Leviticus · chapter 4 of 27
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Leviticus 4 teaches the sin offering for wrongs committed unintentionally. The sacrifice varies with who sinned: a bull for the anointed priest and for the whole congregation, a male goat for a leader, and a female goat or lamb for an ordinary person. In every case the blood is applied according to the seriousness of the case, and the text promises forgiveness.
The first three chapters describe voluntary offerings. With chapter 4 the book moves to required offerings: those that atone for sin. Here we see that sin defiles even when it is not committed on purpose, and that the Lord provides a path of forgiveness for every member of the people, from the priest to the ordinary person.
The Lord tells Moses what to do when someone sins unintentionally against any of his commandments. If the anointed priest sins, he brings a bull without blemish, lays his hand on its head and slaughters it. He takes some of the blood into the tent, sprinkles it seven times before the veil, puts some on the horns of the altar of incense and pours out the rest at the base of the altar of burnt offering. The fat is burned on the altar, and the rest of the animal is burned outside the camp in a clean place.
If the whole congregation of Israel sins without realizing it, the elders lay their hands on the head of a bull and the same procedure follows. If a leader sins, he brings a male goat without blemish, and the blood goes on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. If an ordinary person sins, he brings a female goat or a female lamb without blemish, with the same ritual.
The chapter repeats a refrain: the priest shall make atonement and the person shall be forgiven. In every case the sinner has a concrete way to be restored.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The text opens by speaking of sin committed unintentionally against the Lord's commandments. God recognizes that a person can sin without realizing it and still carry guilt that needs atonement. Sin is not only what we decide, but also what we do without thinking.
After the bull is offered, the priest makes atonement for the congregation and the text declares that they shall be forgiven. This is the central promise of the chapter: there is a way to be made clean, and whoever follows it receives forgiveness from God.
For an ordinary person the offering ends the same way: the priest makes atonement for the sin and that person is forgiven. God's forgiveness reaches an ordinary Israelite as surely as a priest, even though the cost of the offering differs.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Sin committed unintentionally against any of the Lord's commandments. — Leviticus 4:2
Answer: A bull without blemish. — Leviticus 4:3
Answer: Seven times. — Leviticus 4:6
Answer: Outside the camp, in a clean place. — Leviticus 4:12
Answer: A male goat without blemish. — Leviticus 4:22-23
Answer: A female goat without blemish or a female lamb without blemish. — Leviticus 4:27-28
Leviticus 4 teaches us to take sin seriously even when there was no bad intent. It is easy to think that what we do by carelessness does not count, but God invites us to examine ourselves. In a small group you can talk about areas where we hurt others or God by neglect and how to ask forgiveness without excuses.
It also shows that forgiveness is available to everyone, from the leader to the simplest person. Today we do not offer animals: the letter to the Hebrews teaches that Christ, the perfect high priest, offered himself once to take away sin. We can confess with confidence because atonement has already been made.
Leviticus 4 teaches that sin, even unintentional sin, requires atonement and that God provides the way of forgiveness for all. Leviticus 5 continues with specific cases, such as staying silent when called to testify or touching something unclean, and with the guilt offering.
When the sin was the priest's or the whole congregation's, the body of the animal was burned outside the camp. The letter to the Hebrews recalls this and connects that place with Jesus, who suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.
The burnt offering expresses surrender and is burned whole, while the sin offering deals specifically with the guilt of a wrong and regulates the use of the blood. In the sin offering the blood goes closer to the sanctuary the more serious or communal the sin.