Day 68 – The Sin Offering

Welcome to the book of Leviticus, and we’re diving in starting in chapter 4, so we’ve obviously skipped a few chapters. In them, God details out how to perform certain types of offerings to God in different situations. We’ll read about one of those situations today, and – like the last couple of days’ reading, its got some deep stuff.

• Did you know that Leviticus is like making a great cup of coffee? Yup! It’s all about the Hebrews! (geddit!) Sorry – only joking. If you didn’t know it was about coffee, it’s because you didn’t watch the video I posted yesterday. Spend 10 minutes to watch the video to learn a little more. It’s really good. It starts with the presenter asking a bunch of questions that you may have about the odd things you read in Leviticus. Leviticus does have some “odd” things in it, and we’re not going to spend too much time reading it, but I hope you’ll take encouragement as well as understanding over the next few days as we consider this rich book.
• This chapter – and indeed much of Leviticus – talks about the role of priests. You need to have a basic understanding of who they were and what they did, because in doing so you’ll come to understand Jesus better. As detailed in chapters such as Exodus 29, Moses’ brother Aaron was a priest, and all priests were selected from the tribe of Levi (people descended from Joseph’s brother Levi), although not every Levite was a priest. Priests were set apart by God for a special role. They could offer up sacrifices to God on behalf of the people when they sinned in order to make the people right with God again. There were several different offerings that priests could make to God, including “burnt” offerings (for general worship, devotion, etc), “grain” offerings (to recognise God’s goodness), “fellowship” offerings (for thanksgiving and fellowship), “sin” offerings (for forgiveness of specific unintentional sins ) and “guilt” offerings (for other types of unintentional sins). Today we look at sin offerings (we’ll be skipping the others in this reading plan).
• In the Old Testament, what did a person have to do if they had unintentionally sinned? What surprised you in Leviticus 4?
• We don’t have priests that perform sacrifices for us any more. What do we, as Christians, do if we sin instead – unintentionally or otherwise?
• Could the blood of animals take away sin? Argue the case for (Leviticus) and against (Hebrews 10) and come to a final conclusion.
• If the blood of animals can’t take away sin now, why did they offer sacrifices in the Old Testament?

We’ve seen last week how the author of the book of Hebrews made close links between the law that God gave His people in the desert, and the new covenant we have in Jesus. Today is no exception – especially in the passage in Hebrews 10. Like Saturday, spend some time thinking through this and writing notes in your journal.

You should ideally be considering:

• the work of priests in the Old Testament versus the work of Jesus, the Great High Priest
• the repeated animal sacrifice to deal with sin compared to Jesus’ single act on the cross
• the limited effect of animal sacrifices and the perfection, past and future, for believers of Jesus
• the role of blood in the old (law) and new (Jesus) covenants

Harry, Jonah and Anabel – this is deep, solid, meaty doctrine. We’re at a tricky point in our reading plan. We’re digging down deeper than anything you would have studied at Junior Church, or Eureka, or even Cells. If you get a handle on this stuff – the role of priests in the Old Testament and the way that Christ went far beyond – then you’ll have an amazing basis to build on for reading the rest of the Old Testament.

If you don’t get it all, don’t worry. We’ll discuss it when we next meet. Just enjoy Hebrews 10 for now. It is an amazing chapter – I especially love verse 14, for it is such great news. Gratitude for that wonderful grace that we have received should be transforming us into people filled with love and mercy for others. Do you think your time doing this course this year has shown a transformation in you?