Leviticus

Leviticus 5:1-4

1. Truth is important to the Lord.  Telling a lie was an obvious sin.  However, being aware of a lie and not speaking up is also a sin in God's eyes. 
2. Ceremonial uncleanness required a sacrifice to remove guilt and restore purity.  Coming in contact with a carcass or an unclean animal defiled the man.  The idea is that one accidentally comes in contact with these things.  Human uncleanness is associated with certain bodily functions. 
3. A promise is a promise even if we didn't give it enough thought of spoke in bravado or pride.  Even if this was a promise to do something good and you couldn't see it through, it brought guilt. 

These offerings are different because they person wasn't aware at the beginning.  This could be:

1. They had become defiled, forgotten at first and later remembered.
2. They were completely unaware they were defiled, but later became aware.

The person is guilty but only becomes aware of it later.  This might be someone informed them of the occasion or a guilty conscience. 

Leviticus 5:5-10

Once guilt was established by realizing they had sinned, confession and a trespass offering were required.  This is the same as described in chapter 5.  It is the sin offering of the common people; a female kid of the goats or lamb.

If he is unable to bring a lamb then two turtledoves or pigeons were accepted.  One was for the sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. 

Leviticus 5:11-13

If the person was poor and could not bring a lamb or the prescribed birds as an offering, then he could bring 1/10^th Ephah (equal to 1/3 of gallon milk jug) of fine flour as a sin offering.  While a grain offering always had oil and frankincense, the sin offering did not.  The memorial portion was taken by the priest and offered on the fire.  The remainder was given to the priest.  Like all the sin offerings, there would be no benefit to the one bringing the offering. 

These offerings cause some debate because they are a bloodless offering making atonement for sin.  However, it also displays God's grace in making atonement available for everyone.

Leviticus 5:14-19

Attempting to categorize the sin offering and trespass offerings and all their uses is difficult and there are various attempts by scholars.  The sin offering was used to receive forgiveness, de-sin a person.  These things pertain to a breach of faith – violation of covenant law.  This seems fairly straight forward (until you get to chapter 6). 

The trespass offering seems to be a category of the sin offering used for decontamination of the sacred.   Desecration occurred in numerous ways through an act of sacrilege.

• If this trespass involved the things of the Lord (v.15) then it required restitution.
• There is some discussion whether it required a ram with a valuation in shekels.
  • i.e. a ram, plus 20% of the value of ram in shekels.
  • Or, value of ram plus 20%, all in shekel currency.
• The important idea was that restitution of 20% was required.

Ignorance could not be used as an excuse.  The iniquity was still yours, whether you were aware of acknowledge it.  He would presumably be made aware through conscience, testimony of others, prophet or some other unknown means.

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