BROADCASTS.com

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 861 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Sin Offering vs. Forgivness - Wisdom Wednesday


Thank you for joining us for our five days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. Today is Day 861 of our Trek, and it is Wisdom Wednesday.  The past several months on Wednesday we have been focusing on interpreting current events through a Biblical Worldview.  To establish a Biblical Worldview, it is important that you also have a proper understanding of God’s Word.  Especially in our western cultures, we do not fully understand the Scriptures from the mindset and culture of the authors.  In order help us all have a better understanding of Gods Word we are investing the next several months on Wednesday reviewing a series of essays from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars Dr. Micheal S. Heiser which he has compiled into a book titled  ’I Dare You Not to Bore Me With the Bible.’

We are broadcasting from our studio at ‘The Big House’ in Marietta, OH.  To be in a good relationship with others, we must be willing to forgive them when they wrong us or fall short of our expectations.  Forgiveness is even essential to maintain a healthy mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual life. In today’s essay, we will explore the purpose of the Old Testament for the Sin Offering and if it actually provided forgiveness.
Sin Offerings vs. Forgiveness
Hebrews 10:4 proclaims “For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”  Leviticus seems to tell a different story. Even casually reading the book, we notice that Israelites who bring proper sacrifices “will be forgiven” One example of this is Leviticus 4:20 Just as he does with the bull offered as a sin offering for the high priest. Through this process, the priest will purify the people, making them right with the Lord, and they will be forgiven.

Have we reached an impasse or are there contradictions in God’s Word?

Rather than labeling this a contradiction, we might examine our own perceptions of Old Testament sacrifices—specifically, the sin offering. “Sin offering" is a translation of the Hebrew term (chatta ‘t,) which has the basic meaning of “to miss the mark' or “to fall short.” In using a traditional, familiar rendering, many English Bible translations cause us to misunderstand this sacrifice.
·       The Goal of the Sin Offering
The label “sin offering’ assumes that the goal of this sacrifice was forgiveness for moral failures or violations, or sins as we think of them. Leviticus reveals this is not the case. The sin offering was used in cases where people suffered from a bodily discharge (Lev 15), at the dedication of a new altar (Lev 8), or when a Nazirite completes a vow of abstinence (Lev 12).

The real goal of the sin offering was ritual purification. It was designed to guard sacred space or territory sanctified by God's presence—from infection by impurity. By definition, every person or object “falls short” of divine perfection and must, therefore, be ritually marked as acceptable for holy ground. The sin offering—better rendered as “purification offering’, was therefore applied to people and inanimate objects to mark them as acceptable before God. These people (and objects) were not unacceptable because they had done evil, but because they were imperfect. Instead they “fell short” of the holy perfection that God’s presence required. The ritual reinforced the idea of the complete otherness of God.

Depending on the individual's status in the community, whether priest or commoner, the blood of the offering was either used outside or inside the sanctuary. When the sin offering was for a priest, the blood was brought inside the sanctuary. This signified the priest’s undeserved,