And If There Are Any Animals Left...

Leviticus 4- 5:13

Sin offerings aplenty in this section. God spells out several contingencies regarding his people and sin.

First- if the priest sins - bringing guilt on the people- he brings a young bull to be sacrificed. He is to slaughter it as the other sacrifices, take the blood into of the tent of meeting, put his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of it in front of the curtain of the sanctuary seven times. Then some blood goes on the horns on the altar of fragrant incense. The rest of the blood gets dumped in front of the altar of burnt offering over at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Then the fat gets stripped off as before and gets burned on the altar, the rest of the bull gets taken outside of the camp, to somewhere ceremonially clean and burned in a woodfire on an ash heap.

It's interesting that the sin of the priest can bring guilt on the people. Is this if they instruct them incorrectly and cause them to do things God disapproves of? Does this mean that these priests are held to a higher standard? Does this mean that the priests had to answer to the people for his actions on a regular basis... hey Aaron, watch your step- your sin makes me guilty too...

Second, if the whole community sins they bring a young bull before the tent of meeting. The elders lay their hands on the bull's head and these same steps are taken. Slaughter, sprinkling, fat burning, flesh disposing.

What kind of sin involves the whole community? A lynching? The golden calf? How does an entire community seek forgiveness as a unit. It's certainly an interesting concept, but pragmatically it seems a little difficult to come to fruition.

Third, if a leader sins, he brings a defect-free goat, he slaughters it, blood goes on the horns, and the fat gets burned. These actions are similar to the last two- but just a little less involved. Is God making a statement about the severity of this sin compared to others? Is Moses just getting lazy or bored relaying detail?

Fourth, if a member of the community sins, he brings a lamb or female goat and follows the same pattern as the leader.

In all instances, it is stressed that these are for sins committed unknowingly. This unknowing sin idea is interesting. How often is sin an instance of a lack of knowledge? Certainly those things do exist- but it seems that sin is more often an act of rebellion. I know better, but I do it anyway. Not even slaughtering an animal seems to help in those instances.

Perhaps in a culture that depends on oral tradition, surely highly illiterate, without much written or accessible, the unknown sin would have been more common. But there's something odd to me about taking someone without general knowledge of God's will and penalizing their error with intricate sacrifice instructions. It all seems a bit harsh.

The last bit seems to deal with miscellaneous sin contexts. For one, if a public charge is made, and you have information about it and keep it to yourself, you are guilty.

My first thought is that this is a good way to get people to turn on each other- and to not share their foibles and weaknesses. But perhaps this is an attempt to prevent the wrong person from being condemned.

If you touch something unclean- carcasses of unclean wild animals, farm animals or animals that crawl on the ground- you are guilty. So if your animal dies, let it rot where it is, because touching it is a sin? Well the cow died, I guess we have to move so we don't touch it accidentally.

If you accidentally touch human uncleanness you are guilty.

If you thoughtlessly take an oath- good or evil...guilty. It doesn't say if you fail to fulfill it- just taking a flippant oath is sin. But maybe the implication is that if you take it flippantly, you won't fulfill it.

If you do any of these things, you have to confess it and bring a female goat or lamb to the priest.

There are provisions made for the poor. If you can't afford to bring a goat or lamb- you can bring two doves or young pigeons. The first is a sin offering, the priest wrings its neck without severing it, sprinkles some blood on the side of the altar and drains the rest. The other is for a burnt offering. Once this happens the sinner is forgiven.

If the birds are out of the sinner's price range, he can bring two quarts of flour or so for a sin offering. Since it is a sin offering, there is to be no oil or incense mixed in. The priest takes a handful of it and puts it on top of another offering and burns it. The rest of the flour becomes the property of the priest.

This strikes me as an intense system to live in. I can see where people would develop severe obsessive compulsiveness. I would live in a constant state of paranoia that I'd sinned ( I mean I pretty much do in our grace based system , I can't imagine having to go through this process- I wouldn't do anything all day besides kill animals).

Ultimately, even in this burdensome system, forgiveness exists. It comes with a lot of work, but it does come. And I really like the notion that forgiveness is not only for the rich- provision is made for the poor, too.

Ultimately, I'd never be rich enough to survive as an Israelite. The ability to live day-to-day in such an environment eludes me.

And to realize that Jesus' gift covers all of these sacrifices makes our era of grace even more amazing.