The Book of Leviticus

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God lists ways guilt is quietly incurred in daily life. A man hears "the voice of swearing," is a witness who has "seen or known" the truth, but stays silent when called to testify, "then he shall bear his iniquity." Another touches something unclean, a carcase or the uncleanness of man, unaware at the time, but "when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty." Another swears a rash oath "to do evil, or to do good," binding himself thoughtlessly. These are not scandalous crimes but common failures, silence, carelessness, hasty words. Yet each leaves real guilt. And God's first requirement is not the animal but the admission: "he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing." Only after honest confession is the sin offering brought and atonement made.

Gospel Focus

Before God accepts the offering, He requires confession, and that order has never changed. Atonement is not for those who excuse their sin but for those who own it. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). The gospel meets the same honesty with the same grace: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Notice too how ordinary these sins are, the guilt of the silent witness, the careless touch, the rash word. God's holiness reaches into the small and quiet corners of life, not only the great and public sins. We are called to confess not just the sins the world would condemn, but the ones only God sees: the truth we did not speak, the words we should not have said. The way to mercy is the same for all of them, an honest heart that agrees with God and names its sin as sin.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Here God shows a tender care for the poor. The usual sin offering was a female lamb or kid, but not everyone could afford one. So the law made a way down: if a person could not bring a lamb, he could bring "two turtledoves, or two young pigeons," one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering. And if even the birds were beyond his means, he could bring "the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour," the cheapest of offerings. This flour was treated as a sin offering, so unlike the grain offering of chapter 2, "he shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he put any frankincense thereon," for it stood in the place of sin and could carry no fragrance or joy. But the outcome was exactly the same as for the rich man's lamb: "the priest shall make an atonement for him... and it shall be forgiven him." The poorest sinner in Israel received the very same forgiveness as the wealthiest.

Gospel Focus

This graded offering reveals the heart of God toward the poor. Atonement was never for sale; forgiveness could not be priced out of anyone's reach. Whether a man brought a lamb, two birds, or a handful of flour, he received the same full pardon, for the value was never in the size of the gift but in the grace of God who accepted it. It is deeply moving that when the Lord Jesus was presented as a baby, His parents were too poor for a lamb and brought instead "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons" (Luke 2:24), the offering of the poor. The Saviour of the world was born into a family that could bring only the humblest sacrifice, for "though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor" (2 Corinthians 8:9). No one is too poor to be saved, and no one can be rich enough to buy it. The gospel comes to the beggar and the king on the very same terms, by grace, through the one offering of Christ.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter now turns to the trespass, or guilt, offering. Its special concern was sin "in the holy things of the LORD," when a person wronged or defrauded God of what was due Him, perhaps by neglecting a tithe, an offering, or a sacred obligation. Such a sinner brought "a ram without blemish" as his trespass offering, but that was not all. He also had to "make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing," repaying in full what he had withheld or damaged, and then "add the fifth part thereto," a further twenty percent. Sacrifice alone was not enough where real harm had been done; the wrong had to be repaired, and more than repaired. God joined atonement to restitution, so that forgiveness of the guilt went hand in hand with putting right the damage.

Gospel Focus

The trespass offering teaches that sin is not only a stain to be cleansed but a debt to be repaid. Real repentance does more than seek pardon; where it can, it makes things right. When Zacchaeus met Jesus, grace produced restitution on the spot: "if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold" (Luke 19:8). Forgiveness never abolishes the call to repair the harm we have caused; a truly repentant heart wants to. Yet the deepest wonder here is the debt we could never repay. We have all robbed God of the honor, love, and obedience due to Him, a debt no fifth part of ours could ever settle. So Christ, our trespass offering, not only bore our guilt but repaid what we owed, restoring to God far more glory than our sin ever stole. As one might say, He gave back what He took not away. Where we could only owe, He paid in full, and added, so to speak, the fifth part, so that God is more glorified in our redemption than He was dishonored in our fall.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter closes by pressing home a truth already seen: guilt is real even when it is unknown. "If a soul sin... though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity." A person might break one of God's commandments in total ignorance, never suspecting he had done wrong, and still be truly guilty before God and bound to bear that guilt. For such a case God appointed the same trespass offering, a ram, so that "the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him." The final word is solemn and honest: "It is a trespass offering: he hath certainly trespassed against the LORD." God does not soften the reality of the guilt, but neither does He leave it without a remedy.

Gospel Focus

"Though he wist it not, yet is he guilty." Guilt is an objective reality before a holy God, not merely a feeling in us. We may sin without knowing it and be genuinely answerable, which shatters any confidence in our own goodness; we are guilty of more than our conscience can tell us. But the same verse that names the guilt speaks of it being borne, and there lies our hope. Sin is a weight the sinner must carry, "he... shall bear his iniquity," until Another carries it for him. The great promise of the gospel is that the sinless Servant took up the very load we could not lift: "he shall bear their iniquities" (Isaiah 53:11), and "his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). The trespass offering could only picture it; Christ accomplished it. Bring Him even the guilt you cannot name, the sins you never saw, and the One who bore iniquity will lift the whole weight, and it shall be forgiven you.