https://esv.literalword.com/?q=lev+4
Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Monday, 17 February 2025:
Here is a message on Leviticus 4 and the sacrifice for sin and forgiveness — https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?id=10390&rel=davis_bob/Lev
Leviticus 4:1-3 – If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord’s commandments about things not to be done, and does any one of them,.. bringing guilt on the people….
“The idea [of unintentional sin] is not so much of an accidental sin, but of a sin committed by a person whose life is lived in general obedience and surrender to God. The contrast is between sins of human frailty, and sins of outright rebellion. The root of the Hebrew word translated unintentionally has the idea of ‘to wander’ or ‘to get lost.’ No one intends to get lost; but when it happens, you are still lost — and, if truly lost, need to be rescued.” (David Guzik)
We are still responsible and held accountable for our unintentional sins which reveal our sinful nature, our insensitivity to sin, our complacency, and our lack of total devotion to God. Obviously, unintentionality is a lack of intentionality which the dictionary describes as “the fact of being deliberate or purposive [or] the quality of mental states (e.g., thoughts, beliefs, desires, hopes) that consists in their being directed toward some object or state of affairs.” God commanded that all of our thoughts, beliefs, desires, and hopes be directed towards Him. Anything else is sin, cosmic treason against the LORD. Note also that individual sin has corporate implications. No sins are committed in isolation; even the ones you think are secret will eventually impact those around you.
Leviticus 4:22 — When a leader sins, doing unintentionally any one of all the things that by the commandments of the Lord his God ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a goat, a male without blemish, and shall lay his hand on the head of the goat and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the Lord; it is a sin offering.
God reminds leaders of their burden of responsibility and that, not only are they personally responsible for what they do and fail to do, their actions affect others. There are no excuses in leadership.
“The sin offering for a ruler was a lesser animal than that for the priest or the nation as a whole. This demonstrates that the ruler was not greater than God (represented by the priests) or the people as a whole.” (David Guzik)
Leviticus 4:35(b) – And the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven.
“Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth understood that sin is not an abstract concept but rather pollutes everything it touches. Having successfully murdered Duncan, she thought her deed would go unpunished. Yet she did not account for the lingering filth of her evil. Despite her best attempts to clean herself, she had to confess: ‘Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.’
The idea that sin brings pollution is thoroughly biblical, and the reality of this pollution was dealt with under the old covenant through the sin offering described in today’s passage. “Sin offering” is a perfectly acceptable translation of the Hebrew term in Leviticus 4, but what the sin offering actually accomplished is better seen in the words purification offering. The sin offering purified the sanctuary; it removed the defilement of sin that occurred when the people broke the covenant.
Our holy God cannot abide the presence of those people and things that are unclean (22:3), and each time people sinned under the old covenant, they dirtied themselves. The burnt offering solved the problem of the Lord’s wrath, but it did not purify the one offering the sacrifice. There still needed to be expiation, or the removal of sin’s pollution, from the worshipers and the instruments of worship. The blood of the sin offering accomplished this cleansing. The tabernacle that became defiled because it was located in the midst of a sinful people was cleansed by the blood of the sacrifice, and the sinner was made clean and able to stand before God again (4:1–5:13).
Unintentional sins and sins of omission were dealt with in the sin offering. These were sins people committed in ignorance of the Mosaic code or when they forgot those laws they had learned. Sins committed with a “high hand” were not covered (Num. 15:22–31). A high-handed sin is one a professing believer commits boldly and defiantly, not caring about the consequences and feeling no guilt about it once committed. It is a sin people commit fearlessly as they shake their fists, literally or figuratively, at the Lord. A sin committed with a high hand is not always the same thing as an intentional sin — all high-handed sins are intentional but not all intentional sins are high-handed. The truly converted will not commit high-handed sins, though they may commit sins of intention, albeit only after and during a struggle against the flesh (Rom. 7:7–25).
That an intentional sin is not always a high-handed sin is seen in God’s willingness to forgive sins that were clearly intentional (2 Sam. 11–12). Only those who are unconverted may sin with a high hand, for a converted person will express sorrow and contrition after an intentional sin, thereby proving it was never high-handed in the first place. As we repent over sins both intentional and unintentional, we are assured that we belong to Jesus.” (Ligonier Ministries)
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 17 February 2025: Today, pray for the Holy Spirit’s counsel and conviction, and strive to see your sin as God sees it. Consider your “respectable sins,” those sins you have accepted as natural and understandable, perhaps even beneficial, though forbidden and detested by God — gossip, anger, worry, frustration, envy, grumbling, impatience, “white lies,” harshness, course language, improper joking, withholding good, unforgiveness, ingratitude, insensitivity, slothfulness, gluttony, lust, greed, pride, etc. Repent and seek to rid these things from your life, not out of duty but out of love. Pray for a genuine desire for holiness, a heart change and not just behavior modification (but start with the behavior if you must).
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 