Leviticus 5:1-6 "If anyone sins in that he hears a
public adjuration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he has seen
or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity; (2) or
if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether a carcass of an unclean wild animal
or a carcass of unclean livestock or a carcass of unclean swarming things, and
it is hidden from him and he has become unclean, and he realizes his
guilt; (3) or if he touches human uncleanness, of
whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean, and it is
hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and realizes his guilt; (4) or
if anyone utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good, any sort
of rash oath that people swear, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to
know it, and he realizes his guilt in any of these; (5)
when he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin he has
committed, (6) he shall bring to the LORD as his
compensation for the sin that he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb
or a goat, for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him for
his sin.
The theme of sacrifices and offerings continues in chapter
5 with the guilt offering. As the name suggests this offering is made for sin
that is apparent, or sin that comes to light. The previous offering, the sin
offering, was to be made for unintentional and unknown sins. Sins that remained
hidden from our knowledge, yet our guilt in regards to committing them remained
and thus payment was required. The guilt offering was instituted as a means of
seeking to deal with known and public sin. This offering was also accompanied
by the necessary restitution that needed to be made for that particular sin.
Thus far we have looked at the burnt offering, the thank offering,
the sin offering and the guilt offering. With all these offerings, we may
wonder to ourselves, why do there need to be so many, why didn’t God just
institute one offering that could be offered up to cover all of the above?
These offerings were not cheap, it required a person to have to buy the animal
and then make a costly journey to Jerusalem. Why not make it easier and more
economical and just have one offering? Furthermore is God not being a bit
unreasonable in demanding that every time we sin deliberately that we need to
make an offering for that sin? Why can’t we just offer up an offering every
couple of years?
To us that may make common sense, but by thinking in this
manner it shows how our view of sin differs from God’s view. We fail to understand
the gravity and offence of sin, we reduce it, down play it and excuse it. As
was mentioned when we looked at Leviticus 4, many in the world will think of
God as being harsh and unfair in holding us responsible for sins that we were
not even aware of. And when we do sin deliberately we seek to minimise, justify
and excuse it, we will argue against being held accountable for it, and will
seek to pass the responsibility and guilt for it, on to another person.
All of these offerings are designed to teach us the need
for us to take personal responsibility for our relationship with God and for
our sin. No other person can bring us closer to God and cause us to grow in
spiritual maturity, and no one else can take responsibility for our sin. We
need to realise that God calls each and every one of us to take our
relationship with His seriously, we are all called to walk in obedience to Him
and to live for the glory of His name. When we do fall into sin, instead of
denying, downplaying, reducing or excusing it, we need to take responsibility
for it. We need to take responsibility for our sin, before God and before men,
seeking God’s forgiveness, and making restitution to those whom we have
wronged. Neither our personal relationship with God nor our sinfulness can be
taken lightly, they are deeply serious and demand our daily attention.
For us today who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we are filled with daily gratitude that our sin has been completely dealt with
by Christ. We no longer need to make sacrifices on a regular basis. However, it
is all the more important for us to understand the seriousness of sin and our
need to not only avoid it, but also to take immediate responsibility for it. We
need to take it quickly to God in prayer, seeking His forgiveness and the
strengthening of His Spirit to keep us from further sin. One of the greatest
ways in which we can demonstrate our thankfulness for the salvation of Christ,
our understanding of sin and the importance of our relationship with God, is by
seeking daily to grow in our relationship with God. We do not invest time,
effort, resources and make sacrifices for relationships that we see as being of
little worth or importance. Sadly, many Christians make rather poor investments
into their relationship with God, which reflects on how poorly they understand
their salvation. We need to be willing to invest greatly in our relationship
with God. As we make this investment, we will see the returns very quickly. We
will grow in our appreciation of who God is and the depths of our salvation, we
will know more of the holiness of God and therefore the repulsiveness and
gravity of sin. We will gain spiritual strength through a greater knowledge of
the Scriptures and a deeper prayer life, which will help us to battle against
sin. We will gain greater spiritual insight and discernment, so that we can see
truth and error, right and wrong with greater clarity. We will grow in wisdom
and learn how we can apply that wisdom to our lives in practical ways. We will
find the tremendous joy and abiding peace that comes when we walk closely with
the Lord.
All the offerings in Leviticus were designed to help the
people of Israel grow ever deeper in their relationship with God. Because of
Christ we no longer have to make those offerings, however we are also called to
grow deeper in our relationship with God and to take sin seriously.
Righteous Father, we thank
You that You created us to have a personal relationship with You. We thank You
all the more that even after we fell into sin, You still desired to have a relationship
with us, and put in place a means by which we could approach You, which
culminated in and was completely accomplished by Christ. Thank You that because
of Christ we now have a restored personal relationship with You both in this
life and in the life to come. We pray that You would help us to grow and to
invest in this relationship, and to understand the gravity of sin. Make it the
daily, burning and compelling desire of our hearts to want to live for You and
to walk deeper and closer with You each and every day. Amen.
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