Leviticus 4

v1-2: The sins for which the sin offerings were to be offered were “explicit acts, for if they had been required to bring a sacrifice for every sinful thought or word, the task would have been endless. Atonement was made for those generally once a year on the Day of Atonement.” These sins were sins of commission, “things which ought not to be done” and “committed through ignorance.”

v3-12: If the high priest sins unintentionally, “though he of all people was the least excusable for ignorance, he was still allowed to bring his offering.” His “high position and his relationship with God and the people made his offences worse” compared to any other leader or ordinary person and this was seen in the offering he had to offer.

v13-21: “God will always have a church on earth,” but this side of heaven, “he has never said that it would be infallible or perfectly pure from corruption.” The church will be saved from destruction “because of the atonement and mediation of Christ.”

v22-26: “What we have done wrong, we should want very much to come to know about so that we can put matters right.” Every day, we should pray that God would show us where we have erred and strayed, so “that though we may unintentionally fall into sin, we may not unintentionally remain in it.”

v27-35: As we read of the sin offering, it should encourage us “to value Christ, the great and true sin offering, whose blood cleanses us from all sin,” but also “to hate sin and to guard against it.”

Leviticus 5

v1-6: “As soon as God by his Spirit convicts our consciences of any sin or duty, we must immediately act on that conviction and pursue it as those who are not ashamed to acknowledge our former mistake.” It is far easier to generally acknowledge that we have sinned, “for that is something that everyone must own up to,” than to admit we have sinned in a specific way. But if we are to experience “a deep sense of forgiveness” and “to be well armed against sin in the future,” we must be “detailed in our repentance and confession.”

v7-13: “Poverty will never prevent someone from receiving forgiveness.”

v14-19: Guilt offerings “were offered to atone for trespasses done against a neighbour.” These trespasses can be in holy things, against the Lord’s ministers, or in ordinary things. These trespasses we can be certain of or unsure about. “In doubtful cases we should choose and keep to the safer side,” by asking for “forgiveness for the sin” and by applying “Christ’s atonement to the wrong which we suspect ourselves guilty of.”