Leviticus 1 - 7 (Part 1)

Leviticus — Steve Gregg

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Leviticus 1 - 7 (Part 2)

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Leviticus 1 - 7 (Part 1)

LeviticusSteve Gregg

Steve Gregg delves into the spiritual significance and lessons we can learn from the first seven chapters of Leviticus. He explains the different types of sacrifices, such as the burnt offering and sin offering, and their symbolism in the removal of guilt for sins committed. The consecration of offerings and ritual procedures are explained in detail, as well as the importance of confessing one's sins and turning to God for forgiveness.

Transcript

I think the most challenging part of Leviticus to teach has always, for me, been the first seven chapters. One thing good about them is we can take them all at once and get a rather large block of material in one session. Or actually, two.

Because what we have here are the regulations for various offerings that would be offered at the tabernacle, and what they consisted of, and under what circumstances they were offered, and what the procedure was. There were five different offerings, and the first seven chapters focus entirely on the details of them. And the reason I said they can take two sessions, and I think we should, is that it's a little bit like studying the tabernacle.

There's two things to take into consideration. One is just the facts, just the description. It's challenging enough just to kind of get the picture in our heads of what's being described.

And then, of course, there's the question of the spiritual interpretation, or the significance of it, to the Christian. Because as Christians studying the Old Testament, we want to know what the application is to us. Otherwise, it's not clear why we're even studying it.

So when we were talking about the tabernacle, I spent some time just describing the tabernacle from the descriptions in the book of Exodus. And then we spent time talking about the spiritual meanings of it. I want to do the same thing with these offerings, so that in this lecture, I just want to make sure we go through and understand really what's going on, what it is they're doing, as much as we can.

And then I want to have a separate lecture, I imagine, to talk about, unless we get through this faster than I expect, to talk about the spiritual significance and lessons for us today from it. Now, I don't know that it's going to be necessary to read every verse, because, as you know, I know you've read this recently, there's a lot of repetition. Essentially, there are five different kinds of offerings.

The first one is called the burnt offering. All of chapter one talks about the burnt offering. And then you have what's referred to as the grain offering.

In the King James Version, this was called the meat offering for some reason, but meat was an old English word for food. And it's really talking about grain, flour and bread and cakes and things like that. Things made with grain.

That's chapter two. Chapter three has another kind of offering, what's called the peace offering. Some people call it the fellowship offering, but peace offering is apparently the proper word for it.

In chapter four, the whole chapter plus part of chapter five, we have the fourth of these offerings, and that is the sin offering. That's chapter four, verse one, up through chapter five, verse 13. And then from that point, which is chapter five, verse 14, through the end of chapter five and the first part of chapter six up to chapter six, verse seven, we have the laws about what's called the trespass offering.

Most modern translations translate it as the guilt offering. King James and the New King James translate it as the trespass offering. So we've got the burnt offerings.

We've got the grain offerings. We've got the peace offerings, the sin offering and the trespass offering or guilt offering. Then in the remainder of chapter six and seven, there's more on these offerings, but not necessarily entirely in the same order.

I guess they are pretty much except for the peace offering is out of order. You've got in chapter six, verses eight through 13, more on the burnt offering. The first of those that was in chapter one, then in chapter six, verses 14 through 23, we have more on the grain offering, which was what chapter two was about.

Then in chapter six, verses 24 through 30, we have more on the sin offering. Then chapter seven, verse one through pretty much seven is more on the trespass offering. And then the peace offerings are discussed also further in chapter seven, verses 11 through 21.

And then the remainder of chapter seven talks about not eating fat, not eating blood and what portions the priests get to eat of these sacrifices. Now, you might wonder, why do we go through these five offerings in chapters one, two, three, four, five and part of six and then go over it again? Well, the main difference is that in the first time they are addressed, these things are addressed to the people and talk about what the people are supposed to do. It says in verse two of chapter one, speak to the children of Israel and say to them.

And that's pretty much what is communicated to the people about their obligations with reference to these five offerings. But when you come to chapter six, verse eight, after we've gone through all five of those offerings and what was to be told to the people, we now have in chapter eight and nine, excuse me, verses eight and nine of chapter six. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, command Aaron and his sons saying.

And so the second time it goes through them, it's addressed to the priests and has to do with the special functions of the priests in more detail and also focusing more on what portions the priests get to eat of the sacrifices. So we go through these twice. It's frankly, it's challenging enough going through them the first time and then to finally have to go through them again, it's not not really exciting.

But the first time it talks about the people and what they must do. Although it also talks about the priesthood somewhat in that section as well. But then the other time it talks about all this.

It's talking to the priests about the particular of their duties. Now, let me read some of this and then I will summarize and try to make observations again. And I'm not going at this point to try to bring out the spiritual meaning.

Or the Christian lessons from these offerings. It'll be sufficient if we just get through the bare facts in this one session. Now, the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when any one of you brings an offering to Yahweh, you should bring your offering of the livestock, of the herd and of the flock.

