Leviticus 4.
WE find in this chapter two words we have not come to before, in Leviticus. Perhaps there are more than two, but these two— “sin” and “forgiven”—mark our chapter 4 as distinct from the chapters we have read. In them we learned something of what Jesus did for God; in this one we see something of what He did for us, who believe on Him. He died for our sins; God punished Him instead of us, who have received Jesus as Saviour; He died for us, and His blood flowed out from His side, and “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)).
Four classes are spoken of in this chapter, —the anointed priest (verse 3); the whole congregation (verse 13); one of the rulers (verse 22), and one of the people (verse 27). Evidently it was much more serious when the priest, or the whole people sinned; than when one of the rulers, or one of the common people did, because a more valuable animal had to be taken in those cases, and in other ways we can see a difference, but they were all alike in one way, they all needed the death of a substitute, to be forgiven for their sin.
This substitute, this one in place of ourselves, was, in these story-pictures we are reading, an animal, but those who believed God in those days knew quite well that the bullock’s death, or the goat’s or lamb’s, did not take away their sins. They were only types or shadows, of the “one offering” of Jesus’ precious blood on the cross. So, as we read this chapter, let us think of the glorious Person Who came down from the sky “in tenderest pity for sinners to die.”
The priest has sinned; what must he do? He brings, for his sin a young bullock without a blemish on it, unto the Lord for a sin offering. He brings it to the door of the tabernacle, and there lays his hand on the creature’s head, in token of his sin being put on it, instead of himself. Then the bullock is killed; its blood carefully caught, is put in three places, —seven times before that veil behind which God’s dwelling place was; then on the corners of the golden altar of incense; and last, at the bottom of the brass altar of burnt offering. In type, this was the blood of Jesus, the basis of our relationship with God; of communion with Him, and the means of the putting away of our sins.
As in the peace offering of chapter three, the fat, and some of the inner parts, were burned on the brass altar, but here there was a total change from what we have seen in other chapters, —the whole body was carried outside the camp to a clean place where the ashes were poured out, and there it was burned. Although there was that in Jesus, as the Sin bearer, that spoke of the real worth of the Victim, yet He was forsaken, not by man, but by God, on the cross, because God could not look upon sin, and Jesus was there taking our place as guilty before Him. The sin offering could not, therefore, be burned on the altar in the tabernacle; it must be taken away from God’s dwelling place, away too from the camp of those who were in a certain way His people, because it represented sin. Faintly, but surely, this sets before us the real fact, most solemn for us to think of, that in dying for our sins, Jesus endured to the uttermost, the anger of God against sin.
When the whole congregation had sinned, the offering, the sprinkling of the blood, and the burning of the body outside the camp, were required just as for the anointed priest, but there is this added. “and the priest shall make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them” (verse 20).
A ruler who sinned might bring a young male goat; and one of the common people might bring a young female goat, or a female lamb, without blemish. Their blood was not put before the veil, nor on the golden altar; nor was their flesh burned outside the camp. It made a difference who sinned; if the anointed priest, or all the people, the communion of all was spoiled.
ML 12/24/1922