The Alternative Guilt Offering of Birds (Leviticus 5:7-10).
‘And if his means suffice not for a lamb, then he shall bring his guilt offering for that in which he has sinned, two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, to Yahweh, one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering.'
For this type of offering there is the alternative, as with the burnt offering, of offering birds, two turtle-doves or two young pigeons ‘if his means suffice not for a lamb'. In this case one bird will be offered as a sin offering, and the other as a whole burnt offering in the way described in Leviticus 1. For once the sin has been forgiven as a result of the one shedding of blood a further sin offering is unnecessary. What is now required is the rededication offering.
There is an important lesson here on the need to accept forgiveness. Once we have brought our sin to God in line with His terms through the blood of Christ we must accept the forgiveness and not keep harping back to it, and not go over it again and again. Then we must dedicate ourselves to Him in total surrender.
‘And he shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer that which is for the sin-offering first, and wring off its head from its neck, but shall not divide it asunder: and he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin-offering on the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar: it is a sin-offering. And he shall offer the second for a burnt-offering, according to the ordinance; and the priest shall make atonement for him as concerning his sin which he has sinned, and he shall be forgiven.'
With the sin offering the priest wrings the bird's neck. Whether he removes the head depends on whether we see ‘but he shall not divide it asunder' as referring to the neck or the whole bird (compare Leviticus 1:17).
We are probably to see what now happens to the blood as being a general statement, taking into account that it is almost certainly the offering in Leviticus 5:6 that is in mind as well as the bird offering. The account is very much abbreviated. Nothing has been said there about the application of the blood, and the terminology is that usually for an animal offering. This suggestion must be so. The bird would not have sufficient blood to do what is described here (contrast Leviticus 1:15). The blood is applied to the side altar and the remainder drained out at the base of the altar.
This is a combination of what happens to a whole burnt offering and to a purification for sin offering. In the one the blood is sprinkled on the sides of the altar, in the other the remainder of the blood is flung at the base of the altar (to sanctify it and make atonement for it). This is because it is a purification for sin offering, but only for an individual sin. But it is unlike the purification for sin offering in that the horns of the altar are not daubed with the blood to purify the altar. The one sin is not as all pervasive as the many. The second bird is dealt with in accordance with ‘the ordinance', that is in the same way as in the whole burnt offering (Leviticus 1:14-17).
“And the priest shall make atonement for him as concerning his sin which he has sinned, and he shall be forgiven.” Thus will the priest make atonement for the one who has sinned, and he will be forgiven. Note the repetition in ‘the sin which he has sinned'. Sin is no light matter.