Leviticus Lessons: Conclusion

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope that you all are doing well on this fine Friday.  On November 18, 2009, I started this series on Leviticus Lessons touching on the area of offerings.  It has been a while since our last Leviticus Lesson, but I am finally sitting down to finish out the series just over 2 months later.  I have been determined to get this done as I believe the lessons have information the enemy doesn't want you to know.

The last time we talked about the 5th offering, which was the Tresspass Offering. Today, I will briefly touch on one more special type of offering and we will wrap things up with some other points of interests.

The Consecration Offering was a part of the process to ordain Priests.  Actually, the description and direction was given by God in Exodus 29. 

"This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect. - Exodus 29:1

The offering was carried out by Moses for Aaron and his son's in Leviticus 8.  You can find more information on the following two links:

• Exodus 29 - The Consecration of the Priests
• The Priests

Those two sites go into detail about the consecration and the offering.  I wanted to make mention of this offering, because it is in Leviticus 7:37, but it is kind of thrown in there.  It made me scratch my head in confusion for a moment as all the other offerings were described, but that one wasn't.

God took a lot of time to explain in detail the different offerings because He wanted them to get it right.  Remember, the offerings were satisfactory, but did not solve the ultimate problem.  No matter how much the people tried to make atonement for their sins, they still had to perform an offering every time a sin or tresspass was committed.  An offering was required to givve God thanks and to commune with Him, BUT....(I know that you have to know where this is going!)

JESUS!  Jesus became the ultimate sacrifical lamb. Christ...

1. nullified Gods wrath against us (Burnt Offering)
2. is a reminder of how God brought them out of bondage (Meat Offering)
3. gave access to God in order that we may give to the Father freely (Peace Offering)
4. made atonement for our sins (Sin & Tresspass Offerings)

It is more than just a Sunday morning sermon, but Jesus did do it. You've always heard that He came and died for our sins and to the fulfill the law. Christ came so that He can die that we might live.  You've all heard it before but I hope now you see how it all ties together. 

Be easy fam and have a great weekend!

Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:     http://toinebo.blogger.com

Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." - 2 Samuel 22:33

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Leviticus Lessons: Offerings VI

Good Morning Fam,

How is everyone doing today?  I hope very well!  We are nearing the end of our study on offerings from Leviticus.  I will not delay so lets dive into the Trespass Offering, which as you will discover is quite similar to the Sin Offering.  The scriptures from which we will be working are Leviticus 5:14-19 and 6:1-7.

If you recall last week, we talked about the Sin Offering as one where no restitution or repayment was required.  Well if you guessed correctly, the Trespass (or Guilt) offering is the one where a fine or repayment is required.  The two are so similar in that "the Trespass Offering and the Sin Offering have some degree of overlap, where 'Sin' might be considered to be our sinful nature and 'Trespass' as a sinful deed, a wrongdoing, a trespass."¹

Lev. 5:14-19 discusses those unintentional sins against the Holy Things of the Lord and this is where it overlaps with the sin offering.  The Lord's instruction directs the person to bring forth "a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value in silver, according to the sanctuary shekel" and "[h]e must make restitution for what he has failed to do in regard to the holy things, add a fifth of the value to that and give it all to the priest, who will make atonement for him with the ram as a guilt offering, and he will be forgiven." (see Lev. 5:15-16). 

Lev. 6:1-7 talks about what happens to someone who intentionally or knowingly sins.  I encourage you to read it at your leisure, but if I had to paraphrase this is what I would say - these verses discuss how to make atonement for a person sinning by violating God's law against people and/or their possessions. With that being said, you are liable for the repayment of that possession and/or in a monetary value.  In the same way, the sinner must bring a ram without defect and of the correct value so that the priest can make atonement for them.

The Trespass Offering is pretty straight forward, but the key to understand is that its focus is on the sinner who knowingly did wrong.  While there is some overlap with the sin offering, the focus is more so on the deed rather than the sinful nature.  At the end of the day, a sin is a sin is a sin and I guess that's why they are so lumped together in the Bible.

Be blessed gang and have a good one.

~Antoine


¹"Trespassing Offering". The Offerings (Leviticus Chapters 1 to 7).

