SIN OFFERING

“…Thus the cohen will make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven.”
Leviticus 4:20b

In addition to keeping up with these Torah Portion posts, I also have a blog titled ON THE VANGUARD. It is on this blog that I find myself writing about a variety of different subjects as I feel Adonai leading me. More times than not, however, I feel Him speaking to me on the topic of sin and forgiveness. Perhaps I have an issue with it, or perhaps my readers struggle with it. Regardless of who, it is the main subject, and the subject I found myself writing about also this morning. Allow me to share just a portion of what Adonai showed me today.
As I was reading a book titled Plan B, by Pete Wilson, I found myself interested in the details of a Twelve Step program. A Twelve Step program is based on twelve steps, amazing I know. Step one is to admit that you have a problem. This problem could be drugs, alcohol, gambling, what have you. Step three, though, points to making a decision to turn our will and lives over to the care of a higher being, Adonai. In essence, step three is about surrender. Consider this thought from Pete Wilson when he writes, “If you try to overcome your Plan B, your problem, your junk, your sin, on your own, it will beat you. Surrender your will, humble yourself, as scary as that is, and then another kind of life becomes possible.” Isn’t this other kind of life what we all want? The problem is that this other kind of life hinges on a major if/then statement. If we surrender to Adonai, then we will know this life. But if we chose not to surrender to Him, then we can only blame ourselves for where we are.
By offering ourselves to our sin, we become slaves to that sin. Yet when we willingly surrender our life to Adonai, our life then takes on a whole new outlook and purpose. We can admit all day long that we have a problem, but that problem will not get any better until we make the decision to turn our will and lives over to the care of Adonai. On our own, we are weak. This points to one major truth – we need Him. And because He knew we were going to mess up, He made a way for forgiveness to be found in the sin offering.
Like the other offerings we have looked at already, the sin offering also involved a non-blemished animal. Whether a priest, common person, or leader, the details of the offering were the same, including placing the hand on the animal and sacrificing it. The cohen would then take some of the animal’s blood and sprinkle it seven times in front of the curtain of the sanctuary and horns of the altar for fragrant incense before Adonai. The remaining blood was poured at the base of the altar, the fat and inner organs removed, and hide, head, lower parts, inner organs and dung taken outside the camp to be burned.
The whole point to all these offerings, but maybe more so this sin offering, was because Adonai wanted to be near His people. His heart for His people craved this in His walks with Adam, in His times with Moshe and David, and in the way He still makes a way for the barrier of sin to be removed even now. He wants us to fully surrender to His will. Still, in the times when we struggle, He has made a way both then in the Old Testament, and later through His Son in the New Testament.

Leviticus 4:1-26