As we begin Chapter Five we take a look at some specific occasions that warrant the bringing of an offering once the person realizes he has committed these infractions.
"If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible." (Leviticus 5:1) An example of this would be if a crime takes place in the community but there are no known witnesses. A call might go out for anyone to come forward who may have information that will lead to the arrest of the guilty party. If a person witnessed the crime, or if a person learned the identity of the criminal afterwards, he has a moral duty to testify to what he knows. This is the type of sin we might refer to as a "sin of omission"---where a person knows what is the right thing to do but fails to do it.
Now we move on to look at some circumstances that can make a person ceremonially unclean. "If anyone becomes aware that they are guilty---if they unwittingly touch anything ceremonially unclean (whether the carcass of an unclean animal, wild or domestic. or of any unclean creature that moves along the ground) and they are unaware that they have become unclean, but then they come to realize their guilt; or if they touch human uncleanness (anything that would make them unclean) even though they are unaware of it, but then they learn of it and realize their guilt;..." (Leviticus 5:2-3) We must cut this passage off mid-sentence because of a subject change in this sentence which we'll get to in a minute. In Leviticus 11 we'll find a list of "unclean" animals an these are the type of animals our passage today is talking about. A person was not to eat such animals or even touch them if at all possible. But a person might not have a clear and full understanding of which animals are unclean, or he might forget, or he might have to remove one out of the roadway or from his property. In those cases the person was to "wash their clothes, and they will be unclean until evening". (Leviticus 11:25)
While in this unclean state, the person could not go to the tabernacle (or later to the temple, after it was built) and could not attend any gathering before evening. Even in the case of a clean animal, if a person had to handle its body, he would have to wash his clothes and self-isolate himself at home til evening.
If a person had to handle a dead body or if a person came into contact with human waste or body fluids, he had to wash his clothes and be ceremonially unclean until evening. If Israel had had undertakers in those days then I suppose the undertakers would have been ceremonially unclean most of the time, but the Israelites did not embalm their dead or hold lengthy mourning rituals before a person's body was committed to the ground. Burial took place very soon after death, the same day if possible. Days of mourning would typically be observed after the funeral instead of in the modern way of having several days of mourning rituals and ceremonies before the person is buried.
When I was a kid, growing up in a rural community in the South, it took almost a week to get a person what was called "decently buried". To spend less time than this was considered disrespectful to the dead and you'd hear comments like, "Well, I guess she couldn't wait to get him in the ground!" if a person was buried within just two or three days of death. For example, I remember when my step-grandfather died in 1975 and when my grandmother (his wife) died in 1977. After the day of death, there was two days of visitation at home. While the morticians did their work on the departed at the funeral home, people came and sat with us in the evenings and brought food. Then there were a couple of nights of visitation at the funeral home after the deceased was embalmed and dressed and made up and placed in a coffin. Then, on the day of burial, a funeral was held at the funeral home in which no fewer than three preachers gave eulogies and several of the person's favorite songs were sung. Then we all went in slow procession to the cemetery where more words would be said over the coffin before at last the person was interred. When I was a kid in the 1970s it would have been unthinkable to hold the funeral on the same night as the visitation in the way we often do today. It would have been shocking to have nothing but a graveside service. But the Israelites of Moses' day would have considered it far more respectful to get the person's body interred as quickly as possible and this means that living people did not have a lot of prolonged contact with the dead.
I believe the main purpose of washing oneself and self-isolating for the remainder of the day after touching anything dead or after coming in contact with waste or body fluids was to help prevent the spread of disease in the community. But spiritually speaking I think these regulations served to remind people that God is holy and must be approached in a reverent attitude. It wouldn't be respectful to go up to the tabernacle in the same clothes a person wore while he moved a carcass out of the roadway. It wouldn't honor the Lord to bow down at the tabernacle with hands folded in prayer without first washing the hands that just dug a grave and placed a body in the ground. This could be compared to the way we attend church in our own day. We bathe and put on clean and modest clothing before attending the Sunday morning worship service. We do this out of respect for the Lord and for His house.
Another area in which a person might sin is in swearing an oath or making a promise or giving his word without thinking things through beforehand. "Or if anyone thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil (in any matter one might carelessly swear about) even though they are unaware of it, but then they learn of it and realize their guilt---when anyone becomes aware that they are guilty in any of these matters, they must confess in what way they have sinned." (Leviticus 5:4-5) The Lord wants us to think before we speak. He doesn't want us making rash promises or breaking our word. Because He intends us to thoughtfully consider our decisions and seek His will in our decisions, there is a penalty for breaking one's word even if what the person promised to do was sinful.
For example, a person might agree to join in with his co-workers to steal some money from the cash register. Or a person might make plans to go to a sinful type of party with his friends or fellow students. This person got carried away with his need to feel accepted and to feel like part of the crowd, so he made the promise without thinking it through, but now he no longer wants to be a part of it. Even though he's doing the right thing by backing out, he must still confess to the Lord his sin of making an unwise promise and he must bring an offering as a penalty. The Lord isn't punishing the person for deciding not to go along with a sinful endeavor; the Lord is teaching the person a lesson about thinking before he speaks.
Suppose a person makes a promise that is not sinful and then backs out? Well, we can all understand why this is wrong. When a family member offers to help you with something and then they back out when the day comes, it hurts your feelings doesn't it? When a friend makes plans with you and then cancels at the last minute because an opportunity came up to do something they consider more exciting than having lunch with you, it's disappointing and hurtful. When an employer makes promises about an upcoming raise or promotion or increase in benefits but doesn't follow through, it makes you feel angry and unappreciated doesn't it? If an Israelite treated someone like this, as soon as he realized he had done wrong he was to confess to the Lord and bring an offering.
I believe, though our passage today doesn't say so, that the Lord expected him to go to the person he hurt and apologize for breaking his word to them. I believe this because the Lord Jesus said that if a person were at the temple and realized he had done something wrong to someone, he was to get up and leave right then and make things right with the person. He wasn't to finish his prayer at the temple. He wasn't to submit his offering at the temple. He was to postpone these activities until he had apologized to the person he hurt. (Matthew 5:23-24) Jesus said, "First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift." We can't be right with God if we're wrong with our neighbor, so in our passage today the Lord imposes a penalty upon anyone who breaks a promise to his fellow man. King David understood the value of being a man of his word, so he said that a person who is in the right spirit to approach the Lord must (among other things) be a person "who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind". (Psalm 15:4a) David is talking about oaths we make to do things that are not sinful. The Lord doesn't expect us to follow through on sinful promises but is commanding us not to make sinful promises in the first place by thinking things through before giving our word.
"As a penalty for the sin they have committed, they must bring to the Lord a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for them for their sin." (Leviticus 5:6) Join us tomorrow as we look at the types of offerings to be brought, how they are to be submitted to the Lord, and what type of offerings can be substituted if the person is too poor to afford the typical offerings.
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