Tell the Israelites: When a person inadvertently does wrong by violating any one of the LORD’s prohibitions… (Leviticus 4:1)
Traditionally, this fourth offering has been simply called a “sin” (Hebrew ḥaṭṭā´t) offering because it has to do with those who sin in various ways. However, as we have seen, the burnt offering was the fundamental sacrifice for the atonement for sins. When we look deeper into the description of this sacrifice, we see how it is unique in function, dealing with the effects of sin within the holy sphere of the congregation that demanded restitution and purification. We therefore refer to this sacrifice as the purification offering (following Wenham).
By nature, humans have a rather vague idea of sin, especially their own, and only then what they see on the surface, that is, what is obvious and undeniable, if they are fortunate enough even to see these. We may have all the good intentions in the world, and be as vigilant as can be, but our frail nature cannot contain the outflow of what springs from within, from the deep dark caverns beneath the surface. So many of our offenses are inadvertent and /or sins of omission. We are responsible for everything sinful about us, even those we are not aware of. The purification offering gave the ancient Hebrews a means by which they could pause and reflect on what is “leaking,” and how this affects their environment and those around them.
Space and time have a “memory” in the Hebrew world view; what sins are committed do not go away from the place where they are committed and do not dissolve in the passage of time (cf. Abel’s blood cries up from the ground, Gen. 4:10). This is because God fills all of space and time and is present everywhere and always. A holy God cannot tolerate sin anywhere at anytime. As insulting as it may seem, we humans cannot help but pollute the ground we stand on with our sins. It won’t go away on its own. The purification offering is designed to deal with this uncomfortable fact.
Worshippers brought the sacrificial animal before the altar, laid hands upon its head, confessed their sin (5:5), and killed it. With the burnt offering, we saw that the blood was splashed against the altar. With this offering, the blood was used in different ways depending on the worshippers’ station in life. If an anointed priest offered it, it was a bull and he must take some of the blood, enter the Holy Place, dip his finger in it, and sprinkle the veil of the Most Holy Place with it seven times. Then he must put some on the horns of the altar of incense, then pour out the rest at the foot of the altar. If the offering is for the congregation as a whole, the elders of the congregation must lay hands on the bull, and the priest must perform the same blood ritual, except the blood must be applied to the horns of the altar of sacrifice before the Tabernacle rather than the altar of incense within. For a tribal leader, the blood is simply applied to the horns of the altar of sacrifice, and like the others, the rest of the blood is poured out before the altar. The same is true for the sacrifice of an ordinary person, except the offering of a tribal leader is a male goat, while the offering for an ordinary person was a female goat. The poor offered doves or pigeons.
The purification offerings are much like the peace offering in that the same parts of the animals are offered to the Lord on the altar: the fat covering the intestines, the kidneys with its fat, and the long lobe of the liver. But the rest is taken outside the camp to be burned in a specific place where the ashes from the altar were placed (4:12), although we see later that the priests may eat of its flesh only within the court of the sanctuary, and then with its blood properly drained (6:24ff.).
This offering teaches us all about our wretched condition; although we can and must apply our will so as not to sin, we cannot help but sin without the full consent of our will, or out of plain weakness of body or mind. Then there are those sins of omission where we fail to act when we should. Sin is spiritual, working through the person, and contaminating the social and physical environment of the perpetrator. It is to the sacrificial beast this sin is transferred, and the atonement made by the sprinkling, smearing, and pouring of the blood. As we shall see later in Leviticus, the blood is the very life of the animal, and life is the most precious thing on earth.
The greater the man in the community, the greater is his responsibility, and the more far reaching is the contamination of his sin. For the “anointed” priest, which may only refer to the High Priest since he was especially anointed, the blood is applied deep into the holy space, on the veil seven times by sprinkling, smeared upon the horns of the incense altar, and on the Day of Atonement, actually smeared on the Mercy Seat (Leviticus 16). Since he is the mediator between God and the congregation, his sin contaminates the whole congregation.
We have seen a number of incidents already where the whole congregation was swept into sin through fear, cravings of the flesh, and idolatry (e.g. the complaining in the desert, and the golden calf). This is serious, demanding sprinkling on the interior veil, but not quite as serious as the priest where we see the blood applied to the altar of sacrifice outside of the Tabernacle, not the altar of incense within. The tribal leader is less serious yet, where the blood of a male goat is applied only to the horns of the sacrificial altar with a male goat, and the ordinary person still less serious, where the blood of a female goat is applied only to the horns of the sacrificial altar.
Jesus, both in His role of High Priest and as sacrificial victim, perfectly fulfills the typology of this ritual. The references of His sprinkled blood sanctifying us (I Peter 1:2), His shed blood cleansing us from our sins (I John 1:7), and even His crucifixion outside the city is so eloquently connected by the author of Hebrews to this purification sacrifice:
We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. The bodies of the animals whose blood the high priest brings into the sanctuary as a sin offering are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, to consecrate the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the reproach that he bore.
Hebrews 13:10ff.
The “altar” here would most readily be understood by the ancients as the altar of the Eucharist which could only be partaken by those “outside the camp,” that is, outside the Jewish community holding to its old traditions. Notice here that it is not the sacred space of the Tabernacle that is sanctified, but believers.
Takeaway: Our sins, even unintended or sins of omission, affects everyone and everything around us.
Questions:
- How do you process this idea that our sins pollute others and even our physical environment?
- The higher the position in the eyes of the public the greater responsibility for sin. Can you give examples of this?
Resources Used:
Wenham, The Book of Leviticus, pp. 84-102