“Atonement Offerings (Leviticus 4:1-6:7)" | 1/28/24
Leviticus 4:1-6:7 | 1/28/24 | Will DuVal
Around the turn of the 20th c., The Times newspaper asked a few famous authors to write an essay answering the question “What is WRONG with the world today?”. Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton managed to NAIL it, with only two words: “I AM.”
His answer - the BIBLE’s answer - that SIN, MY sin, is my biggest problem, a problem that every ONE of us must deal with - that idea has become less and less popular over the years. According to one recent survey, only 62% of Americans believe that they have sinned, and that that sin is a PROBLEM. (https://www.kybaptist.org/survey-spotlights-american-views-on-sin/)
But according to GOD, our sin is a BIG problem. He says the WAGES - the CONSEQUENCE - of our sin is DEATH. Sin MUST be paid for.
We owe God EVERYTHING. All of our heart, mind, soul, strength… our LIVES - he deserves it ALL!
Yet we hold MUCH of it BACK from him. Sin isn’t just the “bad stuff” we do; it is failing to give God the full glory He is DUE; failing to live our lives in perfect, holy surrender and obedience to Him.
Yet in His MERCY, God graciously provided a way for sinners like us to REPAY that “life debt” we owed him, through SACRIFICE, another’s life, standing in the place of my OWN. Life for life, death for death.
And of ALL the five sacrifices outlined in Leviticus 1-7, the two we’re looking at this morning - the “SIN” offeringfrom chs4&5 and the “GUILT” offering in chs5&6 - they illustrate this concept most pointedly of all. If the whole burnt offering from ch1 said, “God, I belongto you” and the grain & peace offerings from chs2&3 said, “God, I thank you”, the sin & guilt offerings we find here were a way of saying, “God, I am SORRY”. What’s wrong with the world? I AM.
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There are a lot of similarities between the “sin” & “guilt” offerings; NEXT week, when we examine the LAWS concerning sacrifices, ch7 will state that “The guilt offering is just like the sin offering; there is one law for them [both].” So I am grouping them together this morning under the heading “atonement offerings”.
Atonement, you remember, is a KEY word throughout Leviticus - and indeed, the BIBLE! - but it occurs more in this book than anywhere else: 48% of the OT uses of the verb “make atonement” (kaphar) are found here in Leviticus.
Allan Moseley defines it for us (56): “The word atonement refers to reconciliation - two parties [that] were estranged… becoming ‘at one’ with each other… Atonement refers to what is necessary to DO for the two parties to be reconciled. In the case of our relationship with God, it refers to taking away SIN.”
And God’s removal of our sin is really a two step PROCESS. Think about it this way:
If I’m a little careless pulling out of my parking spot this morning and I accidentally BUMP or SCRATCH your car, what do I need to DO to “make things right” with you?
If I come back inside and find you, and say, “Hey, I just wanted to let you know: I was backing out and I hit your car; I am SO SORRY…
🙂 Okay! Have a great week!” – Are we GOOD?? What is my apology MISSING??
RESTITUTION! REPAYMENT! You say, “I appreciate your sentiment, Pastor, but I’m still out a few hundred BUCKS!”
But let me ask you THIS: if you walk out to your car and find the scratch, the dent, with a blank check with my signature and the Memo line says: “Car repair”... are we GOOD?? What am I missing NOW??
The APOLOGY! I need to personally apologize for all the HASSLE it is to get your car fixed.
That’s the simplest way of understanding the difference and the relationship between these two offerings: the SIN offering is the APOLOGY, and the GUILT offering is the repayment.
But we’ll mostly consider them TOGETHER, as we glean and APPLY 12 PRINCIPLES related to these atonement offerings, still relevant for us today.
