Bible Challenge Day 38: Sin and Sacrifice (Leviticus 4)

I may not have read this chapter from Leviticus in more than thirty years! When I was in high school, I read the whole Bible straight through. That may well have been the only time I read Leviticus four. I do not remember much from my high school Bible Challenge. But I do remember the impression I had of Leviticus: painfully dull and totally irrelevant.

What strikes me now, reading this chapter as a priest, is how messy priesthood must have been. The primary role of the priest was sacrifice. Priests were expected to kill and butcher animals, drain much of the blood, and splatter the rest on the altar. Imagining conversations with the ancient version of the altar guild about that, I can only shudder! Thankfully, the job description of a priest has changed!

Mostly I do not know what to make of the details of ancient sacrificial practices that neither Christians nor Jews have done for centuries. But bits were thought-provoking. I noticed that several of the sin offerings were specifically for unintentional sins (e.g. 4:13, 22, 27). That intrigues me.

We tend to define sin largely in terms of intention, as if sin were primarily subjective. Leviticus includes some sense of that. Obviously people can only offer sacrifice for their unintentional sin when they become aware of the sin (e.g. 4:14). But in general, Leviticus seems to treat sin as something more objective. Sin is real whether or not people intend it.

The analogy that occurs to me is disease. We can be sick without knowing it. Our lack of knowledge does not mean we are well, even if we cannot treat the illness until we become aware of it. The sacrificial rules for sin offerings seem to imply something similar for sin. That seems like a helpful corrective to an overly subjective understanding of what counts as sin.

The other thing I noticed was the virtual guarantee of forgiveness. This sentence repeats like a chorus through the chapter: “Thus the priest shall make atonement on your behalf, and you shall be forgiven” (4:26, 31, 35). This is not to praise the priest; it is a promise grounded in the love and mercy of God who forgives sin.

I still do not find Leviticus fun to read. But so far Leviticus has been more thought-provoking than I expected.

Fr. Harvey