Leviticus 4:31, commentary and pictures

This law belongs to the sin offering appointed for a ruler or for one of the common people. It is part of the Mosaic system in which sin offerings were required in addition to the tithe and thank offerings.

It shows the daily ministration by which the sins of repentant Israelites were transferred in figure to the earthly sanctuary. Day by day the repentant sinner brought his offering to the door of the tabernacle and placed his hand upon the victim's head and confessed his sins, thus transferring them in figure from himself to the innocent sacrifice. The animal was then slain because the broken law demanded the life of the transgressor, the life of the flesh is in the blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission, the blood representing the forfeited life of the sinner whose guilt the victim bore.

In this case the blood was not carried into the holy place to be sprinkled before the veil behind which was the ark containing the transgressed law and put upon the horns of the golden altar, as was done for a priest or for the whole congregation. Instead the flesh of the victim was to be eaten by the priest in a holy place, in the court of the tent of meeting, which God gave to bear the iniquity of the congregation. Both ceremonies alike symbolized the transfer of sin from the penitent to the sanctuary.

The sin offering stood with many other required returns beyond the tithe that kept God's claims paramount and reminded the people of the Giver in almost every article by the sanctification of property. With it stood trespass offerings, sacrificial offerings, ransom for the first-born, and first-fruits of flocks and harvest. With it stood leaving harvest corners and dropped grain for the poor, letting the land produce spontaneously for the needy every seven years, remitting debts every seventh year, hospitalities and gifts to the poor, and assessments on property as systematic and regular donations required of all and proportioned according to the amount possessed, so that the larger the capital entrusted the more valuable the gift required. Conscientious givers returned about one-third of income for religious interests and the poor and answered at stated periods whether vows were faithfully performed, and beyond these were special calls for free-will offerings such as the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple at Jerusalem. God made these drafts on the people for their own good and to sustain His service, and the same claim remains imperative on Christians, so that one with ten or twenty thousand dollars must give his proportion by the tithing system and also present his sin offerings and thank offerings to God.