OT Sacrifice for personal sin

Formal sacrifice. Every day, formal evening and morning tabernacle sacrifices of a lamb (Ex 29:38-42; Nu 28:3,4), at the third hour (9.0 am) and the ninth hour (3.0 pm - see Josephus, a 1stC Roman-Jewish historian, in his ‘The Antiquities of the Jews’,14,4,3) respectively, were conducted.  These kept an awareness of the penalty for sin ever before the people, while at the same time assuring them of salvation. 

These sacrifices are addressed in great detail in the Mishnah tractate: Tamid.

Personal sacrifice. Individuals were required to make a sacrificial offering for their personal sin.  This was the most important aspect of the sacrificial system.

These offerings were the sin (law breaking, 1Jn 3:4) offering and the trespass (sins of ignorance, Le 5:15) offering, from both of which no-one was exempt.  Both sin and trespass offerings were dealt with in the same manner (Le 7:7).

All sacrificial offerings were burnt offerings, which was a complete offering for sin.  The whole point of a sin offering was to separate the sinner from the sin, and only then could the sinner receive (in figure for the time.) new life free of the sin.

1. Burnt Offering

On the north side (Le 1:11) of the Altar of Burnt Offering (situated in the entrance to the Sanctuary compound, to be seen by all), individuals had to lay their hands on the sacrifice to transfer their sin/trespass to the sacrifice, then kill the sacrifice themselves:

Lev 1:4  And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted [Strong’s H7521, be pleased with] for him to make atonement for him.

Le 4:29  And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. 

The officiating priest then smeared some of the blood of the sacrifice on the horns of the altar, and the remainder of the blood was poured out at the altar’s base:

Le 4:30  And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. 

Note. The pouring out of all the blood signifies a full and complete payment of the price of all the sin of the penitent sinner.  This indicates that true repentance is sorrow for being ‘a sinner’, not merely sorrow for having committed a particular sin.

Then the liver fat, and the kidneys and associated fat (of the sacrifice) - the fat belonged to the Lord - were burned on the altar, creating a ‘sweet savour’:

Le 3:15,16  And the two kidneys, and the fat [Strong’s H2459, the choicest part]  that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away. 

16 And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savour: all the fat [Strong’s H2459] is the LORD'S. 

The burnt offering was accepted, in figure for the time, as an atonement for sin - hence the ‘sweet savour’: God’s pleasure in, and acceptance of, the atonement.

2. Sin separated from the sinner and transferred to the Sanctuary

2.1 For a Priest (Le 4:3), or the whole congregation (Le 4:13,14),

In addition to the sacrifice at the Alter of Burnt Offering, the blood of the sacrifice (a Bullock) was sprinkled seven times (indicating completeness) before the veil (before Almighty God) as an atonement (Le 17:11) in the Holy (outer compartment) of the Sanctuary, then smeared on the horns of the Altar of Incense (which stood before the veil, Ex 30:1,6, on which incense burned continually representing the penitent prayers of the people, and Christ’s continual mediation for sinners):

Le 4:6,7  And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the vail of the sanctuary. 

7  And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 

By the smearing of blood on the horns of the Altar of Incense, the sin was ‘graven’ on the horns (Je 17:1), thereby separating the sin from the sinner (a priest), transferring it to the Sanctuary - the smearing of the blood on the horns was an act of purification (Le 8:15;Eze 43:20). All the remaining blood was poured out around the base of the Altar of Burnt Offering, transferring all the penitent’s sin to the Sanctuary.

Priests, at that time, interceded between mankind and God, which they could not do if they had sin of their own that was not atoned for.  Their sin, therefore, needed to be dealt with very thoroughly, to restore them to their mediatory role.

The fat (the choicest part) of the bullock was then burned on the Altar of Burnt Offering as a peace offering, a ‘sweet savour’ (Le 3:16 above) to the Lord:

Le 4:9,10,19  And the two kidneys, and the fat [Strong’s H2459, the choicest part] that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away, 

10  As it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering. 

19  And he shall take all his fat [Strong’s H2459] from him, and burn it upon the altar. 

The remainder of the bullock was burned outside the camp:

Lev 4:11,12  And the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung, 

12  Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt. 

That it was burned ‘without the camp’ symbolized that Christ (who was typified by the priesthood) would be crucified outside the gate of the city of Jerusalem (He 13:11,12).

Nothing remained of the bullock: it was a complete sacrifice for sin, symbolizing the completeness of the sacrifice of Christ. 

2.2 For a ruler or a common person.

The blood of the sacrifice for a ruler (a kid, Le 4:22,23) or for a common individual (a kid, or a lamb, or two doves or pigeons Le 5:6,7) was not sprinkled before the veil in the Holy - it was smeared on the horns of the Altar of Burnt Offering - and also poured out at the base of the altar as an atonement (Le 17:11):

Le 4:25  And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out his blood at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering. 

As with the sacrifice for a priest, when, as an act of purification (Le 8:15;Eze 43:20), the blood was smeared on the horns of the altar, the sin was ‘graven’ on the horns (Je 17:1) thereby separating the sinner from all their sin, transferring it to the Sanctuary, where it remained for later cleansing.

Furthermore, in the case of the common people, the officiating priest, in the ‘court of the tabernacle’, ate the edible flesh of the sacrifice:

Le 6:26  The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it: in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation.

In eating the flesh of the sin/trespass offering the priest was bearing sin that was not his own, thus prefiguring the innocent Christ who bore all the sin of the guilty human race:

Le 10:17  Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy, and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the LORD? 

Indeed, by ingesting the flesh of the sin offering, the priest was made to be sin for the penitent sinner, prefiguring that Christ would made to be sin for us (2Co 5:21).

(Note, the flesh of the sin offering for a priest was not eaten, Le 6:23).

The skin of the offering was given to the officiating priest (Le 7:7,8), indicating it was not burned ‘without the camp’, as was the burnt offering for a priest (who was a type of Christ, our true High Priest) - the ordinary people were not types of Christ.

The ‘holy place’ here is beside the Altar of Burnt Offering, which was in the entrance to the court of the tabernacle (Ex 40:6), where the sacrifices could be witnessed by all:

Le 10:12,13  And Moses spake unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons that were left, Take the meat offering that remaineth of the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and eat it without leaven beside the altar [the north side, Le 1:11] : for it is most holy: 

13  And ye shall eat it in the holy place  …

In each case (priest or common person) by the separation from confessed sin, the sinner received new life, free from the sin.

The OT priests, while interceding with God for mankind, could not forgive sin - this is a prerogative of Christ alone, our True High Priest, e.g. Mk 2:5.

3. The final eradication of sin

All separated sin stored in the Sanctuary was cleansed (Le 16:30), i.e. eradicated, on the annual great Day of Atonement - the most solemn service of the year.

By a final sacrifice and offering of blood for the whole nation, all those who had confessed sin held over in the Sanctuary were, in figure for the time, made ‘without sin’. 

Note. Those who had not brought sin offerings to the Sanctuary during the year, and thus did not have their sin held over in the Sanctuary, could not participate in the Day of Atonement, and consequently could not be declared innocent.

4. Summary: a complete atonement for sin

The sacrificial system of the earthly sanctuary (both daily and annual) provided, in figure for the time, a complete atonement for sin.

Although the daily ministry separated confessed sin from the sinner, thereby granting new life free of the sin, the sin itself remained until its annual final eradication.

The process of dealing with sin ended each year in the acceptance of the nation by God as His people, without sin (in figure) and fitted for His earthly kingdom.