Now, then it goes into the specific different kinds. And before I talk about the burnt offering, which is introduced in verse three, I would just point this out that it says here Yahweh spoke to Moses from the tabernacle. Previously, all of God's communication with Moses had been from the mountain.

Moses had gone up into the smoking, burning mountaintop and, you know, where there were thunderings and lightnings and the unapproachable God. The people couldn't get near. They couldn't touch the mountain or else they'd be killed.

That's where God spoke from before. But now God has moved into town, as it were. He's moved in among the people.

He's in the camp. The tribes of Israel actually encamp around the tabernacle and God's right in their midst. And the God who is way up there in the mountain, who is so inaccessible and so frightening, is now close by.

And it's from there that he now speaks to Moses, apparently, probably from above the mercy seat. Now, whether Moses actually went into the Holy of Holies or stood outside the Holy of Holies and listened through the veil as God spoke from from the mercy seat, I don't know. But God had said back in Exodus that it would be from the mercy seat that he would speak to Moses.

In chapter 25 of Exodus and verse 22. Exodus 25, 22, it says in there, meaning above the mercy seat, I will meet with you and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat from between the two cherubim. So God was speaking from the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies.

Moses may have been outside by the altar of incense, listening to God's voice as it came through the veil into the other compartment. Or Moses may have been the one man who was given a total total path to go into the Holy of Holies any time. True, the high priest was only allowed to go in there once a year as part of the regular ritual.

But Moses definitely had a very separate kind of standing in Israel. We know from the book of Numbers that God said, if I raised up a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, I'll speak to him through a vision or a dream or whatever. But he says, my servant, Moses, is not so.

I'm going to speak to him mouth to mouth, face to face. The form of the Lord, he will see. And therefore, Moses had perhaps a special disposition that he might have been able to just go on in to the Holy of Holies and meet with God.

I really can't say. But we do know that he stood even above Aaron in terms of privilege. After all, when it came to the consecrating of Aaron and his sons, it was Moses that did the sacrifices.

So Moses was not a priest after Aaron and his sons were consecrated. Moses was not a priest, but he did the priestly things in ministering even to Aaron and his sons. And so it's possible that the regular rules didn't apply to Moses.

And so I don't know where Moses was standing, but we know where God was standing. And God was standing above the mercy seat in the in the Holy of Holies, in the tabernacle, in the midst of the camp rather than aloof on the mountain as before. Now he begins to enumerate different kinds of sacrifices.

Verse three, if his offering is a burnt off a sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish. This would be a bull, a herd of cattle. Let it be a male without blemish.

He shall offer it to his of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before Yahweh. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He shall kill the bull before the Lord.

And the priest, Aaron's son, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces. The sons of Aaron, the priest shall put fire on the altar and lay wood in order on the fire.

Then the priest, Aaron's son, shall lay the parts, the head and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. But he shall wash its entrails and legs with water and the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. So this animal is burned up completely except for the skin.

The skin was taken off first and the priests would always get the skin of the animal, which I'm sure they would tan and they'd probably sell it for commercial purposes or use it for whatever you use leather for. In any case, the hide of the animal belonged to the priest. The rest of it was burned up entirely, bones, innards, head, every part of it burned up.

That was not true of most of the sacrifices, but that was the thing that distinguished a whole burnt offering. And as you can see, it could be a bull, although it goes and gives other provisions. If perhaps someone doesn't have enough money to offer a bull, but they still want to offer a whole burnt offering to the Lord, they could offer a sheep or a goat and therefore, verse 10 says, if his offering is of the flock of the sheep or the goats as a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish, he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord, and the priest's errant son shall sprinkle its blood all around on the altar, and he shall cut it into its pieces with its head and its fat, and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire on the altar.

But he shall wash the entrails and the legs with water, and the priest shall bring it all and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. And there's one other option, perhaps the person was even too poor to bring a lamb or a goat, in which case they could bring a couple of birds if they wish, pigeons or turtledoves.

If the burnt sacrifice of his offering to the Lord is of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or young pigeons. The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off its head and burn it on the altar. Its blood shall be drained out at the side of the altar, and he shall remove its crop and its feathers and cast it beside the altar on the east side into the place for ashes.

Then he shall split it at its wings, but shall not divide it completely, and the priest shall burn it on the altar on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. OK, so we can have a bull or we can have a male goat or lamb or we can have birds.

By the way, it doesn't say the birds have to be male, probably because the average person wouldn't know how to tell. You know, I mean, if you might be hard enough just to catch a couple of pigeons and to try to figure out if they're male or not, would be beyond the abilities of the average person, probably. So the birds, they don't have to be male.

They just have to be birds. And they are the concession made to the poorest people. We know that in chapter 12 of Leviticus, it is said that a woman after she has a child has a period of purification.

At the end of which, she has to go and offer a burnt offering and sin offering to the Lord. And it was supposed to be a lamb or a goat, but it could be birds if they are poor. And we read in the New Testament that when Jesus was born, Mary went to offer these normal offerings that are required in Leviticus chapter 12 after her purification, after having the child.

