This is what I find most interesting about this passage: that the emphasis is based again and again on the sin being unintentional. If someone accidentally breaks one of the legal codes, the moral codes of the Law, then these are the offerings that they are to bring forward: a different requirement based upon the situation. What if the sin was intentional? Is there a sin offering for something like that? Or are those sins condemned? Because let's face it: we might sin unintentionally all the time, but more often than not we are sinning intentionally. We know we shouldn't tell that little white lie, but we rationalize it so that it's "okay" or that we can get by, or even that we are doing someone a favor. We know that if we say a certain thing, that it will hurt someone, and so we say it. Or we think they deserve it. We share gossip as a means to "keeping people in the know." There are all sorts of things that we do, intentionally. Big, small, either way, they are sin. And we do it on purpose. What kind of sacrifice was there for those kinds of intentional sin? What if a person did something intentionally and learned to regret it; what if they learned, later, what true righteousness was and wanted to atone for what they did. Was there a sacrifice for that?
Not in this chapter. It says again and again, if it was unintentional or if it is hidden to them only to become known later or for their conscience to prick, then they are to offer this certain animal for the sin offering. It doesn't say anything about, "Now, if their sin is intentional...." We're left a little hanging here. I guess we'll have to keep reading to see what the stipulations are there.
Next Reading: Leviticus 5:14-6:7
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