Leviticus 4:12
All the rest of the bull—he must take outside the camp to a place ceremonially clean, where the ashes are thrown, and burn it there in a wood fire on the ash heap. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Leviticus 4:1-35
The fourth offering prescribed in Leviticus is the Sin Offering. The term sin offering is perhaps misleading. It is probably more accurate to think of the sin offering as a purification offering. It could be performed because someone had either committed a sin or due to ceremonial uncleanness.
It’s also a bit incorrect that this offering was only for people who committed a sin unintentionally. Not everyone that sins unintentionally are seeking after God. This offering is not for those who are acting in rebellion toward God. This offering was for people who recognize what they had done was a violation against God. It was not for those who knew they were breaking God’s law but don’t care.
This chapter gives for occasions for when this offering was intended:
- When the priest sins
- When the whole congregation sins
- When a leader sins
- When a common Israelite sins
There are slight variations in the Sin Offering depending upon who commits the sin. My attention is drawn to the section that describes the offering required when the priest sins. God tells Moses, “If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people” (Lev 4:3). If the priest sinned, he would bring guilt on all the Israelites. This is interesting not so much in that the priest’s sin would separate the entire community from God. But think of the contrast. It seems in the same way, a perfect priest could also bring salvation on all the people.
Jesus was that perfect priest. Jesus brought forgiveness for all the people through his sacrifice in the same way that a mortal priest could bring guilt on all the people through their sin. “Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself” (Heb 7:26-27).
The other part of this Scripture that is interesting to me is that most of the animal was to be taken outside the camp and burned. The priest was to remove the fat from the bull and burn it on the altar of burnt offering. But then the rest of the animal was to be taken outside the camp and burned.
The author of Hebrews speaks to this part, “The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Heb 13:11-14).
Jesus suffered and died on the cross outside the city walls in order to make us holy in accordance with the instructions for the Sin Offering. Paul makes the same point pointing to Jesus as the fulfillment of the sin offering, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).
Knowing this, what should our response be? Fortunately, the author of Hebrews also tells us, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb 13:15-16).
We are to make a sacrifice of praise to God with the fruit of our lips. By doing good and sharing what we have, we are making sacrifices that are pleasing to God. Because of the sacrifice of Christ, we are made holy. Our response is that we are to give sacrifices of praise and do good to others and be unselfish towards them.
Christ in the Old Testament 
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