When Rulers Go Astray: The Politics of Atonement Text: Leviticus 4:22-26
Introduction: Guilt, Not Gaffes
We live in an age that has completely lost the biblical category of guilt, particularly when it comes to our leaders. When a man in high office misspeaks, miscalculates, or misbehaves, our modern world has only two responses, and both are dead wrong. The first is the secular response, which treats the transgression as a political gaffe, a public relations problem to be managed. The goal is not forgiveness but damage control. The second is the pietistic response, which treats sin as a strictly private affair, a personal failing to be confessed quietly in the closet, with no bearing on public life. In this view, a politician's "personal faith" is cordoned off from his public duties.
Both of these approaches are a flight from reality. They are attempts to build a society without a foundation, a government without God. The secularist denies the objective standard of God's law, and so he can only talk about optics and polls. The pietist acknowledges God's law but seeks to confine it to the church and the individual heart, rendering it irrelevant to the public square.
Leviticus will have none of it. This book, which many modern Christians foolishly neglect, is a detailed blueprint of applied holiness. It shows us that God is intensely interested in how we structure our society, our worship, and our government. And here in chapter 4, we are given the divine protocol for what must be done when a leader sins. This is not about a slip of the tongue at a press conference. This is about a real transgression of God's law by a man in authority, which results in real, objective guilt before the throne of the universe. And that guilt requires a real, public, and bloody remedy. This passage teaches us that the sins of rulers have public consequences and that the only solution is a God-prescribed, substitutionary atonement.
The Text
When a leader sins and unintentionally does any one of all the things which Yahweh his God has commanded not to be done, and he becomes guilty,
or if his sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a male without blemish.
Then he shall lay his hand on the head of the male goat and slaughter it in the place where they slaughter the burnt offering before Yahweh; it is a sin offering.
Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering; and the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering.
And all its fat he shall offer up in smoke on the altar as in the case of the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him in regard to his sin, and he will be forgiven.
(Leviticus 4:22-26 LSB)
The Sinner in High Office (v. 22)
We begin with the subject of this law:
"When a leader sins and unintentionally does any one of all the things which Yahweh his God has commanded not to be done, and he becomes guilty," (Leviticus 4:22)
The subject is a "leader," a ruler or a chieftain. This establishes a vital principle from the outset: no one is above the law. The king is not the law; he is under the law. This is a foundational tenet of biblical government and the bedrock of Western liberty, and it is being systematically dismantled in our day. The law is not from the people, or the courts, or the ruler himself. The standard is "the things which Yahweh his God has commanded not to be done." The leader has a God, and that God has a law that binds him.
The sin is described as "unintentional." This does not mean it was an innocent mistake with no moral weight. It means the sin was not committed in high-handed, defiant rebellion against God. It was a sin of ignorance, weakness, or carelessness. But in God's economy, ignorance is not innocence. Breaking God's law, even unknowingly, still makes a man "guilty." Guilt is not a subjective feeling of remorse; it is an objective legal status. You have violated the law of the cosmos, and you now stand liable before the Judge. Our therapeutic culture wants to replace the category of guilt with the language of brokenness or trauma. But the Bible insists on the legal reality. Sin incurs guilt, and guilt demands a payment.
The Dawning Awareness and the Costly Confession (v. 23)
The responsibility to act begins when the sin is revealed.
"or if his sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a male without blemish." (Leviticus 4:23 LSB)
Notice the trigger: "if his sin...is made known to him." How might this happen? Perhaps a prophet confronts him, as Nathan confronted David. Perhaps a subordinate has the courage to point it out. Perhaps the consequences of his decision reveal his error. Or perhaps his own conscience, pricked by the Spirit, convicts him. A godly leader does not create a communications team to spin the story. He does not fire the man who brought him the bad news. He repents.
