Lev. 4: Uh...I didn't know that was wrong!

Sometimes I do stuff that I don't know is wrong. Its unintentional. I didn't mean to do it. And that makes me think, "How can someone not know that what they are doing is wrong in the sight of God?" Southern comic Jerry Clower once said that "If you have to think about it, the chances are you should not do it." And for the most part I agree with him. I haven't ever done something that I found out later was wrong that I didn't have a little debate in my mind about it.

Chapter 4 goes through what is set up to be in place when a priest, the whole Israelite community, a leader, or an individual member of the community sins unintentionally.

With the priest, he's got to slaughter a male bull, dip his finger in some blood, go to the curtain to the sanctuary, and sprinkle it seven times. Then he's got to go into the Tent of Meeting, and smear some on the horns of the altar of incense. After that, he's got to pour out the blood at the altar of burnt offering. Then he's got to remove the fat and guts like the fellowship offering and burn it on the altar. The rest of it, he's got to take outside the camp, and burn it on the ash heap. So the priest gets the whole tour of the altars.

As for the whole Israelite community, its basically the same deal. The elders of the community are the ones who have to bring a young community bull, and lay their hands on its head. Then it is turned over to the priest, and its the same process as the priest offering.

The leader sin offering is slightly different. The leader has to bring a male goat without defect. He's got to slaughter it himself at the place of the burnt offering. The priest does the incense altar horn smear, but not the seven sprinkles. Then he pours out the blood at the base of the altar, burns the fat in the same way as the fellowship offering. This is how the priest makes atonement for the unintentionally sinning leader.

The member of the community whose sin is revealed to him has to bring a female goat or a lamb. Thats basically the only difference between the leader and the individual member unintentional sin.

The bull was sacrificed for the priest. Male, an expensive and important animal. A bull was also sacrificed for the community. For the leader, it was a goat...perhaps demonstrating that the community was more important than one leader. For a random guy, it was a female goat (I wonder if it was speckled or spotted) or lamb. Not as big, not as expensive of an animal.