And it says that she offered the birds, which is one of the ways we know that Jesus was born to an economically depressed family. They didn't have enough money to offer the lamb or the goat, which they would be required to if they could. But they were a poor family and Jesus was raised in a poor family.

They used the birds. Now, let me summarize this procedure we just read. The burnt sacrifice would be offered on a variety of occasions.

First of all, it could be offered anytime. It's a free will offering. People could bring an offering anytime they wanted to do so.

It probably represented someone's total consecration to God. The fact that it was all burned up, no part was eaten, it just all went up in smoke as a sweet smell to the Lord. It's sort of like someone's total consecration of their whole self to God in all likelihood is what they saw it as.

And it was also offered on different other regular occasions. In addition to whenever people wanted to bring one, there was what was called the continual burnt offering, which the priest offered every morning and every night at the tabernacle. It was one lamb in the morning and one lamb each night, every day, with the exception of Sabbath.

They offered two lambs in the morning and two lambs at night. Now, these continual burnt offerings were of this sort that we just read about. And they represented, well, they were the way that the priest made atonement for Israel on a daily basis.

They also had the day of atonement once a year where they had this kind of offerings as well. But they had the continual daily offerings. And that was one occasion or one way in which these burnt offerings were offered.

You've got the day of atonement or Yom Kippur. Also the other festivals, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Tabernacles or the In-Gathering. There were burnt offerings offered on those occasions too.

Also we find in Leviticus and in Numbers that they were required as part of the ritual of cleansing a leper or, as I said, of a woman finishing her period of purification after childbirth or in the case of a Nazirite vow, at the end of a Nazirite vow someone would offer a burnt offering. These were some of the occasions that this particular offering would be given. So there were prescribed times of the day and year that they were always offered.

There were the special circumstances of a woman having a child or a person being, a leper being cleansed or some other situation like a Nazirite vow or people could bring one in and they just wanted to. That's when this was offered. Now in all of the sacrifices that we read about there are two essential parts.

There's the part that the worshipper does. That's the guy who brings the sacrifice to the priest. And then there's the part that the priest does.

And each of these has three parts. The worshipper has three things he does. One is he presents the animal at the door of the tabernacle.

Probably that means at the gate of the outer court because that's where he would come to encounter the bronze altar. That's where it would be offered. So the person presents the animal first.

Then he puts his hand on the animal which speaks of identification with the animal and no doubt transference of demerits to the animal so it dies in its place. And then he, not the priest, but the worshipper kills the animal. So that's what the first part is.

The man who brings the sacrifice presents it, he lays a hand on it and then he kills it. Then the priest takes over. And there's kind of three parts of what the priest does.

There's what we call the manipulation of the blood, what they do with the blood. It's different in the different cases of the sacrifices. In this case, the priest simply sprinkles the blood on the altar and that's all he does.

He takes some of the blood and just sprinkles it on the altar. In other sacrifices he does something else with the blood sometimes. But manipulation of the blood is the first thing the priest does.

The second thing is he burns parts of the animal on the altar. In this case almost the entire animal, just lacking the skin. In other cases of different sacrifices, sometimes only parts of the animal are burned on the altar.

And in this case, prior to burning the whole animal on the altar, it is skinned, it is dismembered. Its pieces are laid on the altar in a certain way. And its legs and its innards, its inward parts, its entrails, are washed with water before they're put on the altar.

This is, I'm sure, for symbolic reasons. But I just make note of it now. We'll talk about the possible symbolism of it in another lecture.

So this is the procedure. The priest sprinkles the blood. He skins the animal, cuts it to pieces, washes the legs and the entrails, and burns it all on the altar.

Now the third part of the priest's duty is the part where there's the disposition of the rest of the carcass. In this case there is no rest of the carcass, there's only the skin. And the priest gets that.

In the case of other sacrifices, only part of the animal is burned on the altar. And that leaves other parts of the animal to either be eaten by the priest or the worshipper or something. So the priest's duties always have these three parts.

The manipulation of the blood, the presentation of something on the altar to be burned, and then the disposition of whatever is left over of the animal. And in this case we can see there's not anything left over but the skin. Now in this case the procedure is the same with a bull or with a lamb or a goat.

They have to be male, they have to be without blemish. But that's about it. If there's birds, it's a little different.

There's not as much blood to deal with. The bird has its head ringed off. This time the priest does the killing.

The priest kills the bird, not the man who brings it. And its head is thrown into the altar and burned. And then it's, I guess it says it's cropped and it's feathered.

I'm not sure what's being referred to as it's cropped. Maybe it's skinned, feathers come off that way, or plucked, I don't know. But the feathers are put aside into an ash heap.

And then the bird is split open but not torn all the way in two. It's torn open between the wings but it's not totally separated into separate parts. And then it's burned.

We are told at the end of this that this whole process is offered as a sweet aroma to the Lord. What is sweet to the Lord, of course, is the fact that somebody has it in their heart to offer a sacrifice. And it's not that God has some kind of olfactory glands that are pleased by the smell of a barbecue.

