LEVITICUS 4:1-35

The Sin Offering

• Sin offering is a new offering – had never been offered before God gave Moses these procedures.
• “The sin offering treats sacrificial blood like a detergent that washes the stains of human sin from God’s
presence. It is the offensiveness of sin against God–and its removal–that this offering teaches.” ~ J.I. Packer
• The sin offering was offered during all the feasts – Passover, Pentecost, Trumpets, and Yom Kippur (the Day of
Atonement).
• Compared to the Burnt Offering
• “The burnt offering tells who Christ is, the sin offering tells what Christ did.
• Christ meets the standard of God in the burnt offering, meets the desperate needs of man in the sin
offering.” ~ McGee

Chapter 4 Outline
• V. 1-2
• Intro
• V. 3-12
• Sin of the Priest
• V. 13-21
• Sin of the Congregation
• V. 22-26
• Sin of a ruler
• V. 27-35
• Sin of a common person

SCRIPTURE

V. 1-2 INTRO
Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a person 1 sins 2 unintentionally 3

against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them…’”
1. Person: nephesh (neh’-fesh) = noun- soul, life, person
• The whole consciousness of a person
2. Sins: châtâ’ (khaw-taw) = verb- to miss.
• An archer missing the mark.
• Prov. 19:2 “Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his
way.”
• Stumbling
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 3. Unintentionally: shegâgâh (sheg-ah-gaw) = noun- a mistake, unaware, through ignorance.
• “Old Testament law distinguishes unintentional sins from deliberate sins. The sin offering removed the
offense of unintentional sins.” ~ J.I. Packer
• Num 15:27-29 “If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin
offering. And the priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the person who makes a mistake, when
he sins unintentionally, to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. You shall have one law for
him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the
stranger who sojourns among them.”
• “The priest would examine the offender and determine which sacrifice was needed.” ~ Wiersbe
• “Unintentionally meant not that the offender was ignorant of the law, but they were ignorant of having
violated the law.” ~ Wiersbe
• Difference between “I didn’t know it was wrong to speed.” and “I know it’s wrong to speed but didn’t
know the speed limit in this area is slower than I was going.”
• “Ignorance doesn’t cancel guilt.” (v. 17)
• Psalm 19:12 – Cleanse me from my secret faults = sins I don’t know I am committing.
• Unintentional sin = sin offering (Lev. 4:2)
• “High-handed (deliberate) sins could also be cleansed, but only by the intercession of the high
priest on the Day of Atonement.” ~ J.I. Packer
• Punishment for One Act of Intentional Sin
• Num. 15:30-31 “But the person who does anything with a high hand [deliberately or
intentionally], whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the LORD, and that person shall be cut
off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken his
commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.”
• Deliberate Sinful Lifestyle
• Hebrews 10:26-28 “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the
truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury
of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without
mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.” (ESV)

SIN OF THE PRIEST

V. 3 “…if the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer to the LORD for his sin which he
has sinned a young bull without blemish as a sin offering.”
• “The sin of the priest needs to be taken care of first, for he is in the place of leadership. If he was wrong, the
people were wrong. His sin was their sin. Like priest, like people.” ~ McGee
• He had to bring the most valuable animal – a young bull.
• James 3:1 – “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach
will be judged with greater strictness.”
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 • There is a greater responsibility for leaders and teachers.
• “The higher the sinner’s position in the nation, the more expensive the sacrifice. The greater the
privilege, the greater the responsibility and the consequences.” ~ Wiersbe
V. 4-7 “He shall bring the bull to the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD, lay his hand on the bull’s
head, and kill the bull before the LORD. Then the anointed priest shall take some of the bull’s blood and bring it to
the tabernacle of meeting. The priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven1 times
before the LORD, in front of the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns 2 of the
altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of meeting; and he shall pour the remaining
blood of the bull at the base of the altar 3 of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.”

1. Lu Wing:
• 7x places where Jesus bled:
o 39 lashes to the back
o Feet
o Hands
o Ripped beard
o Crown of Thorns
o Side/Heart pierced
o Sweated blood
2. Spurgeon:
“The horns of the altar signify the power of his intercession,
and the power of Christ’s intercession lies in his sacrifice, lies
in the blood… The mark is made by his own blood upon the
horns of the altar; and its presence there proves that he is
qualified to plead for men, seeing that, while he is God, his
blood shows that he is evidently also man.”
3. Ellicott
“That is, all the remaining blood. The bulk of the blood which
remained, after expending the small quantity on the horns of the
incense altar inside the sanctuary, the priest poured out at the
bottom of the altar of burnt offering, which stood outside the holy place. At the time of the second Temple, there
were at the southwest horn of this altar two holes, like two nostrils, through which the blood ran into a drain
conveying it into the brook of Kedron.”