I invite you to STAND… Leviticus 4:1 - 6:7; WARNING: This passage is LONG! I’m going to SKIP OVER a few sections, where there’s a lot of repetition (but it’s STILL long!); the word of the Lord:
“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandments about things not to be done, and does any one of them, 3 if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bull from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering. 4 He shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord and lay his hand on the head of the bull and kill the bull before the Lord. 5 And the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting, 6 and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary. 7 And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense before the Lord that is in the tent of meeting, and all the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 8 And all the fat of the bull of the sin offering he shall remove from it, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails 9 and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys 10 (just as these are taken from the ox of the sacrifice of the peace offerings); and the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering. 11 But the skin of the bull and all its flesh, with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung— 12 all the rest of the bull—he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap, and shall burn it up on a fire of wood. On the ash heap it shall be burned up.
13 “If the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they do any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, and they realize their guilt, 14 when the sin which they have committed becomes known, the assembly shall offer a bull from the herd for a sin offering and bring it in front of the tent of meeting. 15 And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord, and the bull shall be killed before the Lord. 16 Then the anointed priest shall bring some of the blood of the bull into the tent of meeting… [and perform the same blood sprinkling process as BEFORE; so we’ll skip down now to v20:] And the priest shall make atonement for them, and they shall be forgiven. 21 And he shall carry the bull outside the camp and burn it up as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering for the assembly.
22 “When a leader sins, doing unintentionally any one of all the things that by the commandments of the Lord his God ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, 23 or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a goat, a male without blemish, 24 and shall lay his hand on the head of the goat and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the Lord; it is a sin offering. 25 Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering. 26 And all its fat he shall burn on the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings. So the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin, and he shall be forgiven.
27 “If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, 28 or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. 29 And he shall lay his hand… [and repeat the same process, then so does the priest, so we skip ahead to v31…] Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, he shall be forgiven.
32 “If he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he shall bring a female without blemish 33 and [perform the same hand-laying ritual… and the priest performs the same blood-sprinkling and fat-removing ritual, so we skip ahead to v35:] And the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven.
Ch5 now: “If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity; 2 or if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether a carcass of an unclean wild animal or a carcass of unclean livestock or a carcass of unclean swarming things, and it is hidden from him and he has become unclean, and he realizes his guilt; 3 or if he touches human uncleanness, of whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and realizes his guilt; 4 or 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; 5 when he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin he has committed, 6 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.
7 “But if he cannot afford a lamb, then he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. [And the priest does his thing… v10:] And the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven.
11 “But if he cannot afford two turtledoves or two pigeons, then he shall bring as his offering for the sin that he has committed a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering... [and you get the picture; let’s skip ahead now to v14 and the…]
Laws for Guilt Offerings [unfortunately, the not-so-divinely-inspired 13th c. editors who added the chapter divisions to our modern Bibles should have started a new chapter here but failed to; so we are still in the middle of ch5:]
v14 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 15 “If anyone commits a breach of faith and sins unintentionally in any of the holy things of the Lord, he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation, a ram without blemish out of the flock, valued in silver shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering. 16 He shall also make restitution for what he has done amiss in the holy thing and shall add a fifth to it and give it to the priest. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven.
17 “If anyone sins, doing any of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, though he did not know it, then realizes his guilt, he shall bear his iniquity. 18 He shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish out of the flock, or its equivalent, for a guilt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him for the mistake that he made unintentionally, and he shall be forgiven. 19 It is a guilt offering; he has indeed incurred guilt before the Lord.”
ch6:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “If anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against the Lord by deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security, or through robbery, or if he has oppressed his neighbor 3 or has found something lost and lied about it, swearing falsely—in any of all the things that people do and sin thereby— 4 if he has sinned and has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression or the deposit that was committed to him or the lost thing that he found 5 or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt. 6 And he shall bring to the priest as his compensation to the Lord a ram without blemish out of the flock, or its equivalent, for a guilt offering. 7 And the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and he shall be forgiven for any of the things that one may do and thereby become guilty.””
[This is the word of God… SEATED…]
Two offerings here; FIRST: the SIN OFFERING (4:1-5:13), which said:
“God, 1) I have SINNED 2) and I need CLEANSING, 3) therefore, I come to make PURIFICATION.”
