Leviticus 6: 24-30, “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the LORD: it is most holy. 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. Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy: and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any garment, thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the holy place. But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken: and if it be sodden in a brasen pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water. All the males among the priests shall eat thereof: it is most holy. And no sin offering, whereof any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile withal in the holy place, shall be eaten: it shall be burnt in the fire.”
When a priest was first ordained he would offer a sin offering (Ex 29: 14, “But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it is a sin offering.”) This was done to acknowledge that the priest was a sinner and his sin had to be dealt with before he could act for other people. Every time a person offered a sin offering they had to acknowledge that they had sinned and then they could continue with their ceremonial relationship with the Lord. Anyone who wants to maintain a relationship with the Lord, at any time, had to acknowledge that they are sinners. We can trust that the sin offering made by the Lord Jesus Christ is effective and sufficient to deal with our sins but we can never come without first identifying with the fact that we are sinners and need to come to the Lord for forgiveness. The priests job was to represent the Lord to the people and the people to the Lord so when he offered the sin offering he was doing his job. This meant that he could accept a payment for this service and eat part of the offering. However, because the life is in the blood, (Gen 9: 4, “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.’) the blood was sprinkled to show that a life was taken to atone for sin.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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