Sin isn't moral error

 Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as we discover new insights and new perspectives from a very old book.

Exodus 29: Sins aren't moral failings

I'm reading Young's Literal Translation (YLT) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

The LORD has been very, very precise in his instructions over the past few chapters, and that continues here with requiring weird rituals involving animal sacrifice. I suspect there are esoteric meanings to some of this, but I'm not well-versed in that topic.

What I was most curious about was the idea of "sin offering." From GotQuestions:

A sin offering was a sacrifice, made according to the Mosaic Law, which provided atonement for sin. The Hebrew phrase for “sin offering” literally means “fault offering.” The sin offering was made for sins committed in ignorance, or unintentional sins.

Much of the rest of the GotQuestions article is preaching or theology based on later events. I'm not trying to do that; I just want some words and concepts explained to me as I'm reading the Bible in order. 

But if Got Questions is accurate in its definition of "sin offering," that sheds some light.

If sins are faults, if sins can be committed in ignorance or unintentionally, then "sin" does not mean and cannot mean moral failure. Sin is error, it is making mistakes.

And we might hurt someone else by our mistakes, or even profit from them. The idea of financial offerings in modern established religion makes more sense: I may have unwittingly left messes others had to clean up; I may have made clerical errors at my job that inconvenienced others yet still got a raise.

Every mistake, however minor, affects the whole, and the offering - the sacrifice of something you may not have deserved to earn in the first place - can help restore the whole.  

James Leroy Wilson writes Daily Miracles, The Daily Bible Chapter, JL Cells, and The MVP Chase. Thanks for your subscriptions and support!

(Photo credit: TyshkunVictor)