Special, Yet the Same

Leviticus 4:22 “When a leader sins, doing unintentionally any one of all the things that by the commandments of the Lord his God ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, 23 or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a goat, a male without blemish, 24 and shall lay his hand on the head of the goat and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the Lord; it is a sin offering. 25 Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering. 26 And all its fat he shall burn on the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings. So the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin, and he shall be forgiven.

It only makes sense that since Exodus ends with the completion of the Tabernacle that this next book, Leviticus, would begin with the offerings brought there in worship.  When we come to chapter 4 we are talking about sin offerings, be it for sins by the priests, the whole people, individual citizens, or in this case by a leader of the people. In comparing the four classes, two distinct characteristics emerge. First, the cost of the sacrifice was greater for the leader than the average citizen. Second, whereas sins by the priests or the whole congregation had the blood taken into the holy place, while those of individuals -even leaders- did not. Sins of leaders are in a sense more important, yet on the other hand, they are not more important than any other citizen. They have greater accountability, but do not deserve special treatment.