Year 1, Day 95: Leviticus 6

Categories of Sin, Revisited

The beginning of Leviticus 6 puts forth a stark reminder that people of faith should not forget about.  Often when people speak about sin, we speak about sin in two categories: sins against God and sins against one another.  This concept is really a fallacy that human beings construct in order to make our perceived judgment of our lives more reasonable.  We think that the grievous sins against God are what He cares the most about while the simple sins against one another are really just trivial sins for which we can forgive one another.

Now, most people of faith will immediately see the fallacy of this and deny that they actually live that way.  But the truth is that no matter how much we deny it, we do live this way.  We lie to one another all the time.  We are willing to try and deceive one another, present false impressions of who we are as an individual, and assert motivations that aren’t really true to the motivations that live within.  We live as though we can hide the sin from each other and only have to be careful of the sins that are truly against God directly.

But this is not true at all.  Look at Leviticus 6:2 as evidence.  This verse tells us that offenses against one another are actually offenses against God.  There are not two categories of sin: sins against one another and sins against God.  There is simply one category: sins against God.  Now, there are some sins against God that are also sins against one another.  But all sins are fundamentally sins against God.  God takes the things that we do against each other personally.

There might be different categories of people who sin.  We saw that truth a few days ago.  But we do not have multiple categories of sin.  All sin is against God – even the sin that we would prefer to classify as sin against one another.

Priestly Duties

The section that follows seems likes a fairly simple passage about the priest’s duties for the sacrifices.  In truth, they are fairly simple and straightforward.  However, let’s not look too far too fast. 

Notice that the fire upon the altar was to never go out.  Also, notice that the burnt offerings were to be offered first and then the other offerings were to be added to it.  Symbolically, this says something to us.  The burnt offering is given as a gift to God and a reminder to us of His grace, righteousness, and justification.  From our perspective, by burning the burnt offering first and then adding the other sacrifices as they come from the people we are essentially saying that everything we have received is founded upon the grace, righteousness, and justification that comes from God.  God is the very foundation upon which everything we have comes from Him.

Priestly Sacrifices

Finally, here is an interesting tidbit.  Did you notice as you read that when a priest was to give an offering for himself that the whole of the sacrifice was to be burned?  In most of the sacrifices that are offered to God by the priest from the laity, the priest got to keep a share.  But when the priest offers a sacrifice for his own sinfulness, God gets it all.

There is a pretty simple reason for this.  A priest should not rely upon his own offerings for support.  When a priest gives, he should be giving to God rather than supporting himself.  So it should be today.  When others give, it is acceptable for the minister to be given a proper share according to the Lord.  But when a minister of God gives, he or she should not recoup any of the benefit for himself or else the motivation for the gift might become corrupt.

<><