Allan Ross explains (134): “The purpose of the [sin] offering was to restore the broken relationship between God and the guilty person. It was designed to provide forgiveness for regular sins by cleansing the pollution and defilement of those sins, so that the sinner could be restored to full communion with God.”
Some commentators prefer the title “purification” offering, because “Later passages in Leviticus state that God commanded this sacrifice in situations that had nothing to do with sin, like childbirth, the healing of a skin disease, or contact with a dead body. So the purpose of this offering [Allen Moseley explains] was… to remove defilement in a more general sense.” (Moseley, 40)
But as we’ll see, ALL defilement, ALL impurity is ultimately the result of SIN. So the END-goal here really is purification from both SIN AND its consequences.
And the first thing to recognize about these sacrifices is that they were simultaneously…
1) God’s PROVISION for his people (4:2), and yet they were only PROVISION-AL (4:2, 13-14).
First and foremost, EVERY sacrifice was a form of God’s PROVISION. God was providing a way, a means, for His people to be CLEANSED of their sin, so they could be restored to right relationship with Him.
We might read and think, “Eww! How BARBARIC of God…” but the ancient Israelite thought, “Ohh, How GRACIOUS of God! To make a WAY for a sinner like me to be washed and forgiven - “Oh PRECIOUS is the flow, that makes me white as snow!”
And YET, the system was only PROVISIONAL, it was conditional; it had contingencies. The biggest of which, listed 6 times here, was that these sacrifices only covered WHAT kind of sins?
“UNINTENTIONAL”. These sacrifices only worked if I ACCIDENTALLY hit your car; if I got mad and purposely RAMMED INTO it - intentionally - this sacrifice couldn’t help you.
AT LEAST not in the case of sin against GOD. Notice that distinction: all 6 times this “unintentional” caveat occurs - ch4, vv1, 13, 22, 27 & ch5, vv14 & 18 - it is explicitly connected with sin against “the Lord’s commandments”. But then we get two additional lists of sins - in ch5, vv1-6 and ch6, vv1-7 - that describe either sins against one’s NEIGHBOR - bearing false witness, making a hasty vow, robbery, lying, oppression - OR matters of ritual impurity that DIDN’T directly involve sin - accidentally touching a dead carcass, unknowingly sitting in a chair your menstruating wife had just sat in - these horizontal sins and ritual impurities COULD be atoned for.
But NOT “PURPOSEFUL, premeditated sin” against GOD. Numbers 15 makes it clear: ““If a person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat… for a sin offering… [if you] make a mistake… But the person who does anything with a high hand [thumbing your nose at God… flipping your MIDDLE FINGER at Him! That person]… reviles the Lord, and shall be cut off from among his people.” (27-30)
That’s why KING DAVID, after he knowingly sinned with Bathsheeba, and ordered the premeditated MURDER of her husband Uriah, when David finally repented, he acknowledged: “[God,] you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Ps 51:16-17)
No sacrifice would do; David had to throw himself on God’s MERCY.
In the NT, Hebrews 10:26 says, “if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins”. The sinner who thinks to himself, “Ehh, I’ll just do it anyway and then confess it tomorrow morning,” proves that he has NO understanding of either the HOLINESS of the God he’s sinning against, or the PRECIOUSNESS of the Savior’s blood he is exploiting; Jesus will NOT allow his blood - his sacrifice - to be CHEAPENED, because friends: it WASN’T CHEAP.
#2) These sacrifices - both the sin and the guilt offering - were PREREQUISITES (4:3)
They were required before forgiveness - atonement - could take place. The burnt offerings of ch1, the thanksgiving offerings of chs 2&3 - they were all VOLUNTARY: “IF you bring an offering…”
But not anymore; v3 says, If anyone sins “then he shall / he MUST offer… a sin offering”.
Same thing in ch5, v14: “he shall / MUST bring… a guilt offering. ”
What’s the application for US? We CAN and SHOULD bring God OUR “thanksgiving” offerings - our tithes, our church volunteering. We CAN and SHOULD give God our whole LIVES in response for what he’s done for us - our “whole burnt offerings”. But friends: you MUST offer God your “SORRY”, your APOLOGY, your CONFESSION & REPENTANCE! “God, I am SORRY for my sin, and now I’m TURNING from it - I’m LEAVING it, to follow YOU instead!”
