1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them:

3 If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering.

4 And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock’s head, and kill the bullock before the Lord.

This chapter is dedicated to the ritual of the sin offering, something that we already heard of in Exodus, from which we have populated the table down below. The account here in Leviticus 4 confirms what we already heard in Exodus, though here it is given in longer detail.

The sin offering is arguably the most foundational of all the offerings. Sin is the greatest and most universal obstacle of all humanity. It is sin that divides us from peace, more than any affliction, misfortune, or disaster. In fact, the universality of sin is pointed out in verse 3, which reminds us that even the priest who had been set apart to be the holy servant of the Lord, would be besmirched by it and would require restitution, the same as any other Israelite.

Even our priests and vessels of purification require purification themselves. Our cleaning agents need cleaning. This shows a pattern of regress and suggests to us that there must be an endpoint somewhere. Sooner or later, for any of this purification to have any effect, it must be founded upon a purifier who is himself never soiled. The offering of Jesus, who was the perfect High Priest, would sanctify the entire temple enterprise, which would sanctify the priests and vessels, which would sanctify the common Israelite.

Full table.