Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

What we have seen so far in our study of Leviticus is that we are brought into relationship with God through the burnt offering that provides the basis for the peace offering joined with the meal offering symbolizing our fellowship with God over a meal.

That was symbolic of ratifying the covenant with God.

We saw that in the NT as being born again, through repentance and faith in Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.

The fellowship meal of the Lord’s supper.

Then in chapters four and five to this point we looked at the sin offering.

Which is the OT equivalent of .

It is the dealing with sin though we are in relationship with God.

That is the , aspect of the Christian life.

Now we are looking at another side of the believers life in which he sins unintentionally by treating as common something that God has made holy.

While the sin offering was against the Lord and required a sacrifice, the guilt offering requires the sacrifice and restitution to be paid to the one offended.

We basically have three sections in this passage:

This is one guilt offering.

That is the initial discussion leading off with the phrase that sets apart sections:

The guilt offering that is found out and restitution paid, v.15-16

The Lord spoke to Moses saying

The guilt offering for sin that is not certain, no restitution paid, v.17-19

The guilt offering for defrauding someone by using God’s name in vain, 6:1-7

Each one of these are a little bit different but essentially the same result is the purpose.

The guilt offering that is found out and restitution paid, v.15-16

To understand this offering we have to understand what is meant by a trespass.

You notice also this is done through ignorance.

The unintentional, or ‘through ignorance’ is the same we learned in chapter four.

“the one who sins through ignorance from the holy things of the Lord.”

The Hebrew for trespass maal.

Here it is actually two words emphasizing the intensity/serious nature of the sin.

It is timaal maal- The same word which means to be disloyal to a covenant that had been agreed upon.the

idea of covering, as in a cloak, so to cover up what was done.

or to act in secret.

It is the thought of being unfaithful or treacherous, as in spouse’s unfaithfulness.

In the inter mixing by marriage of Jews with Gentiles was considered an act of unfaithfulness to the Lord.

King Saul died because he did not keep the commands of the Lord, He committed a breach of faith, a trespass.

What did he do?

He consulted a medium rather than the Lord.

One other example would be King Uzziah who treated the Lord with contempt when he offered incense on the altar of incense and was struck with Leprosy, .

He was treacherous before the Lord in that he went where only the designated priest was to go.

He showed contempt for the Lord in his disobedience.

In other words it is an overstepping of the boundary between what is common and what is holy.

It is to treat what God calls holy as though it is common.

Thus, minimizing God, treating him as common.

When someone treats our words or opinion as unimportant.

We see it as them disrespecting our person.

The point is that this sin is an treacherous act of unfaithfulness to the covenant with the Lord.

A violation of religious law.

This is against God.

It is an act of betrayal.

Think of how you feel when someone betrays you.

You thought they were a friend, but in the end they were found to be more concerned with self than with you.

The holy things are those things that are dedicated to the Lord for His use alone.

This would be a violation of the commands/regulations that deal with holy things and how they are to be handled.

As in Uzziah and the altar of incense or as in the parts of the food offerings that belong to the Lord or the priest.

What might be in mind is that the offender inadvertantly ate part of what belonged to the priest or failed to give the priest the part of the offering that belonged to them.

“the one who sins through ignorance from the holy things of the Lord.”

The holy things are those things that are dedicated to the Lord for His use alone.

This would be or violation of the commands/regulations that deal with holy things and how they are to be handled.

As in Uzziah and the altar of incense or as in the parts of the food offerings that belong to the Lord or the priest.

The one who sins in this way is to bring a trespass/guilt offering (asem) it is the idea of compensation/restitution to pay for the offense.

This is seen in .

it is the idea of reparation, the repairing of a breach of covenant by the payment of a penalty.

So that is the restitution part of this.

Only when restitution has been satisfied is it appropriate to bring the guilt offering sacrifice of the ram.

The Ram is the normal payment to be valued according to the going rate of silver on the standard weight of the temple shekel, which was about 4oz.

The way it would apparently work is you would purchase your ram for the going rate of silver.

Whereas for the sin offering there could be a number of different animals offered, in this it is only the Ram.

And the value of the ram is not the issue, the cost of which would generally be the same for any ram according to the temple shekel.

But rather the priest would set the value not of the ram, but to fix the symbolical value of the trespass.

While the sprinkling of blood was the prominent idea in the expiation of sin in the sin offering.

it is restitution that is the prominent idea on the guilt offering, it was the restoration of rights or value.

Payment was made in other words, with a value of 20% added.

v.16

How does christ sacrifice restore or pay restitution to God for treating Him in a common way, as we minimize what He calls holy or we use His name in vain, thus in both ways disrespecting God?

v.16

He would not only replace what was taken and treated as common, but he would also add 20% to it.

He would not only replace what was taken and treated as common, but he would also add 20% to it.

Look at in the case of a food item that belonged to the priest, that was inadvertently eaten by the offerer, he would replace the food item and add 20% to it and give it to the priest who was offended.

().

The result will be that the sin is atoned for and forgiveness granted.

The violation or trespass of the Lord’s holy things shows the serious nature of not respecting God’s property.

To not respect what belongs to Him is to show disrespect to Him.

Eli’s two sons violated this without repentance.

You can understand this when some doesn’t treat what belongs to you with respect, you view that them not respecting you.

Those who don’t care about your things don’t care about you.

This is seen in NT when Paul speaks of our bodies belonging to God in , so don’t treat it with disrespect in terms of things like sexual immorality, abuse, etc.

It is Christ who pays the penalty for our breach.

We could never pay the debt.

It is always out of reach.

But Christ restores what we have treated as common.

Christ is seen as our trespass offering in that passage, we were bought with the blood of Christ.

Nevertheless, Christ is seen as our trespass offering in that passage, we were bought with the blood of Christ.

Nevertheless, Christ is seen as our trespass offering in that passage, we were bought with the blood of Christ.

II.

The guilt offering for sin that is not certain, no restitution paid, v.17-19

This is a second category of guilt offering.

If the soul that sins does one from all the commands of the Lord,

which he is not to do

and does not know it

and he is guilty

and bear up iniquity (suffer his punishment)

This is different from the first in that he thinks he has sinned but doesn’t know exactly what he did, ‘he wist it not.’

Why would he think he might have sinned?

How does he find out his guilt?