And this repentance is not a mere verbal apology. It is an action. "He shall bring for his offering a goat." This is a public act. It is a costly act. He must bring a male goat, a valuable animal, and it must be "without blemish." You do not bring your sickly, lame leftovers to atone for sin. You bring the best. This demonstrates the seriousness of the offense and the high cost of forgiveness. Cheap grace is no grace at all. True repentance acknowledges the gravity of the sin by the gravity of the sacrifice.
The Great Transfer (v. 24)
Here we see the central mechanism of substitutionary atonement acted out.
"Then he shall lay his hand on the head of the male goat and slaughter it in the place where they slaughter the burnt offering before Yahweh; it is a sin offering." (Leviticus 4:24 LSB)
The laying on of the hand is not a gentle pat. It is a forceful leaning, a symbolic act of transfer. The leader is identifying himself with this animal. He is confessing his sin and, by this action, placing his guilt onto the head of his substitute. He is saying, in effect, "This goat is now me. Let it be treated as I deserve to be treated." This is the doctrine of imputation made visible. It is a legal transaction performed "before Yahweh."
And what does he deserve? Death. The leader then slaughters the goat. The penalty for sin is death, and this ritual makes that fact inescapably clear. Sin is not a trifle; it is a capital offense. And the penalty must be paid. This is not a private matter of feeling better; it is a public execution of a substitute to satisfy the demands of public justice.
The Priestly Application (v. 25-26)
After the death of the substitute, the priest, as the authorized mediator, performs his crucial work.
"Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering; and the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering. And all its fat he shall offer up in smoke on the altar...Thus the priest shall make atonement for him in regard to his sin, and he will be forgiven." (Leviticus 4:25-26 LSB)
The blood, representing the life that was forfeit, is not merely spilled and forgotten. It is purposefully applied by the priest. He puts it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. The horns of the altar were symbols of God's power and authority. By placing the blood here, the priest is signifying that the power of God's justice, which should have consumed the sinner, has been fully satisfied by the life of the substitute. The demands of the throne have been met.
The fat, which was considered the richest and best part of the animal, is offered up to God. This is an act of worship, a "pleasing aroma" to the Lord, signifying that fellowship has been restored. And then comes the glorious, objective, declarative verdict: "Thus the priest shall make atonement for him...and he will be forgiven." Forgiveness is not a warm feeling the leader hopes to achieve. It is a legal declaration from God, delivered by His appointed representative, based on a finished, bloody transaction. The guilt is gone. The slate is clean. The case is closed.
The True Ruler and the Final Sacrifice
As with all of Leviticus, this entire ritual is a magnificent shadow pointing to an even more magnificent reality. It is a picture, a type, a foreshadowing of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The writer to the Hebrews tells us plainly that "it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). These sacrifices could cover sin for a time, but they could never truly remove it. They were promissory notes, pointing forward to the day the actual payment would be made.
Jesus Christ is the true Leader who never sinned, intentionally or unintentionally. He is the only ruler in human history who never needed to bring a sin offering for Himself. He is also the true offering, the perfect "male without blemish," the Lamb of God.
On the cross, the hands of a sinful humanity were laid upon Him. God the Father took all our sins, the sins of leaders and the sins of commoners, our ignorant blunders and our defiant rebellions, and He imputed them all to His Son. Jesus became our substitute. He was slaughtered in our place, "before Yahweh," to satisfy divine justice.
And He is also our great High Priest. He did not take the blood of a goat into the holy place. He took His own blood and presented it once for all on the heavenly altar, securing an eternal redemption. And because of His finished work, God the Father issues the final verdict over all who trust in Him. He does not say, "Try harder," or "Feel sorrier." He says, "You will be forgiven." It is a done deal.
This is the only hope for our leaders, and it is the only hope for us. Our political salvation will not come from a new policy, a new party, or a new election. It will come when rulers know they are under the law of God and when they, like all the rest of us, confess their sins and flee for refuge to the only substitute who can make them clean. They must look to the cross, where the politics of heaven met the corruption of earth, and where our guilt was exchanged for a forgiveness that is final, free, and full.