The Sin Offering (Lev 4)

[imported__neil]

Leviticus is a rich book, don't you agree? The work of Christ is prefigured in it all over the place. I read carefully about the sin offering, recalling that Hebrews connects it to Jesus:

For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place* by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. (Heb 13:11-12, NASB)

I noticed from Lev 4 that the blood was sprinkled before the veil and put on the horns of the altar of incense in the the tent of meeting (i.e. the holy place), only when the offering was for all the people, (because of their sin or that of the high priest). The blood was not taken in there if it was for an individual - a leader or one of the common people.

That detail I thought to be worth remembering, since the blood of Jesus, likewise, was shed for many.


* not the <u>Most</u> Holy Place as the NIV mistakenly has it.

[imported__neil]

On the Day of Atonement (Lev 16), the blood of a bull and of a goat were both put on the horns of the altar (of incense) before the LORD, and sprinkled there (v 18, 19). While the goat was a sin offering for all the people (v 15), the bull was a sin offering for Aaron and his household (v 6).

If it was a rule that this be done with the blood of a sin offering only when it was for all the people, I guess we have to regard Aaron's sin as high priest as again bringing guilt on the people, as in Lev 4:3, even though this is left unsaid in Lev 16. Or, is this "rule" just a product of my imaginaton?

What do you think?