Leviticus 4

Sin is a quality that God doesn't particularly enjoy, so it makes sense that He would require atonement--and in Old Testament times, that atonement consisted of the curiously monikered sin offering. The procedure is much the same no matter who commits the sin--the major difference being what animal you're supposed to knock off. The priests and the community must sacrifice a young bull, leaders sacrifice male goats, and normal folks sacrifice female goats or female lambs. Those lucky male sheep get off scot-free as far as sin offerings are concerned. (We'll learn later on that male sheep/rams have to worry about guilt offerings.) I would say that's maybe why Lambert the Sheepish Lion wanted to be a sheep, but that doesn't make sense because the Israelites didn't have to sacrifice lions.  But when you're blessed with the benefit of having Winnie the Pooh narrate your life's story, you can't complain too much, can you?

When the priest sins, he brings "guilt upon the people" (verse 3)--a rather weighty onus. If I were a priest, I would probably would feel so utterly wretched every time I sinned--of course, I feel bad when I sin anyway, but knowing that you're disseminating your guilt to the whole community would just add a watermelon-sized cherry on top. (One of those fake-looking cherries that taste like sugared plastic.) It would be even worse than learning you were solely responsible for popularizing the "Friday" song or one of those other cringe-inducing viral videos.

If a priest or the community sins, then, it's logical that they would need to sacrifice the same animal--a young bull. (Cows get whatever the opposite of the short end of the stick is. Which would be the long end of the stick?) In an era of individuality and personal responsibility, it can be difficult to grasp the notion of collective sin. The concept brings back bad memories of those times in elementary school when a handful of moronic dolts forced the teacher to punish the whole class, the innocent along with the guilty. Here, though, God is probably talking about such ignoble misdeeds as the Golden Calf Fiasco. In today's world, it's easy to point at, say, the North Korean government as an example of a whole community sinning. However, we must also watch ourselves and make sure that we aren't condoning immoral behavior in our community, even implicitly, while also recognizing the impracticalities and impossibility of personally changing every single thing wrong with our society.

The most salient point regarding the sins mentioned in this chapter is their unintentional nature. I don't know about you, but when I sin, I often know that I've screwed up--sometimes as it's happening and sometimes immediately afterwards. It's as if I'm choosing to take an expedient but selfish path littered with the banana peels of sin; whether I actually notice when I'm stepping on one or not, I definitely know once I slip and land on my butt a few seconds later. I don't know if intentional sins are any better or worse than unintentional ones in God's eyes--though sin is sin--but they're certainly more avoidable. I don't know whether I've committed many unintentional sins, but that's why I need interaction with God and fellow believers to keep me accountable.