It's rather a symbolism of it that makes it pleasing to the Lord. But you notice that the skin of the animal or the feathers of the bird are not included among things burned. Because if anyone's ever smelled burning hair or burning feathers, you know that that would not be a sweet smelling aroma.

It'd be unpleasant for the priest and the worshipper to smell. But otherwise, without those parts, it would be a very pleasant smell both to the priest and to the worshipper who brought it. Now, chapter 2, we have the grain offering.

When anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord, his offering should be a fine flour and he should pour oil on it and put frankincense on it. He should bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests, one of whom shall take from it his handful of fine flour and oil with all the frankincense. And the priest shall burn it as a memorial on the altar, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

The rest of the grain offering shall be Aaron's and his sons. It is the most holy offering of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. Now, the grain offering, of course, is not a blood sacrifice at all.

Most commentators believe that it was usually offered along with blood sacrifices. It's not known whether it was offered by itself ever. It may have been.

There may have been times when people just brought a grain offering. And, of course, the value of a grain offering was it fed the priests. The priests needed food besides meat, and so people would bring them flour and so forth, so they'd have some food there.

But in bringing it to the priests, the priests were to take a portion of it, a portion of the flour and the oil, and then put all the frankincense on it and burn that. And then the rest of it they'd take to eat. Now, the rest of the chapter goes on, or at least parts of it, go on to talk about other options, not just bringing flour, but maybe bringing baked goods.

Verse 4 says, if you bring an offering, a grain offering baked in the oven, it should be unleavened cakes, a fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. Or it talks about pancakes, something baked in a griddle, or cooked on a griddle. In verses 5 and 6, it also talks about a grain offering baked in a covered pan.

I don't know exactly what kind of bread or whatever that's talking about, but cake. In any case, we can see that there's several different forms in which the grain can be offered. It can be actually baked and cooked and brought as something edible to the priest, or just brought as flour.

Presumably, the priest would be able to make his own bread with that. And it says, in every case, in verse 9, then the priest shall take from the grain offering a memorial portion and burn it on the altar. It is an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

That's perhaps why the incense was added to it, burning bread by itself, or burning flour by itself might not smell very good, but they add the incense, the frankincense, and it would make a sweet aroma. Verse 10, and what is left of the grain offering shall be errands in his sons. It is a most holy offering, etc.

No grain offering, verse 11, which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey in an offering to the Lord made by fire. As for the offering of the first fruits, that'd be once a year when they bring the first fruits of their harvest to offer the Lord, you shall offer them to the Lord, but they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet aroma. That's a different thing.

The first fruits are not a regular grain offering. They have different meaning and they're not treated the same way. But that's mentioned here because they are grain.

The first fruits, of course, would be grain, and he wants to clarify that the first fruits of the grain, that's not the same thing as a regular grain offering. And every offering of your grain offering, you shall season with salt. You shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering.

With all your offerings, you shall offer salt. OK, so this is a lot simpler than the burnt offering. They just bring whatever they bring, flour, cakes, pancakes, whatever, to the priest.

They pour oil on it and they put frankincense on some of it. And the part that has frankincense on it is burned as a memorial. The rest of it is the food for the priest.

Not much more to say about that. Verse 14, if you offer a grain offering of your first fruits to the Lord, you shall offer for the grain offering of your first fruits green heads of grain, roasted on the fire, grain beaten from full head. And you shall put oil on it and lay frankincense on it.

It is a grain offering. Then the priest shall burn the memorial portion, part of it, beaten, et cetera, et cetera. And that's the end of that.

OK. Chapter three has the peace offerings. Now, the peace offerings.

We are told in Chapter seven that the purpose of these were simply to be offered when someone wants to give thanks to God or when they've made a vow and they're fulfilling their vow to offer something to God. Chapter seven, verse 12, for example, says if he offers it for a Thanksgiving, then he shall do it such and such ways. That's not about peace offerings.

And then chapter seven, verse 16. But if the sacrifice of the offering is a vow or a voluntary offering, then he shall do a certain thing. That is what the peace offerings were.

They were not offered for sin. They were offered for gratitude. If you just felt particularly grateful to God for some blessings you received and felt like you wanted to give something back to God as an act of thanksgiving, you would bring a peace offering.

And peace does not mean that you're seeking peace with God. It means that you are at peace. You're almost celebrating the fact that you are at peace, that you've got a good situation.

And therefore, you're bringing an offering to thank God for that. Or a vow. That would mean that if someone said, you know, if the Lord gives us, you know, a good batch of new lambs, I'm going to give ten of them to the Lord, you know, or something like that.

Well, then you offer those lambs as a peace offering. You made a vow. And so that's when it would be offered.

Now, it's a little different, but a lot the same as the offering of the burnt offerings. I mean, there's still the worshipper brings an animal, and it can be a bull or a heifer. It can be a female.

The burnt offerings had to be a male animal, bull or lamb or goat. But in this case, a peace offering could be male or female, bull or heifer. It could be a male or female lamb or goat kid.

