The High Cost of Clumsiness: The Priest's Sin Offering Text: Leviticus 4:1-12
Introduction: The Grammar of Atonement
We live in a sentimental age, an age that has tried to domesticate God. We want a God who is a celestial therapist, a divine affirmation machine, a God who is always nice and never dangerous. But the book of Leviticus will not allow for such a tame and manageable deity. Leviticus, and particularly a chapter like this one, is a bucket of ice water to the face of our therapeutic, low-cost, casual Christianity. It forces us to confront the staggering reality of God's holiness and the lethal gravity of our sin.
Many modern Christians, when they bother to read Leviticus at all, treat it like a dusty museum of bizarre and bloody rituals. They see it as something primitive, something we have thankfully "progressed" beyond. But this is a profound mistake. The sacrificial system is not an embarrassing relic; it is the picture book that teaches us the grammar of our salvation. Without the vocabulary of Leviticus, words like atonement, propitiation, sacrifice, and holiness become hollowed out and sentimentalized. You cannot understand the cross of Jesus Christ without first understanding the altar of burnt offering. You cannot grasp what His blood accomplished without first seeing what the blood of a bull was for.
This chapter deals with the sin offering, or more accurately, the purification offering. What it teaches us is that sin is not just a legal problem that requires forgiveness; it is a pollution problem that requires cleansing. Sin brings guilt, yes, but it also defiles. It contaminates the sinner, the community, and even the holy space where God dwells. God's presence in the center of the camp is a glorious blessing, but it is also an immense danger. His holiness is like a consuming fire, and any uncleanness that approaches it must be dealt with, lest His wrath break out against the people. This chapter, then, is a detailed procedure for decontaminating the sanctuary when the sin of the leadership has polluted it.
We will see that the higher the rank of the sinner, the more devastating the pollution, and the more costly the sacrifice. The sin of a priest was a far more serious matter than the sin of a commoner, because his sin brought guilt upon the entire nation. This is a principle that we have largely forgotten. We live in an egalitarian age that wants to flatten all distinctions. But God's economy is not egalitarian. To whom much is given, much is required. And the sins of leaders have catastrophic, corporate consequences. This is not just about one man's private failure; it is about a contagion that threatens the entire covenant community.
The Text
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If a person sins unintentionally in any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done, and he does any one of them, if the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him bring near to Yahweh a bull from the herd without blemish as a sin offering for the sin he has committed. Then he shall bring the bull to the doorway of the tent of meeting before Yahweh, and he shall lay his hand on the head of the bull and slaughter the bull before Yahweh. Then the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it to the tent of meeting, and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before Yahweh in front of the veil of the sanctuary. The priest shall also put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense which is before Yahweh in the tent of meeting; and all the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering which is at the doorway of the tent of meeting. Then he shall raise up from it all the fat of the bull of the sin offering: the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat which is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, which is on the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys (just as it is raised up from the ox of the sacrifice of peace offerings), and the priest shall offer them up in smoke on the altar of burnt offering. But the hide of the bull and all its flesh with its head and its legs and its entrails and its refuse, that is, all the rest of the bull, he shall bring out to a clean place outside the camp where the ashes are poured out, and he shall burn it on wood with fire; where the ashes are poured out it shall be burned.
(Leviticus 4:1-12 LSB)
Unintentional Sin and Corporate Guilt (vv. 1-3)
The statute begins by defining the kind of sin being addressed.
"Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If a person sins unintentionally in any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done, and he does any one of them, if the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people...'" (Leviticus 4:2-3a)
The offering is for "unintentional" sins. This does not mean sins committed by accident, like tripping and breaking a command. The Hebrew refers to sins of ignorance, weakness, or carelessness, as opposed to sins of "a high hand," which were acts of defiant, premeditated rebellion (Numbers 15:30). For high-handed sins, there was no sacrifice; the penalty was to be "cut off" from the people. But this provision for unintentional sin is a profound mercy. It teaches us that God holds us accountable even for the sins we are not fully aware of. Ignorance is not an excuse. Our modern world prizes sincerity above all, but God prizes holiness. You can be sincerely wrong, and your sincere wrongness still pollutes God's camp and requires atonement.
The first case addressed is that of the "anointed priest," the high priest. Notice the consequence of his sin: it brings "guilt on the people." His personal failure has corporate ramifications. As the representative of the people before God, his sin compromises the entire nation's standing. This is the principle of federal headship, of representation. What the head does, the body bears. This is why the sin of Adam plunged the entire human race into ruin, and it is why the righteousness of Christ, the great High Priest, can be imputed to all His people. The priest's sin is a national security crisis. It is a spiritual contamination that must be dealt with immediately and thoroughly.
Because the sin is so grave, the sacrifice is the most expensive possible: a young bull without blemish. The perfection of the animal is crucial. A holy God cannot be appeased with a defective offering. This points us to the perfect, spotless character of the Lord Jesus, the only sacrifice truly "without blemish" (1 Peter 1:19).
