Leviticus
5 – The Trespass Offering
The
trespass offering is sins of the individuals.
The emphasis is upon the type of offering and not the character of the
offeror, as it was in the sin offering. If a witness has seen or knows
something, but he withholds the truth to the detriment of some individual, then
that is a sin of omission. If a person
told only part of a truth, they did not tell the whole situation. They were willing to let people believe that
they had told the whole truth. That is a
trespass. When Jesus went to trial, he
was quiet. But when He was under oath He did not hold His peace, but spoke out
in witness, He told the whole truth.
The
law of uncleanness – We cannot be out in the world without becoming unclean by
seeing things and hearing things and thinking things. We are unclean. We should pray for forgiveness of sins that
we may be unaware of. Sometimes we are
unclean, and we do not realize it. God makes a distinction between and unclean
animal and an unclean human.
If
we promise to do something, we need to keep that promise. In our songs we promise to give all to Him,
to follow Him, to die for Him. We sing
them so glibly that we do not even know what we are singing. On the same token it is presumptuous to
demand of God an answer to our prayers.
We need always to remember that our prayers are to be in accordance with
His will.
In
the trespass offering, confession must come first, then the offering. It is the
offering of guilt. Two turtledoves were required, as one was for a sin offering
and one for the burnt offering. This was
the sacrifice of the poor. Christ
preached glad tidings to the poor. Blood must be shed but the head was not
removed from the body. The sinner has complete forgiveness even with the little
bird. The poorest were not left out. If
he could not bring a bird, he could bring a piece of bread as a substitute for
him. The trespass offerings state that
there has been an invasion of the rights of both God and man. The chief wrong
committed through ignorance seems to apply to robbing God in connection with
tithes and offerings. For this kind of neglect, the offering must be
valuable. It must be a ram. Through this offering there was forgiveness
for the sinner who committed the trespass in ignorance. Ignorance of the law is
no excuse. This is also true in civil
law. Despite the lack of knowledge of
the commandment, the offender was guilty and was held liable. The ram is given as the only animal for the
trespass offering unless you were poor.
J.
Vernon McGee Commentary
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