The Bible says WITHOUT that, you cannot be FORGIVEN of your sins; repentance is a PREREQUISITE.
Jesus said, “unless you repent, you will perish.”” (Lk 13:3)
Acts 3:19 “Repent… and turn back [to the Lord,] [SO] THAT your sins may be blotted out”
1 Jn 1:9 “IF we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins…”
But we must CONFESS & REPENT.
#3) Once again, as with ALL the offerings, these sin & guilt sacrifices must be PRECIOUS (4:3-10) & PURE (4:11-12, 21).
V3: “without blemish”; v23: “without blemish”; v28, v32… 7 times here, it’s repeated.
Then, once you’ve brought the most precious ANIMAL you could afford, you used the most precious PART - its BLOOD, v5; it’s LIFE-blood - to make atonement. The priest would sprinkle it on the veil 7 times - the biblical number of wholeness - to signify the completeness of God’s forgiveness.
Then you took the NEXT most precious part - its FAT, v8 - and burned THAT on the altar, because only GOD deserves the precious fat.
And even what WASN’T burned up - v11: its SKIN and meat, its head and legs and guts, even its DUNG - had to be carried OUTSIDE the camp, v12, because once it had been dedicated to the LORD, it was too HOLY - too PURE - to remain INSIDE the camp.
Remind you of anything? Maybe from HEBREWS, last fall? Ch13: “the animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.” (11-12)
The most precious BLOOD of all, the most pure SACRIFICE of all.
#4) Notice how these offerings were both PREJUDICE-LESS and yet they were also POSITION-PARTICULAR (4:3, 13, et al)
On the one hand: they were without prejudice or BIAS; EVERYONE needed these sin & guilt offerings, because EVERYONE was guilty of SIN! From the “anointed (high) priest” in v3, all the way down to the “commoner” in v27. All SINNERS.
And YET, all sinners are not the SAME. We are held to different STANDARDS. The GRAVITY of sin is determined not ONLY by the sin itself (some sins got you the DEATH penalty; others didn’t… Jesus himself made a distinction between the “unforgivable sin” and other, lesser sins…) but a sin’s offense was determined not just by the type of sin, but by the type of SINNER. It was “position-particular” - the high PRIEST’S sin (v3) was on par with the “whole congregation of ISRAEL ” sinning (v13)! Which was WEIGHTIER than a tribal leader’s sin (v22), which was weightier than everyone else’s sin (v27).
Notice also the difference in protocol: the high priest’s and whole congregation’s sin required blood to be brought INTO the tabernacle and sprinkled on the veil, while the tribal leader’s and common person’s sin did NOT. Moseley explains (40-41): “When we sin, it affects other people; if we’re in a position of leadership, what we do affects MORE people. When somebody has a contagious infection, he shouldn’t be around others, because the more people he touches, the more people he’ll infect. A person in a position of leadership “touches” a lot of people.”
And this principle still holds true in the NT, and still for us TODAY: “Not many of you should become teachers, [church LEADERS, James warns us], for… we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” (3:1)
Jesus said, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required” (Lk 12:48) - with great responsibility comes great accountability.
The attributes of godliness laid out in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 SHOULD be true of EVERY believer, but they MUST be true of every ELDER.
So these sacrifices show us that EVERYONE must answer for their sin, no matter your station - and yet those of HIGHER station have MORE to ANSWER for.
While we’re on the topic, please note: sin is OBJECTIVE. It was for them and IS for us quite possible to sin without even REALIZING it. Sin is any violation of God’s perfect, objective standard of holiness. It’s not about whether or not we “FEEL guilty”, but whether we “ARE guilty”. 38% of Americans may not FEEL guilty, ADMIT their guilt, but 100% of us ARE guilty - “ALL have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23), and desperately need a sacrifice.