Identification and Atonement (vv. 4-7)
Next, we see the central actions of the ritual: identification by the laying on of hands, and cleansing by the manipulation of the blood.
"Then he shall bring the bull to the doorway of the tent of meeting before Yahweh, and he shall lay his hand on the head of the bull and slaughter the bull before Yahweh... Then the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it to the tent of meeting..." (Leviticus 4:4-5 LSB)
The priest lays his hand on the bull's head. This is not a gentle pat. It is a formal act of identification and transference. He is saying, "This animal now stands in my place. My sin is now upon its head. Its death will be my death." This is the heart of substitutionary atonement. The wages of sin is death, and that wage must be paid. Either the priest pays it himself, or a substitute pays it for him. The slaughter of the bull "before Yahweh" is the execution of the sentence. Justice is being done.
But forgiveness is not enough; there must be cleansing. The blood, representing the life of the victim poured out in death, is the cleansing agent. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls" (Leviticus 17:11). The priest takes the blood inside the Holy Place. This is what makes the priest's sin offering unique. For lesser sins, the blood only went on the outer altar. But because the high priest's sin polluted the sanctuary itself, the blood must be brought inside to decontaminate it.
"...and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before Yahweh in front of the veil of the sanctuary. The priest shall also put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense...and all the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering..." (Leviticus 4:6-7 LSB)
He sprinkles the blood seven times, the number of perfection and completion, before the veil that separates the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. He is cleansing the very entryway to God's presence. Then he smears the blood on the horns of the golden altar of incense. The horns represent power and authority, and the incense represents the prayers of the people. The priest's sin has corrupted the people's access to God in prayer, and so the very instrument of that access must be purified by blood. Finally, the rest of the blood is poured out at the base of the main altar outside. The life of the substitute has been completely given over to satisfy the justice of God and to cleanse His dwelling place.
God's Portion and the Offerer's Portion (vv. 8-12)
The sacrifice is now divided. Certain parts are offered to God, and the rest is disposed of in a very specific way.
"Then he shall raise up from it all the fat... and the priest shall offer them up in smoke on the altar of burnt offering." (Leviticus 4:8-10 LSB)
The fat portions, considered the richest and best part of the animal, are burned on the altar. This is God's portion. The smoke ascending is a "soothing aroma" to Him, not because God enjoys the smell of burning fat, but because He is satisfied by the justice of the substitutionary death and the devotion represented by giving Him the best. This is an act of worship, acknowledging that even in dealing with our filthiest sins, God is worthy of our best.
But the rest of the bull receives a very different treatment.
"But the hide of the bull and all its flesh... all the rest of the bull, he shall bring out to a clean place outside the camp... and he shall burn it on wood with fire..." (Leviticus 4:11-12 LSB)
The carcass, now laden with the sin of the high priest, is treated as utterly contaminated. It cannot be eaten, unlike other sacrifices. It cannot even be burned on the holy altar. It must be taken completely "outside the camp." This is a picture of utter rejection and excommunication. The sin is so foul that its bearer must be removed entirely from the presence of God and His people. It is taken to the ash heap, a place of refuse, and there it is utterly consumed by fire.
This is a terrifying picture of the judgment our sin deserves. It deserves to be cast out, rejected, and consumed. But it is also a glorious picture of the gospel. The writer to the Hebrews makes the connection explicit: "For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach" (Hebrews 13:11-13).
The Gospel Outside the Camp
Here is the gospel in the sin offering. On the cross, Jesus Christ became our sin offering. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our filth, our pollution, our unintentional rebellions, and our high-handed treasons were all laid upon Him. He was identified with us, as our federal head, our great High Priest.
His blood was brought into the true sanctuary, into heaven itself, not to cleanse a tent made with hands, but to secure an eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12). His blood cleanses our consciences and purifies our access to God the Father. It is the ultimate decontaminant.
And because He bore our sin, He was taken outside the camp. He was crucified "outside the gate" of Jerusalem, the holy city. He was cast out, rejected, and made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). He was taken to the place of refuse, the garbage dump of Golgotha, and there He endured the consuming fire of God's wrath. He was treated as the bull was treated, so that we, the guilty priests, would not have to be.
The blood of bulls and goats could never actually take away sin; they were promissory notes pointing to the one, final, perfect sacrifice to come. They were pictures in a book, teaching Israel the shape of the salvation that would be accomplished by the Messiah. Because of what Christ has done, we do not have to fear being cast out. In fact, we are invited to follow Him "outside the camp," to leave behind the approval of the world and to bear the reproach that He bore for us. To follow Jesus is to be considered unclean by the world, but it is the only way to be made truly clean in the sight of a holy God.
This is not a quaint ritual. This is the architecture of our salvation. This is the high cost of our sin, and the even higher cost of our redemption. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.