"“If a person sins in hearing the utterance of an oath, and is a witness, whether he has seen or known of the matter—if he does not tell it, he bears guilt.
“Or if a person touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of unclean livestock, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and he is unaware of it, he also shall be unclean and guilty. Or if he touches human uncleanness—whatever uncleanness with which a man may be defiled, and he is unaware of it—when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty.
“Or if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath, and he is unaware of it—when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters."
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Whereas the Sin Offering is about who you "ARE," the Trespass Offering is about what you "DO."
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What Qualifies As Sin.
If you even so much as heard the utterance of an oath or knew of it and did not report it, you were guilty of that sin when you became aware of it.
If you happened to touch an unclean animal or the carcass of a clean dead animal, you were guilty of sin when you became aware of it.
If you touched any human uncleanness, whether excrement or other bodily discharge, you were guilty of sin when you became aware of it.
If a person spoke or swore or spoke an oath thoughtlessly, whether for a good or a bad purpose, when you became aware of it, you were guilty of sin.
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I think the last one would probably catch most of us, speaking for myself. Every single one of these offenses were cause to bring your trespass offering to the priest. They must have been pretty busy!
Whether you brought a bullock, a goat, a sheep, two birds or a handful of flour, your sins were identified with the sacrifice. In the case of the animals and birds, you laid your hands on the animal and killed it with your own hands. The priest took it from there.
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Degrees Of Sin.
Are there degrees of sin? Are some greater than others? Yes, as we learned in Part 8.
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The different sizes of offerings speak to the different degrees of sin and different people's views of God. Some sins are more serious than others as evidenced, for instance, in the story of Joseph.
You recall he was a slave in Egypt in the house of Potiphar. He was second in command under Pharoah. His wife took a liking to Joseph and sought to seduce him.
This wealthy man would have had his pick of the most beautiful and young women of Egypt. She would have been a "looker," as they say.
One day, when he was alone in the house with her, she went after him again. Let's follow the story in Genesis 39:7-9
" And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.”
8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. 9 There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
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Joseph lived more than 400 years BEFORE THE LAW, yet he called adultery, "GREAT WICKEDNESS." How did he know that without the law? How did he know to call it "GREAT WICKEDNESS?"
So you see, there really are degrees of sin.
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Divine Exchange.
If you have been following this series, you know that when you laid your hands on the Burnt Offering, the representative righteousness of the innocent victim passed to you. The opposite, however, happened when you placed your hands of the innocent victim in the sin and trespass offering. Your sins were transferred to the innocent animal. They are both a divine exchange that happens simultaneously when you accept Jesus as your Savior.
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Imagine how you would feel if you had to bring a live animal to a priest, lay your hands on it's head, confess your sin or sins and kill it with your own bare hands. As you watched the animal suffer and die, you have a much different understanding of what your sin has cost. Jesus did that for every human being on the whole planet, from one end of history to the other. He was punished as if He were the worst human being of all time!
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When you brought your offering to the priest, he did not examine you. What would be the point? He knew why you were there. He examined your lamb. You see, it's not about you. It never was. It's about your lamb.
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It's Not About You.
All these offerings depict Jesus sacrifice on the cross. He paid for all of our sins and our sin nature IN FULL.....and then some!
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Most Christians understand this part. The problem arises in their inability to understand what they have have become because of The Burnt Offering: They have been made The Righteousness of God in Christ!
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These offerings so beautifully showcase that we are not righteous because of what we do, but because of what Christ has done. We come to God, not in our own righteousness; we come into God's presence bringing Jesus, our Perfect Lamb!
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Sin vs Sins.
The trespass offering paid for "sins (plural) committed," i.e. your deeds; the sin offering paid for "sin (singular)," meaning the sin nature we inherited from Adam. You see, we aren't sinners because we commit sins; we are sinners because of Adam's sin. Jesus' one offering on the cross takes care of both. He paid for your sin AND your sins!
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Leviticus 5:114-16
"Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “If a person commits a trespass, and sins unintentionally in regard to the holy things of the Lord, then he shall bring to the Lord as his trespass offering a ram without blemish from the flocks, with your valuation in shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary, as a trespass offering. And he shall make restitution for the harm that he has done in regard to the holy thing, and shall add one-fifth to it and give it to the priest. So the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him."
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If your trespass was against the LORD, such as touching the Holy things inadvertently, you were to bring a ram to the priest, which is a male animal obviously. If you remember, male animals typify that which is of benefit TO God, or "God-ward." Female depicted "man-ward."
In this case, restitution was required. Moses would make a valuation of the offense, you have to pay 100% and add 1/5 more, which is a double tithe. That equals 120%.
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God Gained MUCH MORE Through The Cross.
Church, that's exactly what Jesus did for the Father and for us. You see, God made the whole world and everything in it. He then turned around and gave it over into man's hands. In other words, He invested in us.