And again, the worshipper lays his hand on the head of the animal and kills it. So that's the same. Because when his offering of the sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers it of the herd, there'd be a bull or a cow.

Whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord, and he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it. At the door of the tabernacle of meeting and Aaron's sons, the priest shall sprinkle the blood all around on the altar. So that kind of the same so far.

Then he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering and offering made by fire to the Lord. The fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, the two kidneys and the fat that is on them by the flank and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys. He shall remove Aaron's son shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is on the wood that is on the fire as an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

Now, this is different than the whole bird offering, because only a portion of the animal is burned up here. It's all the fat in the animal. And we'll find later on that God says that fat cannot be eaten any more than blood can be the juice from the fat or blood, the fat and the blood belongs to the Lord.

So all the fat in the animal specifies the fat around the entrails of the fat around the kidneys and the fatty lobe above the liver. And you're going to find that those things mentioned in a lot of the sacrifices, because those parts are always offered to the Lord. And then the kidneys, I'm not sure why the kidneys and not other organs of the body are offered, but we will talk about the possibilities about that later on.

And so chapter three, verses one through five, tells us how it is done with a bull or a cow. And then really in the same chapter, verses six through 11, give the same information about if it's a lamb or a goat. It can be male or female, but the procedure is the same as before.

And then, I'm sorry, if it's a lamb, it's in verses six through 11. And then if it's a goat, it's verses 12 through 17. So it's always the same.

You burn the same parts of the animal on the altar. Now, the rest of meat goes to the priest, as we shall find in the later descriptions of these offerings in the later, the second time. I take that back.

The priest eats some of it, but most of it's returned to the worshiper. This is actually the only one of the five sacrifices that the worshiper gets to eat some of it. It's kind of a fellowship meal.

It's kind of a Eucharistic thing, because the priest eats some of it. We shall find that in the later descriptions, the priest gets the breast of the animal and what the King James called the shoulder. Most of the translation is called the thigh of the animal.

So the thigh and the breast of the animal are given to the priest to eat. And the rest of the carcass is eaten by the worshiper himself and his family, and perhaps the poor as well sometimes take part in it. So it becomes a big feast between the priest and the worshippers, and sometimes the poor are brought into it.

And that's what the peace offering is. And it's the same procedure, whether it's a bull or a lamb or a goat. Again, the blood is sprinkled on the altar.

The fat and the kidneys are burned up on the altar. The breast of the animal is waved before the Lord, according to the later descriptions we'll find. And the thigh of the animal is heaved.

Now, Slim was asking, what is this waving and heaving about? And we're never told what it's about. Presumably, those actually describe physical actions. That they take the breast of the animal and they wave it before the Lord as a means to perhaps, you know, kind of symbolically present it to the Lord.

And then the thigh or the shoulder be heaved toward the Lord, presumably. Now, the word heave, the verb heave in King James and New King James, modern translations don't use the word heave, or even an equivalent to it. They use the word contributed.

You know, the King James and New King James talk about the heave shoulder. The modern translations call it the contributed thigh. So I don't really know if there's a heaving motion implied in that verb or not.

But there is a waving motion implied in the presentation of the breast of the animal. And then that's given to the priest. Those two parts are given to the priest.

The rest is eaten by the worshipper. Now, the sin offering is more complex. And it's covered in chapter 4 and part of chapter 5, up through chapter 5, verse 13.

I don't plan to read all these verses, but I will tell you, you know, about it, about the details of it. The sin offering, as we shall see, is offered to the Lord by a person who realizes that they have at an earlier time sinned ignorantly or inadvertently. As they did something and they didn't know it was wrong.

Or they became unclean. They contracted uncleanness and didn't know it at the time. Maybe they came into contact with something.

Like if you sat on a bed where an unclean person had been, then you became unclean. But if you didn't know that an unclean person had been there and you later found out, oh, I sat on that bed, it was unclean. Then you have to offer a sin offering.

We have to understand that the blood of bulls and goats don't really take away sin, according to the book of Hebrews. This is just done as a symbol of the blood of Christ, of course, that would later take away sin. But the point is that it was connecting the idea of a blood sacrifice with the removal of guilt from sins that were committed inadvertently.

And if it is, if the sinner is a priest or if it's the whole congregation that sins and a sin offering has to be offered, then it's one set of circumstances and behavior. If it's a ruler of the people or a commoner, then a different set of circumstances are followed. So the procedure is not the same in every case.

If the sin that's been atoned for is that of a priest, then a bull, a young bull has to be offered. And the same thing is true if the whole congregation has sinned and a sacrifice has been made for them. A bull.

Now, if it's a ruler of the people, then the animal that is offered is a male goat. And if it's anyone else, it's a female goat or lamb. It could be female lamb or female goat.

So it's a bull for the priest or for the congregation sin. It's a male goat for the ruler's sins. And it's a female lamb or goat for the sins of an ordinary person.

