The Purification for Sin Offering For The Common People (Leviticus 4:27-35).
This is of either a female goat or a female sheep. It is thus of lower rank than that of the ruler, which was male, but may be of either kind. By having the two dealt with separately we have five different types of purification for sin offerings described, the bull ox for the priest, the bull ox for the community, the he-goat for the ruler, the female goat for the commoner, or the female sheep for the commoner. This thus makes five types of offering, and five is the number of covenant. It may be no coincidence in that this offering deals with breaches of the covenant. Compare how the whole burnt offering and the peace offering were in threes (and how the writer groups two or three together as one or makes them separate as he wishes).
‘And if any one of the common people sin unwittingly, in doing any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done, and be guilty;'
Finally we have the offering for any of the common people who sin ‘unwittingly', and thus not in open rebellion against Yahweh. It is for those who sin against the ‘you shall not' commands. They have sinned against God's direct command. If they have done so they are guilty and must go through the atoning procedures.
‘If his sin, which he has sinned, be made known to him, then he shall bring for his oblation a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has sinned. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin-offering, and kill the sin-offering in the place of whole burnt-offering. And the priest shall take of its blood with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of whole burnt-offering; and all its blood shall he pour out at the base of the altar.'
Exactly the same procedure occurs here as for the ruler, except that the offering is a lesser one, a female goat. But it is still to be without blemish. Only as such will it make a perfect representative and substitute. The commoner presses his hand on it, and slays it, and then some of its blood is put on the horns of the altar and the remainder at the foot of the altar. His sin results in death and is therefore neutralised by God acting in mercy, and his offering becomes holy. He is in process of being accepted by God and atoned for.
‘And all its fat shall he take away, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace-sacrifices; and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a pleasing odour to Yahweh; and the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven.'
The fat and all connected with it is then burnt on the altar and rises as ‘a pleasing odour to Yahweh'. We may probably assume that this is true of all the offerings of fat from the purification for sin offerings, although previously the emphasis has been on the need for forgiveness and atonement and it has not been specifically brought out. The priest has thus made atonement for him and he is forgiven.
(Some have suggested that this is burning as a pleasing odour to Yahweh is out of place, but you will note that in the next summary the conception of the ‘offering made by fire' is brought in. It is therefore clear that the writer is bringing in different ‘secondary' aspects to this offering as we go along, to remind us that they still apply. In the whole burnt offering all was a pleasing odour to Yahweh. Here it is only the offering of the fat and the innards).
Again no mention is made of the skin or the meat. Attention is rather on dealing with the sin. But in Leviticus 6:26-29 we learn that all the priests may eat of the meat, (even those excluded from priestly service by blemishes (Leviticus 21:21), but only in the tabernacle precincts because it is holy.
‘And if he bring a lamb as his oblation for a sin-offering, he shall bring it a female without blemish. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin-offering, and kill it for a sin-offering in the place where they kill the whole burnt-offering. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin-offering with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt-offering; and all its blood shall he pour out at the base of the altar:'
The procedure is exactly the same as for the female goat. This may appear redundant to us, but for the Israelite the fivefold description was fully meaningful. Without its fivefold nature it would not have had the same impact.
‘And all its fat thereof shall he take away, as the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of peace-offerings; and the priest shall burn them on the altar, on the offerings of Yahweh made by fire; and the priest shall make atonement for him as touching his sin that he has sinned, and he shall be forgiven.'
In this end description there is an addition to what has gone before, the fat and the innards are ‘an offering made by fire' to Yahweh. This is almost certainly intended to be applied to all the purification for sin offerings apart from the two where the burning was outside the camp in a clean place, and even then it applied to the fat. The fat and innards of all as offered up are both a pleasing odour to Yahweh (Leviticus 4:31) and are an offering made by fire. The writer has so written it that without the fivefold description, the picture would not have been complete. The whole is skilfully and cleverly composed, introducing all the elements in the offerings while keeping attention focused on the main one, the purification for sin.
These sacrifices for the common people, offered one by one, remind us of God's interest and concern for each of us, however lowly, and that His full provision is there on our behalf when we come to Him in faith and trust.
So the great importance of properly dealing with sin has been brought out, and our need for purification and atonement, and the sacrifices are copies and shadows of the work of our Great High Priest Jesus, illustrating the work that He finally accomplished when He offered Himself up to God once-for-all for our sins as the perfect purification for sin offering, and the perfect atonement offering, sweeping up into His work all the offerings and sacrifices which had been offered from true hearts throughout all ages. Their effectiveness came from Him.