Read Leviticus 4
Background: The first three offerings we have examined all had a degree of being voluntary, but this one was required for one who had either "unintentionally" sinned or had become ceremonially unclean by touching dead animals or numerous other ways. What is important to notice as you read through the chapter is that more was required of the priest than any other leader or citizen; the "cost" of his offering was greater because he had a greater responsibility to maintain the purity of worship; it was the same as if the whole nation sinned. Something else of note is that very little of the sacrifice was actually offered on the altar: most was taken outside the tent to remove all impurity of sin from the tabernacle.
Key verses: 1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandments about things not to be done, and does any one of them, 3 if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bull from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering... 8 And all the fat of the bull of the sin offering he shall remove from it, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails 9 and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys 10 (just as these are taken from the ox of the sacrifice of the peace offerings); and the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering. 11 But the skin of the bull and all its flesh, with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung— 12 all the rest of the bull—he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap, and shall burn it up on a fire of wood. On the ash heap it shall be burned up.
Thoughts: A case could be made that this offering would better be named "purification" offering than sin offering, as that is the ultimate goal: to purify the worship center from all sin. God wants nothing to get in the way of our fellowship with Him.
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