#5) These sacrifices served as both PROXY (4:4) & PROPITIATION for sin. (4-7)
We saw this back in ch1 with the burnt offerings, so I won’t rehash the point TOO much. But it’s SO IMPORTANT - laying one’s hand on the sacrifice symbolized both transference - “I am transferring my sin and guilt to this animal” - as well as SUBSTITUTION - “...so that IT can now stand in MY place; die the death that I deserve; repay God the life-debt that I owe Him, in my stead.”
And related, these sacrifices ALSO served as PROPITIATION; God’s solution for satisfying his holy, righteous WRATH against sin, a way to REMOVE the guilt, the stain, the debt, the penalty that rightly ACCOMPANIES our sin.
PROXY and PROPITIATION.
#6) These sacrifices were both PENITENCE-PROVOKING as well as penitence-PROVING. (4:10-11)
On the one hand, they were meant to PRODUCE a remorsefulness for sin within the heart of the offerer. That’s PART of the reason you had to slit an animal’s - YOUR animal’s; YOUR pet goat’s THROAT - because only a PSYCHOpath wouldn’t be deeply, emotionally MOVED by that act - “It was MY sin that held him there, poor Mr. Fluffers…”
But it was also a way of PROVING one’s contrition. “You TELL me you’re SORRY,” God was saying, “Okay: PROVE it.” That’s why the priests weren’t allowed to EAT their own sacrifices, the bull, because there couldn’t be ANY “silver lining” associated with their sin - “Well, sorry I messed up, God… but at least I’ll be eating GOOD tonight!” - NO! The PEACE offering may have occasioned a big community party, but the sin & guilt offerings here were an occasion for REMORSE.
#7) These offerings were PERSONAL-but-not-PRIVATE (4:13-15, 27-35)
They HAD to be PERSONAL - if you did the SINNING (and had gotten your hands DIRTY), then you had to do the KILLING (and get your hands BLOODY, since blood was the PURIFYING agent).
And yet, once again, the ritual STILL had to be priest-mediated - we cannot approach God except through an INTERCESSOR. And while it had to be personal, this sacrifice wasn’t at ALL PRIVATE, was it? You had to drag your loud, bleating animal all the way to the MIDDLE of the camp, to the tabernacle, and confess your sin quite PUBLICLY. Sometimes the sin ITSELF was of a public, corporate, communal nature - “if the WHOLE CONGREGATION sins…”
SO many applications for us here. Sin is PERSONAL. Jesus didn’t just DIE for “sin”, in general; he died for MY sin, for YOUR sin.
When we CONFESS our sin, we don’t confess sin generally, impersonally - “God, I’m sorry. I know I sinned today… Can’t remember WHEN, or HOW… But I assume I sinned…” NO - these sacrifices atoned for SPECIFIC sins. It had to be PERSONAL.
But NOT PRIVATE - even the NT (James 5) instructs us to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another”. We need to bring our sin to the LIGHT - light is the best disinfectant. GOD’S light, sure. But the more light the better. Who knows your sin? Who holds you accountable. I bet the need to PUBLICLY slit an animal’s throat was a pretty good sin deterrent, don’t you think?
How do we apply the CORPORATE aspect of sin we find here? We like to privatize EVERYTHING in the American Church - MY relationship with Jesus, who is MY Lord & Savior, who forgives MY sins - that’s all true, but we cannot overlook the very COMMUNAL dimensions of sin and salvation as well. You can trash critical theory all you want, but according to THE BIBLE, there really IS such a thing as SYSTEMIC sin. And it EXISTS in the 21st c. American Church.
When we spend more money on FOG MACHINES for our **“worship services” than we do on missions to unreached people groups - the 3+ BILLION people around the world who will live and die and likely never even hear the NAME “Jesus”. That is systemic SIN.
The evangelical church is arguably still the most powerful VOTING block in this country and THESE are the two CANDIDATES we get, this election?! - friends: that is SYSTEMIC sin.