If the ordinary person can't afford a goat or a lamb, then, of course, birds are an option. And if they can't even afford birds, they can actually offer fine flour, as it turns out. And that'd be the only case known of a sin offering not having blood.

But someone who's too poor to even provide birds can provide flour instead. So this is really kind of a lengthy treatment because it goes through the procedure for each case. As you can see in chapter 1, verse 2, or chapter 4, verse 2, excuse me, speak to the children of Israel, saying, if a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of Yahweh and anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them, if the anointed priest sins, and this is the first instance, if a priest sins, then it says, this brings guilt on the people because the priest represents the people, then let him offer to the Lord for his sins which he has sinned a young bull without blemish as a sin offering.

Now, rather than read all of this, I'll just point out that in the case of offering a bull for a priest's sins or offering a bull for the congregation's sins, because that's what comes up in verse 13 through 21, it talks about now if the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally, then they also bring a bull. Now, the procedure is that the penitent person, the priest, or the elders of the congregation on behalf of the congregation put their hands on the head of the bull. The bull is then killed by the priest, and then the blood of the bull is manipulated as follows.

A portion of it is sprinkled seven times before the veil of the Holy of Holies, outside the Holy of Holies, but the priest takes a portion of the blood and he sprinkles it in front of the veil inside the tabernacle, but outside the Holy of Holies. And he also, while he's in there, he puts a little of the blood on the horns of the golden altar, which is right there by the veil. So he puts some of the blood on the horns of the golden altar, sprinkles seven times before the Holy of Holies, brings the rest of the blood out, and he pours it out at the foot of the bronze altar.

So that's how the blood is treated in that case. Then he removes the fatty portions and the kidneys and burns them like with the other sacrifices. And then he takes the carcass of the bull to a clean place outside the camp and burns it, and no one eats it.

That's if it's a priest's sins or the congregation's sins. It's a bull, the blood is sprinkled inside the tabernacle, applied to the altar of incense, and then poured out at the foot of the altar of bronze. And then the body of the bull is taken out and burned in a clean place.

Now, it's different when it's a ruler or the common person's sins. Like I said, a ruler brings a male goat, a common person brings a female goat or lamb or birds or even flowers. They're poor enough, but things are done differently with the sacrifice of a ruler or a commoner.

In the case of the ruler or the commoner, the blood is not taken into the tabernacle at all. It is simply put on the horns of the bronze altar and poured out at the foot of the altar. So the bull's blood is actually taken inside the tabernacle, applied to the golden altar, and sprinkled by the veil.

But the ruler and the people's sins and the goats that are brought are not treated that way. The blood does not go into the tabernacle. And it is applied to the bronze altar out in the courtyard and then poured out.

And it is different also because the lamb or the goat can be eaten by the priest and is eaten by the priest and any male member of the priest's family. So the bull is not eaten. It is burned up.

But the lamb or the goat is eaten by the priest, but not by the worshipper. That's how the sin offering is conducted. Now, the trespass offering, before we get to that, the first verses of chapter 5, before we get to the trespass offering, we have some verses that sort of tell of circumstances in which a sin offering might need to be offered.

There's not many circumstances mentioned. I'm not sure why these ones are singled out since any unintentional sin would qualify. But it says in chapter 5, verse 1, if a person sins in hearing the utterance of an oath and is a witness, whether he's seen or known of the matter, if he does not tell it, he bears guilt.

Now, it's not at all clear from the way that's worded what is meant there. But the hearing of an oath is apparently a special kind of oath, which is called an adjuration. Adjuring.

When someone adjures, when the court adjures somebody to testify, it means they're putting them under oath. Jesus was put under oath like that when he was silent before the Sanhedrin and he gave no answer. The high priest said, I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of the Blessed.

And then Jesus spoke when he was adjured. He was put under oath to testify. And so when the judge or the priest would adjure you to speak, you had to testify.

And if you didn't, then it was a sin. And for whatever reason, I don't know why this particular case is given, but it mentions that would be one of the cases where you need to offer a sin offering. Verse 2 says, or if a person touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of an unclean beast or the carcass of an unclean livestock or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and it is hidden from him, he also shall be unclean and guilty.

Now, hidden from him means he's not aware of it. He's somehow come into contact with the carcass of an animal. I don't know how you know or not.

I don't know how you would not know that this happened. But the point is, if a person is contracted uncleanness somehow and has not become immediately aware of it and later realizes that they were unclean, then they have to offer such a sacrifice as a sin offering. Now, why? As we will see when you read chapters 11 through 15, those are the laws of cleanness and uncleanness.

When a person is unclean, they usually don't have to offer a sacrifice. They usually are just unclean until evening, and then they have to wash their clothes and then they're done with it. There's no sacrifice needed.

This is a situation where when they became unclean, they didn't know they were unclean, so they didn't remain separate. They didn't wash their clothes. They neglected the normal procedures for becoming clean again, in which case, because they neglected those procedures, they are guilty and have to offer a sin offering.

