Leviticus 4-6

As I read this text, the main question in my mind is, "so what is the difference between the guilt and sin offering?" I am guessing some of you wonder that as well. If you read it carefully, there is a distinction – the sin offering is for unintentional sins that we might have done and not known it (and still don't know it) and the guilt offering are for sins that were unintentionally committed that we have learned about. Let me illustrate, if I may. Let's say that you have a friend who has a condition you know nothing about. You are blabbing one day and offend him/her by talking about their disease in a flippant way. Later, you go to the altar to repent of this sin – the guilt offering would be if you talked to your friend and they admitted it/the sin offering would be for the sin you committed without even knowing it. This may be a small or dumb example, but I think it shows the point.

Ultimately, however, the real point is that God is hurt by sins we don't even know we do. You might read Leviticus and Deuteronomy as time goes on and see something God says and go, "Wow! I have done that and didn't realize it was sin!" This would be a guilt offering thing, and some of us will never fully know what we are doing that is upsetting God – sin offering. Either way, we are messed up and need forgiveness. That was the point of these sacrifices. As I said yesterday – Jesus paid the price for all of these sacrifices. He forgives us for unintentional sins. He forgives us of our guilt and sin. He makes things right again. How amazing is that!