But what did Adam do? He handed the keys, as it were, over to the devil, and God lost all of His investment.
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Huge Debt Of Sin.
Because of Adam's fall, we owed God a HUGE debt of sin, a debt we could not pay. But Jesus came and made Himself liable for that sin-debt in our place. He, by His blood and sacrifice, not only paid back 100%, He made restitution to His Father on our behalf. He added 1/5 more: 120%.
God gained back much more through redemption than He ever lost via creation. what the second Adam did was GREATER by far than what the first Adam did.
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This same benefit is accorded to you and I. When the devil attacks and steals from us, he has to make RESTITUTION. We get back all that we lost plus the spoils: 120% restoration!
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Acceptable Animals.
Leviticus 5:5-6
“And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing; and he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord for his sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin."
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So, a person was to bring a lamb or a kid of the goats. He must confess his sin or sins before the priest and then make his offering.
We read further on that if he could not afford either of those animals, he could bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons. If he couldn't afford birds, he could bring 1/10th of an ephah of flour.
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Animal sacrifices for this offering were female, either a lamb, a goat, two turtle doves or pigeons. But if the man was very poor, even a handful of flour would be accepted.
The point is that God wants everyone to be forgiven for their trespasses and made allowance for men of all economic means.
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"FEMALE" denotes that it is "man-ward," or of benefit TO MAN.
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How Big Is Your God?
As you learned in the portion about burnt offering of this series, the size of the offering was based on economic status. In our dispensation, it depicts a person's perception of Jesus. A bullock is a BIG revelation, a sheep or goat a medium-sized revelation, birds smaller still and a handful of flour smallest of all. Yet no matter how you see Him, what understand or appreciate about God, you are no less forgiven and acceptable to God. Same Jesus; same blood that cleanses you.
It does, however, affect your walk through life. If you have a big revelation of Jesus, you can receive big blessings. If not, you cannot receive big from, God.
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How Big Is Your Faith.
It speaks to the size of your faith. As there are different degrees of sin, so there are different degrees of faith, though it only takes faith as small as a grainy of mustard to receive your miracle.
Jesus said to His disciples in Luke 8, "Where is your faith?" So we have NO faith.
On the Sea of Galilee, when there was a great storm, Jesus came walking to them on the sea. Peter was allowed to get out of the boat and walk to Him, but soon began to sink when he looked at the storm around. Jesus said to him, Why did you doubt, oh you of LITTLE faith?"
And finally, there was the centurion who's servant was sick. Jesus offered to come and heal him, but the man refused, telling Jesus that he only needed to speak the word and the servant wold be healed in Matthew 8:10 "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!"
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You see? There is "no faith, little faith, and great faith!"
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The entire animal was burned, including it's entrails containing the animal's excrement or dung outside the camp. That's why Jesus was crucified OUTSIDE THE CAMP.
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New Covenant Of Grace.
5, in case you didn't know, is the number of "Grace." Grace is a person: Our Lord Jesus. It took 5 different offerings to describe that one, beautiful, multi-faceted sacrifice of our Lord Jesus! Back then, sins could only be covered. Ours, however, ARE CLEANSED FOR OUR ENTIRE LIVES under the New Covenant.
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In Psalm 51:10-11, David earnestly prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me."
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What he longed for, WE HAVE! His dream is our reality. The Holy Spirit doesn't come and go as in the Old Testament. Because their sins were only covered, He could only reside ON individuals. Today He lives IN US because our spirits are CLEANSED by the blood of Jesus. HALLELUJAH!!!!!
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I hope that understanding these sacrifices and offerings give you a better idea of just how serious sin is to God and what we have been redeemed from. Jesus paid a price we will never fully know, even in eternity.
Aren't you glad that we have not only been delivered from all our sins but from the bondage that comes from the continual consciousness of sins? That's what those offerings did; constantly reminded them of their sins every time they brought an offering to the priest.
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The War Is Over.
In Jesus, we have the Sin and Trespass offering: Our sin nature is cleansed and our sinful deeds covered. Because all our sins are cleansed, we have Jesus, our Peace offering, Who made Peace with God possible. The war is OVER!
We have Jesus, our Minchah/Grain offering. Because of His perfect life, He qualified to die that death for us and become for us the Bread of Life.
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Now that we understand that our sin nature and sinful deeds are taken care of; Now that we have peace with God; Now that we are feeding on The Bread Of Life, we can come to a place of spiritual maturity where we clearly see that WE ARE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST because of Jesus our BURNT OFFERING!!!
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All I can say is, "Wow!" Jesus, we are forever grateful! THANK YOU! You OVERpaid ALL the debt that was against us. Your one, selfless, beautiful sacrifice has fulfilled all of these: The five offerings of Leviticus.
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