It is not saying that every time someone's unclean, they have to offer a sin offering. That would be too frequent. But when someone becomes unclean and doesn't know it, then later finds out that they were realized, oh, I was supposed to stay unclean until evening.

I didn't. I didn't wash my clothes. I didn't do the clean thing.

Then they have to bring the sacrifice of the sin offering. And verse four says, or if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that man may pronounce by an oath and it is hidden from him when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty of any of these matters. Now, I would imagine you find it very difficult to make any sense of that statement, partly because there's some phrases in there that are idioms that probably don't mean exactly what they sound like.

For example, when it says if it's hidden from him, how could a man take an oath and have it hidden from him that he took an oath? I think that just has me and he doesn't realize it. He made a rash oath and he didn't realize what he was saying. Now, it says to do good or to do evil or to do evil or to do good.

Well, why would a person make an oath to do evil? The expression to do evil or to do good is sort of an ancient formula that just meant to do anything at all. In fact, we've already encountered that formula a couple of times back in Genesis. Like in Genesis chapter 24 when Abraham's servant had gone to the house of Laban and was asking for them to send Rebekah back to Mary Isaac.

When they heard the story of how God had worked in bringing the servant into contact with them, it says in Genesis 2450, then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, the thing comes to the Lord. We cannot speak to you either good or bad or bad or good. That just means we can't really say anything one way or the other.

Bad or good just means anything at all, really. And in Genesis chapter 31, when Laban is pursuing Jacob, we know that God appears to Laban in a dream and warns him not to hurt Jacob. And in verse 24, Genesis 31, 24, it says God had come to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said to him, be careful that you speak to Jacob, neither good nor bad.

And that just means anything at all. And so it says if someone has made an oath to do evil or to do good, it just probably just means made any kind of an oath on anything, any matter at all, any kind of an oath that a person is made. If it is a rash oath, it says thoughtlessly.

And he didn't realize it was a rash oath. Well, what's he going to do then? If it's a rash oath, it apparently is indicating that he later realizes it and doesn't keep it. But if he doesn't keep his oath, what then? He's guilty.

It says he's guilty of these matters. And presumably that would be one of those cases where he has to offer a sin offering. He made a rash oath, later realized it was rash, didn't keep it because it was stupid, like I'm going to sacrifice my daughter or something like that, you know, then his breaking of his oath is something that has to cover with a sin offering.

And it says in verse five, chapter five, verse five, and it should be when he is guilty of any of these matters that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing, and he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord for his sin, which he has sent a female from the flock, a lamb of the kid of the goats, etc. Now, trespass offering. I said sin offering.

This apparently deals with the trespass offering. But the offering of the trespass offering is really not really laid out much until chapter five, verse 14. This is kind of confusing how it's worked out, because the sin offering continues to be discussed in chapter five, verses seven through 13, where it talks about bringing either a bird or even bringing grain offerings if they're too poor for anything more than that.

But those are, it would appear for the offering. So, yeah, it's just an offering of verse eight. So we've got trespass offering verse six, which hasn't even been introduced yet.

So I guess those verses and verses one through six anticipate the trespass offering, although it's not finished talking about the sin offering. Those verses may have gotten stuck in there out of their proper order, it's hard to say. Now, when you get to chapter five, verse 14 through chapter six, verse seven, we have the trespass offering, and it's a lot like the sin offering in that you do it when you realize that you've done something wrong that you inadvertently did wrong previously.

And this time it's when your sin was not just a sin of a generic sort, but a sin that injured somebody, where you sinned against the holy things. Now, what's sinning against the holy things? Like if you didn't give your tithes, or you gave part of your tithe, but not all of it, or you made a vow and neglected to keep it, or there was something else, your first virtue didn't bring. Those are the holy things.

You failed to come up with what you owed God. That'd be a violation in the area of the holy things. Or it gives examples also if you actually injure your neighbor's property.

Either you steal it or he gives it to you to borrow and it gets damaged and lost. Then you have trespass in some material sense, not just a sin that's morally wrong, but this is where there's been some injury, some financial, material injury done through your sin. Not all sins are that way.

Some sins that we commit don't, you know, there's no way to make restitution for them. But this is talking about where there's been property damage, either holy property or your neighbor's property. And this sacrifice requires that you not only offer an animal, but you also have to pay back a financial sum plus a penalty, 20% penalty for what you've wronged.

And so it says in verse 14, then the Lord spoke to Moses. If a person commits a trespass and sins unintentionally in regard to the holy things of the Lord, then he shall bring to the Lord as his trespass offering a ram without blemish from the flocks with your valuation in the shekels of the silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary as a trespass offering. And he shall make restitution for the harm that he has done in regard to the holy thing and shall add one fifth to it and give it to the priest so that the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering and he shall be forgiven him.

Now, the actual procedure of the ram being offered is not given here until chapter seven verses one through seven. It goes into this trespass offering again. We find that the trespass offering you the worshiper presents the ram to the priest and the priest evaluates the amount of loss.