Similar to Peace Offering

V. 8-10 “He shall take from it all the fat of the bull as the sin offering. The fat that covers the entrails and all the fat
which is on the entrails, the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the fatty lobe attached to the
liver above the kidneys, he shall remove, as it was taken from the bull of the sacrifice of the peace offering; and the
priest shall burn them on the altar of the burnt offering.”
• Fat = the most valuable parts
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Different from Other Offerings
V. 11-12 “But the bull’s hide and all its flesh, with its head and legs, its entrails and offal— the whole bull he shall
carry outside the camp to a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire; where the
ashes are poured out it shall be burned.”

• Compared to the Burnt Offering

• Difference between the sin offering and the burnt offering was so people would not be confused which
was which when they watched – the burnt offering was burned completely on the altar, the sin offering
was taken outside the camp to be burned, only the blood and fat was on the altar.
• “It reminded the people that the sins of the high priest and the whole congregation would pollute the
whole camp, and the sin offering was too holy to remain in an unholy camp.” ~ Wiersbe
• Jesus - Heb. 13:10-13 – was crucified outside the city gate as our sin offering.

SIN OF THE CONGREGATION

V.13-21 “Now if the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally, and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the
assembly, and they have done something against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which should not
be done, and are guilty; when the sin which they have committed becomes known, then the assembly shall offer a young
bull for the sin, and bring it before the tabernacle of meeting. And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands
on the head of the bull before the LORD. Then the bull shall be killed before the LORD. The anointed priest shall bring
some of the bull’s blood to the tabernacle of meeting. Then the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and
sprinkle it seven times before the LORD, in front of the veil. And he shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar
which is before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of meeting; and he shall pour the remaining blood at the base of
the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. He shall take all the fat from it and
burn it on the altar. And he shall do with the bull as he did with the bull as a sin offering; thus he shall do with it. So the
priest shall make atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them. Then he shall carry the bull outside the camp, and
burn it as he burned the first bull. It is a sin offering for the assembly.”

• This is what we call “Corporate Sin”

• Num. 15:22-26 “But if you sin unintentionally, and do not observe all these commandments that the LORD has
spoken to Moses, all that the LORD has commanded you by Moses, from the day that the LORD gave
commandment, and onward throughout your generations, then if it was done unintentionally without the
knowledge of the congregation, all the congregation shall offer one bull from the herd for a burnt offering, a
pleasing aroma to the LORD, with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the rule, and one male
goat for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel,
and they shall be forgiven, because it was a mistake, and they have brought their offering, a food offering to
the LORD, and their sin offering before the LORD for their mistake. And all the congregation of the people of
Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them, because the whole population was
involved in the mistake.”
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 • Corporate responsibility means you are judged along with the nation.

• Seems unfair, but did you do anything to stop the corruption? If not, you are just as guilty.

SIN OF A RULER
V. 22-26 “When a ruler has sinned, and done something unintentionally against any of the commandments of
the LORD his God in anything which should not be done, and is guilty, or if his sin which he has committed comes to his
knowledge, he shall bring as his offering a kid of the goats, a male without blemish. And he shall lay his hand on the
head of the goat, and kill it at the place where they kill the burnt offering before the LORD. It is a sin offering. The priest
shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and
pour its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering. And he shall burn all its fat on the altar, like the fat of the
sacrifice of the peace offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven
him.”
• Young Male Goat: less value than the bull.

SIN OF A COMMON PERSON

V. 27-31 “If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments
of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done, and is guilty, or if his sin which he has committed comes to his
knowledge, then he shall bring as his offering a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has
committed. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill the sin offering at the place of the burnt
offering. Then the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering,
and pour all the remaining blood at the base of the altar. He shall remove all its fat, as fat is removed from the sacrifice
of the peace offering; and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma to the Lord. So the priest shall make
atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.”
• Young female goat: less value than the bull and male goat.
SIN OF A COMMON PERSON CONT’d
V. 32-35 “If he brings a lamb as his sin offering, he shall bring a female without blemish. Then he shall lay his hand
on the head of the sin offering, and kill it as a sin offering at the place where they kill the burnt offering. The priest
shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and
pour all the remaining blood at the base of the altar. He shall remove all its fat, as the fat of the lamb is removed from
the sacrifice of the peace offering. Then the priest shall burn it on the altar, according to the offerings made by fire to
the LORD. So the priest shall make atonement for his sin that he has committed, and it shall be forgiven him.”

• Young female lamb: alternative to young goat, another option for the common person.

CONCLUSION
To be continued: Chapter 5 verses 1-13 continue the sin offering.

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 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. If Jesus’ sacrifice is so far superior to the ones commanded in Leviticus, why do you think God
commanded the whole sacrificial system in the first place? What did it do for the Israelites then?
What does it do for us now? (If Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world – Rev. 13:8, what
was the point of killing animals?)

2. What are some different metaphors for the idea of sin, based on the Hebrew word châtâ?

3. What is the difference between unintentional and intentional sins? What about one intentional act
versus a habitual lifestyle?

4. How was the sin offering similar to other sacrifices? How was it different?

5. Do you think it was fair that God judged the nation of Israel corporately? What about those in the
Hall of Faith (Heb. 11) that stood against the corruption of their nation?