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Leviticus Lessons: Offerings V

Hello Fam,

I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! It has been a while since I have did a WFTD, but the show must always move forward. My family and I have definitely gone through some challenges in 2009, but now it is 2010 and our eyes are always focused on the Lord!

In keeping with the same theme, we will continue with Leviticus Lessons about Offerings. Last time, we talked about the Peace Offering.  Today, we will be talking about the Sin Offering (see Lev 4; 5:1-13; 6:24-30) which is different than the previously discussed offerings.  Simply put, the sin offering was a way to ask God to forgive you for your sin, but lets go into some details.

The Reason

The reason for the sin offering was for the atonement of the people.  TheFreeDictionary.com defines atonement as "[a]mends or reparation made for an injury or wrong".  In looking at all of Leviticus 4 and 5:1-13, you will notice that blood is the key ingredient in which God requires to be burnt. The Burnt, Meat, and Peace Offerings were all ones that were voluntary and provided a sweet-savory aroma for the Lord.  The Sin and Tresspass (which we'll discuss the next time) Offerings did no such thing.

He is merciful and will forgive based on Christ's sacrifice, which these offerings represent, but even though He accepts the offerings, He takes no satisfaction in sin.¹

Therefore, there would have been no communion with God on that occasion.  At least in this case, "[n]o restitution was necessary because of the nature of the sin."²


Those Affected

It did not matter who you were as all were required to provide a sacrifice for a sin offering if one was required.  Also, it did not matter if you voluntarily or involuntarily committed it.  You were still held accountable for your actions.  Even the priests had to perform a sin offering if they sinned.

It has been wisely said that if the teacher sins he teaches sin, therefore high position means high responsibility.³

The Priests instructions for atonement were given in Leviticus 4:1-12.  Then in the rest of Chapter 4, the other leaders, the community, and the individual members of the community had instructions on how to provide a Sin Offering.   In Leviticus 4:13, it says:

If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands, even though the community is unaware of the matter, they are guilty.

The members of the community and the leaders were held to the same standard.  If they did not know of a sin, they were still guilty (see Lev. 4:22;27).  When you look at Leviticus 5:1-13, you will find that it did not matter if you knew of your sin or were totally oblivious - you were still guilty.


The Offering Material

In the other offerings, I did mention the types of animals used and I will here as well.  The Priests and the community were to provide a young male bull without defect for their sin offering.  For the leaders, they were to bring a male goat without defect.  Then when we get down to the individual members of the community (who were not leaders) we find that they were to use either a FEMALE goat or lamb without blemish.

This gives us a slight twist on things. For the first time during an offering, we see that God allows the use of female animals for sacrificial offering.

The offering of the leader or ruler was male, a symbolising their position of authority, whereas the member of the congregation who had no authority brought a female goat. In each case the sacrifice had to be perfect, that is without defect or blemish.³

Looking in verses 1-13 of chapter 5, we see that God does provide other ways for sacrifice for those who could not provide a goat or lamb or dove or pigeon.  He made it so everyone could say, "God, I'm sorry".


The very last thing that I want to point out about the Sin Offering is in Leviticus 6:26-28.  It says:

(26) The priest who offers it shall eat it; it is to be eaten in a holy place, in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. (27) Whatever touches any of the flesh will become holy, and if any of the blood is spattered on a garment, you must wash it in a holy place. (28) The clay pot the meat is cooked in must be broken; but if it is cooked in a bronze pot, the pot is to be scoured and rinsed with water.

Isn't it amazing that even during an offering that God did not find pleasing, He still found it not robbery to make the meat that was eaten Holy!  I mean this says that whatever touched the sacrificial flesh would become holy.  The Priests were able to partake in the meat that was considered Holy.  The same animal that was alive the day before was just a regular unblemished animal.  The next day it is Holy.  Imagine what had happened if some of that meat had escaped out onto the black market - everybody would have had a piece of holiness *lol*.

Be blessed family and have a great rest of the week.

~Antoine


¹ Ritenbaugh, John W. "The Offerings of Leviticus (Part Six): The Sin Offering". Church of the Great God. August 2003.

² The Sacrificial Offerings of Leviticus chapters 1-7.

³ "The Sin Offering". Watton on the Web.

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