And that might be easy to figure out, but maybe not. I mean, if a person has failed to bring the first born ox or first born cow to the Lord as he's supposed to or bull. Well, then how much does that bull worth? The priest has to figure out what it's worth and the man has to pay the money and 20% penalty as well as the ram being sacrificed.

So that the temple of the tabernacle gets repaid cash for what was lost. And the same thing is true. If it's a sin against an individual person's property, for example, chapter six says, if verse two, if a person sins and commits a trespass against the Lord by lying to his neighbor about what he has delivered to him for safekeeping or about a pledge or about a robbery or if he is extorted from his neighbor or if he is found guilty.

And what was lost and lies concerning it and where falsely in any one of these things that man may do that a man may do in which he sends. Then it shall be because he is and that is guilty that he shall restore what he is stolen or the thing which he is deceitfully obtained or what was delivered to him for safekeeping and or the last thing which he found or all that about which he has sworn falsely. He shall restore its full value, add one fifth more to it and give it to whomever it belongs on the day of his trespass offering.

So if he trespassed in the holy things, the money was given to the priest. If it was a trespass against some neighbor's property, then you pay him back with 20% interest. You might recall that back in Exodus, there is a law that if a thief steals an animal and he's caught with it, he has to give back to two lambs for one.

If he's caught only after the lamb has disappeared, like he sold it or eaten it or something like that, then he has to give four lambs for a lamb and five oxen for an ox. So the penalty is much more than just a 20% penalty in those cases. So what's different here? Here are the cases where he hasn't been caught.

He voluntarily turns himself in. If he's caught with the goods, he has to give back two lambs for a lamb. But if he has stolen or misappropriated something of his neighbor's and he voluntarily comes and offers a trespass offering, then that restitution has to be made just 20% added to what was given.

What was misappropriated now, according to chapter seven, verses one through seven, where there's more about this particular trespass offering. We read that the priest takes the ram and he sprinkles the blood on the altar. He removes and burns up the fatty portions of the kidneys.

Then he eats the ram's flesh with the male members of his family. So this is fairly familiar treatment, burning the same parts of the animal after the blood sprinkled on it. And then he and his family eat the ram.

Now we have these other details given in chapter six, verse eight through the end of chapter seven, which go over these offerings again and give the details about the priest. Some of them are repetitious of what the priest does with the blood and so forth. And mostly they tell what is done with the body of the animal and what the priest get to eat.

And we've already talked about that. I brought those in when we're talking about these the first time in each case. But if we could skip down just to chapter seven, verse 22.

It says, and you always spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel saying, you should not eat any fat of ox or sheep or goat and the fat of the beast that dies naturally and the fat that was torn by wild animals may be used in any other way. But you should not by any means eat it. You could make soap with it or tallow for candles, but you couldn't eat the fat of an animal that died naturally or whatever.

You can't eat the fat. It belongs to God. And so it's not yours to eat.

For whoever eats the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, the person who eats of it shall be cut off from his people. Moreover, you shall not eat any blood in any of your dwellings, neither bird or beast. Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people.

So those are two parts of an animal that cannot be eaten by a Jew is the blood and the fat. Then the rest of chapter seven talks about what the what the priests get from these sacrifices. The Lord spoke, especially the peace offerings.

The Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel. Saying he who offers the sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord shall bring his offering to the Lord from the sacrifice of his from the sacrifice of his peace offering. His own hand shall bring the offerings made by fire to the Lord.

The fat with the breast he shall bring that the breast may be waived as a way of offering before the Lord and the priest shall burn the fat on the altar and the breast shall be Aaron's and his son's also the right side. You should give to the priest as a heave offering from the sacrifices of your peace offerings. Again, the modern translations don't say a heave offering.

They just say a contribution. He among the sons of Aaron who offers the blood of the peace offering and the fat shall have the right side for his part. That is, in any time someone brings a peace offering one or another of the priest is going to serve you and his commission for his services that he gets the side of that animal that you brought and different priests would be serving different.

Worshippers and so every priest would eventually get some food that way. Verse 34 for the breast of the way of offering and the thigh of the heave offering. I have taken from the children of Israel for the sacrifices of their peace offerings and I've given them to Aaron.

The priest and to his sons from the children of Israel by a statute forever. This is the consecrated portion for Aaron and his sons from the offerings made by fire to the Lord on the day when Moses presented them to minister to the Lord as priests. The Lord commanded this to be given to them by the children of Israel on the day that he anointed them by a statute forever throughout their generations.

This is the law of the burnt offering the grain offering the sin offering the trespass offering the consecrations and the sacrifices of the peace offering which the Lord commanded Moses on Mount Sinai on the day when he commanded the children of Israel to offer their offerings to the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai. So these are the five offerings we've had a look at the manner in which they were offered and something of the circumstances which they're offered. They will be mentioned again in connection with different obligations different festivals and different cleansing of individuals in states of uncleanness but they won't be covered in this kind of detail again so you can breathe easy about that.

We'll take a break now and when we come back I want to talk about the spiritual lessons from these sacrifices because we haven't brought any of that out yet.