Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

This section brings us to sin offerings for unintentional sins. Those are sins that you didn’t know you were committing when you did them, but later found out they were sins. Anything that isn’t faith, is sin (Romans 14:23), but they are not imputed to us until we know they’re sins. Ignorance isn’t an excuse. Sin is sin. But the Lord always made a way to restore relationship with Him once we know we have committed sin.

There are four groups or categories of people for unintentional sins. A priest, who had to offer a young bull; the whole of the congregation, a young bull was offered; a ruler of the people, a male goat; or individual regular people, who offered a female goat. The unblemished animal was brought to the door of the tabernacle. Hands were laid on the animal’s head to symbolically transfer the offence, and then the bringer of the offering killed the animal. The priest would take some blood to the tabernacle, dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle some seven times in front of the veil of the sanctuary. The priest would also put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of incense, and then pour the remaining blood at the base of the altar of the burnt offering. The fat of the animal in its entirety was burnt on the altar of the burnt offering. The hide and all the flesh of the animal was carried out of the camp to a clean place and burnt on wood with fire. More on this later. This procedure is the same for all the animals, except the goat’s blood wasn’t sprinkled seven times in front of the veil. The goat’s blood was just put on the horns of the altar and poured out at the base of the altar of the burnt offering.

Next was the trespass offering. This is about not giving information that needs to be given. Withholding the truth from those who haven’t heard it when we have an opportunity to tell them – or avoiding making the opportunity. This is also about when you touch an unclean thing (the carcass of an unclean beast, livestock, or creeping thing; or human uncleanness – the rules for this we’ll get to in the future) – even when no one else is aware of it. The sin comes when you are aware of it. Either aware of the touching or aware you have information to give. Whichever it is, when you know then it is sin. The final category is when you speak thoughtlessly with your mouth to do evil or good, or when you pronounce something by an oath – unaware that you’re speaking sin, when you realise it you have sinned. When they realised what they did wrong in any of these areas (speaking for the Jews who were under the Law, not for present believers in Jesus whether Jew or Gentile), then they were to confess their sin – confession ONLY came when they KNEW what they had done wrong. Then they brought an offering.

A female lamb or kid, or two turtledoves or two pigeons (one as a sin offering and one as a burnt offering), or one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour (without oil or frankincense) as a sin offering. The Lord made sure EVERYONE could give something. Whether rich or poor, He was unwilling to let circumstance prevent someone from getting into right standing with Him. He never wants ANYONE to lose out on right standing with Him (1 Timothy 2:4-6). The blood was sprinkled on the side of the altar and the rest drained at the base of the altar. Then it was burned according to the rules of burnt offering. A measure was taken from the flour and burnt. The rest was the priest’s as a grain offering.

Next was sin – unintentionally – against the holy things of the Lord. We can most easily understand this as sacrilege. The violation or misuse of what is understood as holy. A ram was brought as an offering and also an offering of money. The valuation of the monetary penalty plus twenty percent. This is the same added twenty percent that happened when you stole something (we’ll get there). It is a trespass offering because the individual had trespassed against the Lord. We are wrong and guilty – whether we know about it or not. Even when we are ignorant, we are wrong (Hosea 4:6). Ignorance is not an excuse because whether we are GUILTY in the sense of RESPONSIBILITY, we are GUILTY in the sense of bearing the EFFECTS of that guilt – like people being sick, which is a symptom of sin, when they aren’t believers and don’t know they’re sinful. This is why God has worked so hard to get the message to the people of the world. What we don’t know is killing us.

“If you sin and break any of the commands that the Lord said must not be done, you are guilty. Even if you did not know about it, you are still responsible for your sin.” (Leviticus 5:17).

Now we move onto intentional sins. Trespassing against the Lord by lying to your neighbour about what was entrusted to you for safekeeping, or finding lost property and not returning it, or extortion, or swearing falsely. They are to return it plus twenty percent of its value. And the offering was to be a ram with the shekel amount penalty (with twenty percent) of the trespass offering. Restitution with humanity and restitution with God.

Whenever something was a burnt offering, the offering was to be placed on the altar all night until morning and the fire on the altar should be kept burning throughout the night – actually, it was NEVER to be put out but always fed. The priest was to burn wood on it every morning, and to lay the burnt offering on it, and burn the fat of the peace offering. When it was burnt to ashes, the priest was to wear his linen garment and linen trousers (the linen was to wick away the sweat, symbolic of sin being taken from us, as well as to cover nakedness), take up the ashes from the altar and put them beside the altar (in a receptacle of some kind). Then he was to remove the clothes that were worn in the holy place and put on OTHER clothes, and then to carry the ashes outside the camp.

The grain offering was to be offered on the altar before the Lord. The priest was to take a handful of the fine flour and burn it. The rest was for the priests to eat as unleavened bread in the courtyard of the tabernacle. It was not to be baked with leaven. It was considered holy and had to be eaten in a holy place. No one not consecrated could eat it. Now, when the priests themselves offered their daily grain offering (one tenth of an ephah), it was to be half in the morning and half at night. It was to be made in a pan with oil and the baked pieces they were to offer it completely, to be totally burnt up.

The burnt offering and the sin offering were to be killed in the same place – the north side of the altar (Leviticus 1:11). The portion given to the priest from it was to be eaten in the court of the tabernacle, in a holy place. The one eating had to be consecrated. It was holy, they had to be holy. When the blood from the offering got on any garment, it was to be washed in a holy place. If it (the portion the priest ate) was boiled in an earthenware pot, the pot was to be broken afterward. If it was in a bronze pot, the pot had to be scoured and rinsed in water. This kept the holy implements from being profaned.

These portions of the offerings were how the priesthood was sustained. They did not farm land nor keep herds. This was their food. However, if the sin offering was the kind where blood was taken into the tabernacle to make atonement in the holy place, it wasn’t to be eaten. It was to be holy consumed by fire.

Summary

Key Players: God

Key Themes: Atonement, Holiness, Consecration

Key Verse(s): Leviticus 4:27; 5:1-5,  15-16; 6:13, 30