Leviticus 4:1–2

It is a great help in understanding all these offerings and sacrifices to notice one thing. The expression "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying" is always the introduction of a new subject. The first three chapters — the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering — are all, in a way, one. They are all "sweet savour" offerings, which the sin offering in itself is not. You will not find that expression anywhere in those chapters after chapter 1:1. But when the subject of the sin offering is spoken of, in chapter 4, there you find the expression again, because it is a different character of offering.

If the burnt offering spoke of the perfect obedience in which we are accepted, and the peace offering of the effect of Christ's work in reconciliation and communion, then the sin offering declares the judgment of God. The sin-bearer must remove that judgment by coming under it. For judgment is not something God delights in; it is forced upon Him. It is His "strange work." And this, no doubt, is why the chapter begins as a new word from the Lord, with the usual phrase, "And the Lord spoke to Moses."

In the case of the sin offering, laying on of hands still identified the man with the victim. But the one who came, came not as a worshipper, but as a sinner. He was not clean for communion with the Lord; he had guilt upon him. He was not identified with the acceptability of the victim, though that became true for him later. Instead, the victim was identified with his guilt and unacceptableness, bore his sins, and was treated accordingly.

We now come to a class of offerings that stands well apart from those classed as "sweet savour." These are in no way voluntary. They are the specific requirement for actual sin. The burnt offering and peace offering both recognized, of course, the condition of men as sinners. Apart from this they had no meaning. But in no case are these offered for specific acts of sin. In their case we find, "If any one of you brings an offering to the Lord"; in those now before us, "If anyone sins, he shall bring his offering."

Before the law was given, we read of no distinction between a burnt offering and a sin offering. But God then gave Moses that detailed ritual, often called by the lawgiver's own name. After that, no one in Israel would have dared to follow the example of Job and offer a burnt offering for people who had sinned. The sole authority for this change from earlier practice was the Lord's revelation to Moses.

Here the Lord Jesus is not shown to us as a sacrifice of a sweet savour to God. Instead we have Him pictured as bearing our sins in His own body — the sin offering, with the Lord bruising Him on our account.

As we have noticed before in these types, God begins from His own side of the matter and works down to us. So we start with the burnt offering and come last to the offerings for sin and trespass. On our side of the matter, we have to begin with the sin offering. Nothing is right, nor can we advance further, until our sins with all their guilt are settled.

This is all the more striking, because from Leviticus 4 we find completely different language. We come to another kind of offering there... "If anyone sins," it is written, "in any of the LORD's commandments, then let him bring for his sin" this or that. This was an absolute requirement. The Israelite was left no choice. He had to do it, and every detail was laid down. A person could not simply bring what he liked.

In Leviticus 4 the circumstances of the sin decided whether the offender could use the Lord's gracious provision. The Lord provided there only for sins against His commandments about things that ought not to be done, and only when someone did them by inadvertence, or in error. That is what sh'gagah means, rather than ignorance... In each case the commandment the person had broken was clear. So nothing less than the shedding of blood could meet what the case needed.

God did not leave it to man to define the nature of his act, or the occasion when he should bring offerings of this kind. Man would have ordered such sacrifices for gross sins. He would have thought them needless when the offender could plead error or ignorance as an excuse. God acted in just the opposite way. For deliberate, defiant sins God provided no sacrifice, and the sinner had nothing but death to face (Num. 15)... Man tends to measure his guilt by the kind of act he did, whether on purpose or knowingly, and by the results that may follow from it. God measures it by what He is in Himself, who is light as well as love.

First, the sin in view is against "any of the LORD's commandments." As noted before, "sin is not counted where there is no law" (Rom. 5:13). We have now reached the time when God has given the law, with its many detailed commandments. So when someone broke any of these commandments, the sin was at once put to his account, and this offering was set up to make atonement for the sinner.

The sins in view when this offering was set up were those committed "through ignorance." In this we see the compassion of our God shining out. He knew well the weakness and ignorance and forgetfulness that mark poor, fallen humanity, and He made this provision.

In sins of error or inadvertence, clearly man's will was not at work, though the evil of his nature showed itself. So God could not pass such acts over, and He provided a sacrifice. But how deeply rooted evil must be in man, if he can sin against God without meaning to. And how hateful our sins must be to God, since nothing less than the atoning death of the Lord Jesus can put them away from before Him.

Nothing shows man's inability to deal with sin more strongly than the very existence of a "sin of ignorance." How could he deal with what he does not know? How could he get rid of what has never even come within his conscience? Impossible. Man's ignorance of sin proves his total inability to put it away. He is as powerless as he is ignorant.

True, we might be doing such things "through ignorance," but that could not change the matter before God, because He knows everything. So there would be constant fear, doubt, and unease. God meets all of this, because sin has been atoned for — not according to our "ignorance," but according to His knowledge. The assurance of this gives great rest to the heart and conscience. All God's claims have been answered by His own work.