As we enter Leviticus 5, we find there are three different offences in which a person would have to submit a guilt offering. The first is directed to anyone who does not publicly speak up to testify to the truth in the courts, Leviticus 6:5 / Judges 17:1 / Matthew 26:63 / John 9:24. This would be like holding back evidence from the courts which could affect the final outcome of the accused person.
The second one is directed at those who touch anything which is ceremonially unclean, Leviticus 12-15. We can imagine someone walking down the street and without knowing it, they have touched something which was unclean, but later they become aware of it.
These people needed to offer a sin offering because they didn’t observe the rules for purification, Leviticus 11:24-31. After the purification process, they would be restored back into fellowship with God and His people.
The third offence is directed at those who make oaths. We can imagine someone with all good intentions who makes an oath but fails to fulfil that oath for some reason, they would be guilty of not fulling that oath.
We can also imagine someone making a careless oath, an oath that they knew they couldn’t fulfil, they too would be guilty of making such an oath in the first place, Judges 11:30 / Numbers 11:1-3 / Joshua 6. If anyone made an oath they didn’t fulfil or made a careless oath, they couldn’t fulfil, they had to confess their sins before they made a sin offering.
These oaths were given on the condition of expectation, it’s the hoping to receive and so the offering was in the form of a vow. The meat had to be eaten and the carcass had to be burnt within two days of the offering.
There were also voluntary oaths, vows or promises to consecrate someone or something to God, Leviticus 27:1 / Deuteronomy 23:21-4. There was also the Nazarite vow where a person vowed to abstain from wine or all drink that would which could affect them, it included avoiding contamination from dead bodies, bones, graves, it also included refraining from mourning the dead and not cutting their hair, Judges 8 / Luke 1:13-15.
The sin offering for anyone guilty of breaking an oath or carelessly giving one is in mind here. The person who broke his oath or carelessly made an oath had to bear the guilt of his sin against another, for the oath was made in reference to another.
Here we can see God’s provision for those who aren’t well off, in other words, people have no excuse to follow and obey God’s requirements for personal sacrifice. We can see that the sin offering was an offering that related to relationships between people.
We all know that relationships, especially bad relationships can affect not only our relationship with God but also with those around us. The point here is simple enough if your relationship with each other isn’t right, then our relationship with God isn’t right either.
The unintentional sin of anything was definitely prohibited by the law, Leviticus 5:17, this would include things like fraud, suppression of the truth, perjury against a neighbour and slander. If someone sins against another, they couldn’t just apologise and be done with it, there had to be some kind of restitution, this had to be done before atonement could be given.
In other words, the guilty party needed to demonstrate repentance, this was done by paying some kind of compensation for the damage they had caused.
The guilty person offered their sacrifice to appease their conscience, this was the guilt offering. Then they went to the person they had cheated and made up the difference plus 1/5th of the value price, Luke 19:8.
The guilt offering is the only one which is not described as a soothing aroma, even the sin offering is so described in Leviticus 4:31. The guilt offering is closely aligned to the sin offering and yet there are a few subtle differences.
While the sins which call for the sin offering are only mentioned in a general sense, there are several specific offences which mandate a guilt offering. A part of the guilt offering includes a financial recompense to the party that was wronged, Leviticus 6:5, thus, the guilt offering included the principle of restitution.
The guilt offering differed from the sin offering because later it made atonement for the person of the offended, while the guilty offering only atoned for one special offence.
A breach of faith in anything against the Lord, to make good of any damage that was done. The sin offering speaks of sin against God’s nature, and the guilt offering speaks of sin against God’s government. This shows sin and its practical effects on God and man, it causes damage, here sin is viewed as a debt, something to be repaid.
The guilt offering prefigures Christ’s atoning for the damage of sin, Matthew 26:28. An innocent animal for a guilty man and a variety of offerings for all people. The sin offering represents Christ as a non-sweet aroma atoning for the guilt of sin, Hebrews 13:11-12.
It portrays Jesus as actually burdened with the believer’s sin and standing in his place, it’s in contrast with the sweet aroma offering which presents Christ’s own perfection. It tells us of our Lord’s death as presented in Isaiah 53, and it carefully guards the infinite holiness of Jesus, 1 Corinthians 5:11.