And we ought to collectively REPENT. “If my PEOPLE (God says: PEOPLE, plural!)... will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear them from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chr 7:14)
#8) These offerings were both PARDONING (4:20, 26, 31, 35; 5:10, 13, 16, 18; 6:7) & PURIFYING (5:1-6)
To “pardon” means to “remit the penalty of an offense”, to “release of guilt”; to FORGIVE! That’s what these sacrifices DID:
Ch4, v20: “the priest shall make atonement… and they shall be forgiven.” v26, v31… 9 TIMES that refrain is repeated: “shall be FORGIVEN”.
But… only until their next SIN. That’s the thing, the limitation: these offerings were temporary, provisional.
Remember Hebrews 10? “Every priest [stood] daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which could never take away sins”; not for GOOD. It was a passing pardon, a finite forgiveness.
And a perishable purification. Ch5, vv1-6 prescribe a sin offering as the remedy for UNCLEANNESS - whether resulting from ritual impurity or (horizontal) moral impurity. But once again, the cleansing only lasted until your next misstep. We still needed a PERMANENT pardon, a PERFECT purification.
#9) As with the previous offerings we’ve studied, these sacrifices were once again always POSSIBLE, no matter your socioeconomic status (5:7-13).
Ch5, v7: If you couldn’t afford a LAMB, you could bring some BIRDS. V11: if you couldn’t even afford the BIRDS, you could just bring some FLOUR.
Now, you say, “Wait a minute: FLOUR”?! I thought you needed BLOOD in order to make atonement?
You DO. But remember: it’s not the blood of these OT animals that is TRULY doing the atoning ANYWAY - according to Hebrews 10:4 “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The Israelites were just writing CHECKS, that God wouldn’t cash until 1,500 years later when the TRUE Lamb of God would come to pay for sin, once and for all.
These sacrifices just anticipated THAT one, and God graciously allowed Israel to make early withdrawals from JESUS’ spiritual bank account. Even if their sacrifice was just FLOUR.
Now we come to the GUILT or TRESPASS or REPARATION OFFERING. (5:14-6:7) Which, remember, was a way of saying to God: [Summary:] “God, 1) I have DEFRAUDED (either YOU, or my NEIGHBOR) 2) and I need FORGIVENESS, 3) therefore, I am here to make RESTITUTION.”
Allan Ross explains (147): “The violations for which a reparation offering was required all seem to involve loss of property by DEFRAUDING… The sins here either defraud GOD of his holy things or defraud PEOPLE by keeping what rightfully belongs to them and swearing falsely about it. Both cases are sacrilege; and reparation [must be] made.”
Warren Wiersbe notes (?): “The trespass offering illustrates the solemn fact that it is a very costly thing for people to commit sin and for God to cleanse sin. Our sins hurt God and others. True repentance will always bring with it a desire for restitution. We will want to make things right with God and with those whom we’ve sinned against.”
Not just the APOLOGY, but compensation for the car’s REPAIR.
That’s what this offering DID.
#10) This offering was all about PAYMENT. (5:14-6:7)
Four times in this passage, the guilty offender is instructed to “bring [his offering] to the Lord as his compensation”, his REPAYMENT.
TWICE he is instructed to “restore” to his NEIGHBOR whatever he had defrauded him of. And notice, when making “restitution”, the guilty party had to “add a FIFTH” to the value of the property, ch6, v5 says, as a defraudment deterrent. You had to pay damages. That was the ONLY way to be TRULY forgiven, to have your debt “settled”.
Whether you had violated GOD - sinned against his “holy things” (ch5, vv14-16) or more generally, sinned against his “commandments” (vv17-19)... OR whether you had sinned against ANOTHER (ch6, vv1-7), by lying, extortion, stealing, or v3: “in ANY of all the things that people do and sin thereby” - this list is not meant to be exhaustive but merely representative; there are TONS of ways to cheat someone and incur guilt, owe them back-payment; WAY too many to list them ALL here.
And notice: with THIS offering, it doesn’t MATTER who the offender is; the payment is SAME for EVERYONE (“a ram without blemish”; ch7 next week will tell us what to DO with the ram, the exact ritual). But isn’t that interesting: if I scratch your CAR, it doesn’t MATTER how rich or how poor, how important or how lowly I may be; if you do the crime, you gotta pay the FINE. A sin’s a sin. It demands repayment.
