THE SIN OFFERING

Lev. 4:1-12

Morning Meditation 12/31/2013

Verse 1-12 says, “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them: If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering. And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and kill the bullock before the LORD. And the priest that is anointed shall take of the bullock's blood, and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation: And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the vail of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin offering; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away, As it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering. And the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung, Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt.”

The sin offering was a compulsory offering. It had to be made. The following is mentioned with reference to this offering:

1.The priest. Verse 3 says, “If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin-offering.”

2.The whole congregation. Verse 13-14 says, “And if the whole congregation of Israel sin through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done somewhat against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which should not be done, and are guilty; When the sin, which they have sinned against it, is known, then the congregation shall offer a young bullock for the sin, and bring him before the tabernacle of the congregation.”

3.The ruler. Verse 22-23 says, “When a ruler hath sinned, and done somewhat through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD his God concerning things which should not be done, and is guilty; Or if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, come to his knowledge; he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a male without blemish.”

4.The commoner. Verse 27-28 says, “And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty; Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned.”

Each were told what to offer as a sin offering. The priest was to offer a bullock, the whole congregation was to offer a bullock, the ruler was to offer a male goat, and the common person a female goat. We will in this meditation look at the sin offering as it applies to the priest.

The burnt offering atoned for sin but the emphasis was on a “willing offering.” Man’s will is involved in his atonement. Then the peace offering which is feasting on the truth of sins forgiven. The sin offering will deal with another aspect of the cross. It deals with the sins of ignorance and has nothing to do with the will of the man. You are compelled to offer this sacrifice.

THE OFFERING OF THE PRIEST

The priest was the most unlikely man to sin. You will notice that the Scriptures here acknowledge that one that is ANOINTED is liable to sin. This sacrifice begins with him. He is set aside for the priesthood. It is like a lot of people think about preachers. “Good night, they don’t have to work or do anything but read their Bibles and pray, they ought to be perfect!” Well, I’m not even going to respond to that. There is no one born of Adam who does not sin. This attitude on the part of preachers that say, “I don’t ever admit I’m wrong, it will destroy my ability to lead,” is for the birds. God’s sheep will follow an honest leader who knows he is not perfect and is willing to admit mistakes, sooner than one who has his head buried in the sand and brain-dead besides. The LORD deals with that issue to begin with. The priests had to offer a compulsory offering for themselves. God was saying, “before you can offer for others, you will have to offer for yourselves.” Let me say it again. There is no such thing as sinless spiritual leaders. Just stay around for a while and keep looking at the obituary and they will eventually show up there as a testimony that their claim was wrong and the Bible was right.

Then our text says, “If a soul shall sin through ignorance.” Do you mean a substitute has to die when I sin and I don’t even know I am sinning? That is exactly right. Everyone sins through ignorance and God holds them responsible. God MADE His people face the issue of sin by nature as well as by choice. He made them see that sin was so natural with them that they could do it and not even know it.

The priest had to select a bullock without a blemish. This means he had to look him over. He had to take a close look and determine that the bullock had no blemishes on it. It represented the Lamb of God who had no sin. Jesus is typified in the flawless bullock. Have you ever heard where we have spiritual leaders (scholars) who, after they have looked at Jesus, say that He is not virgin born (which means they are not acknowledging His sinlessness by birth). The bullock that had a birth defect could not be offered as a sin offering. The priests had to examine, find, and offer a bullock that was without blemish. No one is ever saved who does not EXAMINE JESUS and find Him to be the SINLESS Lamb.. The soul winner doesn’t need to work too fast to win a person to Christ. There are some things he HAS TO UNDERSTAND for Biblical faith to be exercised. If Jesus is not sinless to you by nature (the virgin birth) and in life, i.e., in all his actions, you do not have a Saviour that can save. You do not have the Bible Jesus and no other Jesus can save. The Bible Jesus is sinless by birth and in all His actions.

Not only did the priest have to select the bullock but he had to PUT HIS HAND ON THE BULLOCK’S HEAD. This is identifying with the sacrifice. The priest understood that he had to become one with the sacrifice. This is true when we are saved. We must examine Jesus and approve of Him as the spotless Lamb that takes away the sin of the world and ours in particular. We talk about Jesus being a personal Saviour. This is what it means. We are acknowledging that He died for us personally and therefore, we put our hands on His Head. We identify with Him in His sacrifice for us.

Then verse 4 says, “And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock’s head, and kill the bullock before the LORD.” The priest had to kill the spotless bullock himself. He must see that he is responsible for the death of the sacrifice. We are responsible for the death of Jesus. There are so many who take sin so lightly. They do not seem to think it is serious. Even the sins of ignorance are serious enough to take the life of Jesus. You say, “I’m just not a bad person.” I ask you a question. Do you think the person who put Jesus on the cross is a bad person? You say, “I can think of no person worse than the one who put Jesus on the cross.” Then line up beside of me and let’s take a good look in the mirror. We are the ones who put Him there.

Then after the bullock dies verse 6 says, “And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the vail of the sanctuary.” Then in verse 7 he is instructed where to put the blood. In other words it was not enough for the bullock to die. Its blood had to be applied. Jesus died for all men but all men are not saved. The blood must be applied by faith. The blood sprinkled on the ground gave the priest a place to stand on the ground of that shed blood. Is that where I am standing? My friend that is where I am standing. And I’m not going to move off the blood onto the water, or any other thing. I’m standing on the ground of the shed blood of Jesus. Then the blood was applied to the horns of the altar of sweet incense. The horns represent strength. This altar was the place of prayer where Israel worshipped and received her strength to live. There is no worship in prayer or strength for living apart from the application of the shed blood of Jesus. This is seen in the application of the blood to the “altar of sweet incense.”

Then in verse 7 they were to “pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” This altar speaks of the cross. There was blood at the bottom of the cross.. It was not spilled. Spilling could be accidental. It was poured out. It was a deliberate act on Jesus part. He is not only the Lamb that died, He is the Priest that offered.

Then in verses 8-12 the priest was to take the fat, the inwards, the kidneys, the part of the sacrifice that was the LORD’S and burn it on the altar. Then they took the skin along with everything else and took it to a clean place outside the camp and burned it on wood. It was totally consumed. There was nothing but ashes left. The ashes were a testimony to what is left of the sacrifice of the sin offering when it takes the place of the sinner. It is consumed in the fire of God’s judgment.

2 Cor. 5: 21 says, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” The sin offering was successful. God made Christ sin for us. He was consumed on the cross. It would be good to read Psalm 22 with this in mind to see some added insight into Christ’s suffering for us.

No part of this sacrifice was for food. There is an aspect of the death of Jesus where all we can do is to stand in awe and observe. He had to bear that cross alone. This is not the part where fellowship is possible. Heb. 1:3 says, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, WHEN HE HAD BY HIMSELF PURGED OUR SINS, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Caps mine for emphasis).

The song writer wrote: “Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.” We are free because the sin offering has been made.

May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White