be eaten. They are sacrifices to make holy atonement.
The implication is that not only the priest, but the congregation as a whole is holy to the Lord. In the NT, Christ dwells in both His Church as a whole (ye, you all, collectively are the temple of the Holy Spirit), AND in the individual believer who is a royal priest.
Sin Offering – Commoner
🐐Offering: 1 Female Goat Kid OR 1 Female Lamb 🐑
🤚🏽 Lay hands on the head of the goat/lamb and kill it. (same)
🩸Blood on the 4 horns of the brazen altar
🩸Rest of the blood poured out at the brazen altar.
🔥 Fat burned up. (No mention of kidneys or lobe of the liver.)
🥩🍽️ The meat from Sin Offerings for Commoners may be eaten by the priests- but only in a holy place- the Tabernacle court.
Sin Offering – The Poor Commoner
OPTION 1
🐦🐦 Offering: 2 Doves OR 2 Pigeons
(One bird will be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering)
Sin Offering bird’s neck is wrung
🩸Blood sprinkled on the brazen altar’s side
🩸Rest of the blood poured out at the brazen altar.
🍗🍽️The text doesn’t specify but it’s likely that the sin-offering bird’s flesh would go to the priest to be eaten.
OPTION 2
⚱️Offering: 1/10 ephah of fine flour, no frankincense or oil added as in a grain offering. (This is about 2 liters or 1 omer. That’s how much manna was inside the ark.)
🔥One handful of the flour would be burned on the brazen altar.
🍽️🍞 The rest went to the priest.
So… you may have noticed that these offerings were brought when the person who had sinned has “realized his guilt.” When a person came to understand that he had done something sinful, that’s when he would bring a sin offering. All of the sacrifices above are for “sins of ignorance” or “unintentional sins”- those sins of I-honestly-didn’t-know-better. Someone has to point out the sin to him or he must figure it out on his own. But he must know he has sinned. That is pivotal.
The Hebrew word for sin here is chata (khaw-taw) and it means to miss; as in to miss the mark. 🎯
I do that a lot when target practicing. 😏 One time my brother was coaching me with my pistol and I shot… I don’t think I even hit the 5ft by 5ft wall that the target was attached to. From like 15 yards. 🙄 The chickens wisely scattered. 🐓🐓🐓 He got a big piece of scrap cardboard and painted a dinner-plate sized black dot on it. ⚫️ That helped. But still missed the mark sometimes. When we finished, he looked around and said that since there were no dead chickens he considered it a success. 🥉😆
Chata is spelled Chet, Tet, Aleph.
Wall/outside. Container. Strong.
Yep. That’s how I shoot.
Strongly outside the container. 🎯
😉
Notice there isn’t an offering for I-know-this-is-wrong-but-I’m-doing-it-anyway-sins. Those sins will be dealt with on the Day of Atonement. (And boy oh boy is THAT an interesting one. 🧐)
So that’s the 5 Versions of the Sin Offering.
Chapter 5 outlines some specific circumstances that cause a person to incur “guilt” and the need for a sin offering:
- Witnessing the uttering of a curse and not speaking out about it.
- Becoming unclean by touching something unclean.
- Uttering a rash oath.
This last one is fascinating. I can see how someone could do the first two and not really realize there’s a problem.
Like- I overheard a conversation and one guy grumbled a curse but I really didn’t understand the context or maybe I misheard…
Or- I didn’t see that dead thing laying there that I brushed against or didn’t realize I stepped in 💩
But that third one…
“If anyone utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good, any sort of rash oath that people swear, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and he realizes his guilt in any of these; when he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin he has committed, he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.”
Leviticus 5:4-6 ESV
I mean, how do you utter a rash oath and not realize you’re doing it? How is it “hidden from you?” 🤔
Is this like saying offhand, “I swear, if I thought it would do any good, I’d sue that idiot into oblivion!” Is that a rash oath? (Asking for a friend.) 😏
Maybe it’s more like- you knew you said it, but you didn’t know it was wrong to say it.
Maybe it’s something like…
Jesus had this to say on swearing oaths:
“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” Matthew 5:33-37 ESV
Sadly, our culture is so used to people swearing meaningless oaths that most of us don’t even take it seriously. But it was a sin that incurred guilt under the Law.
Finally, there are some behaviors that incur a special kind of guilt. It’s when a person sins in relation to violating holy things. This would likely be something like a priest eating something he wasn’t supposed to, because part of the restitution is to replace it plus 1/5 more. The 20% is like a penalty.
🐏/💰Offering: 1 Ram or its equivalent in silver coins
There is no description of the ram being sacrificed so it was probably more like we would think of as a fine.
The point in this whole thing seems to be that even if you don’t know you’ve sinned, don’t believe you are a sinner- you’re still guilty. You still need atonement.
Plenty of good folks out there who don’t think of themselves as sinners. Have they sinned? Sure.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23 ESV
But before they can come to the altar and have their sins atoned, they must “realize their guilt.” That is what the preaching of the Gospel is supposed to include- the confirmation to the sinner’s conscience that they are not right with God. A person must realize he is sinner and cannot save himself.
Some people reach this conclusion quickly. Others spend years trying every philosophy and religion under the sun before they hear a clear presentation of the Gospel and they put their faith in Christ. And preaching a gospel that never addresses sin head-on does not actually help. It seems kinder on the surface. We don’t want people to feel condemned. But, sin condemns the sinner whether they are aware of it or not. Wouldn’t it be a greater kindness to make a person temporarily uncomfortable with their guilt so they can repent and believe the Gospel?
We have to start with the bad news- “You have sinned.” “All people are guilty,” before we can tell the Good News: Jesus Christ is the ultimate sin offering.
Next up… more offerings. Surprise! 🤓
Makes ya glad you’re not in priest-college with final exams on all these, eh?
See ya tomorrow.
To The Reader 