And once again, this wasn’t just an OT thing; this principle of “seeking to make amends, wherever possible” carries over into the NEW Testament, and into the CHURCH today, as well.
Geoffrey Harper points out (124): “What we do in relation to material possessions reveals our inner disposition. [In the NT,] Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead for fraud in relation to dedicated property (Acts 5:1-11). On the other hand, Zacchaeus spontaneously offered to repay those he had defrauded up to four times what was taken (Luke 19:8).”
In Matthew 5, Jesus said, “if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (23-24)
We must seek to make amends, repayment.
#11) These offerings were PERSONHOOD-PROMOTING & POWERFULLY so! (5:14-6:7)
Think about it: in one verse, God’s talking about making restitution for sinning against HIM, his “HOLY things”, and the very next verse, he prescribes the exact same guilt sacrifice for sinning against your NEIGHBOR. I think that juxtaposition is purposeful; God wants us to see that WE - his CHILDREN - are LIKEWISE his “holy things”! A “holy nation” unto Him (Ex 19:6); beloved BY Him. NOT to be sinned against, without serious consequence.
The NT calls us - the Church - God’s holy TEMPLE. So when we sin against one ANOTHER, we are sinning against the One in whose IMAGE we’ve been made, by whose BLOOD we’ve been PURCHASED!
And the POWER of these offerings is seen in their ability to pardon offenses - blasphemy, sacrilege against God’s holy things - that under the Law, could in some cases rightfully be punishable even BY DEATH! Numbers 18:32 warns “you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’” And yet here, God was making a way for POWERFUL pardon of guilt. And in DOING so,
#12) These sacrifices were PEACE-MAKING (6:7) → because repayment had been made, reconciliation could now take place. “the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and he shall be forgiven”.
CONCLUSION: But more than ANYTHING else, and more than any other offering, these atonement sacrifices prefigure, they point us ahead; they are a PICTURE of Jesus!
1) God’s ULTIMATE PROVISION - “The Lamb of God who took away the sins of the WORLD!” (Jn 1:29); his sacrifice wasn’t provisional, but PERMANENT: he “offered once for all time a single sacrifice for sins”, then sat DOWN at God’s right hand, because the work of atonement was FINISHED, ACCOMPLISHED.
2) Jesus’ sacrifice was prerequisite for our salvation: “he was pierced for our transgressions… and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isa 53:5)
3) It is ONLY by His perfectly PRECIOUS and PURE sacrifice we can be forgiven - 1 Pet 1:19 “you were ransomed… with the precious blood of Christ, like… a lamb without blemish or spot.”; Heb 7:26 - “we have such a high priest: holy, innocent, unstained,” PURE.
4) Jesus cleanses ALL sins of all SINNERS, who come to him - regardless of position or status; 1 Jn 1:7 - “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 Tim 1:15 - “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost”, but he can even save ME! So he can DEFINITELY save YOU! Because…
5) He is our permanent PROXY and PROPITIATION - 2 Cor 5:21 “[God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 1 Jn 2:2 “[Jesus] is the propitiation for our sins”
8) He has PARDONED and PURIFIED us for good - 1 Jn 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (pardon) and to cleanse us (purify us) from all unrighteousness.”
9) And it’s possible - his sacrifice is AVAILABLE - for EVERYONE! Acts 2:38 - “Repent and be baptized every ONE of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins!”
10) He made the all-sufficient PAYMENT of our debt - “the Son of Man came… to give his life as a ransom [payment] for many”, Mk 10:45; he “ha[s] forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us… This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Col 2:13-14 declares.
11) And the end RESULT, of ALL of it, is that Jesus has made PEACE, between sinners like us and a holy God - 2 Cor 5:19 “in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting [our] trespasses against [us]”; Rom 5:1 “we [now] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Friends: that peace can be YOURS this morning, if you will but trust in JESUS as YOUR purifying “sin offering”, as YOUR pardoning “guilt offering”; repent and believe in Jesus, and YOU WILL BE SAVED!