Whenever an Israelite sinned, his communion with God was broken. Consequently, the sacrifices for sin were never finished and the priests’ work was never done. In spite of the continual sacrificing, however, many unknown or forgotten sins would accumulate, for which no sacrifice had been made. The Day of Atonement was intended to make sacrifice for all those sins that had yet not been covered.

It was a great day of liberation of the conscience. The Israelite knew that whatever sins may have been missed in the daily sacrifices would now be taken care of. The slate would be completely clean, at least symbolically for a while. Yom Kippur was a time a release and relief. The devout Jew longed for the Day of Atonement. He could not himself go into God’s presence, but the high priest would go in for him and he would be delivered.

Very early on the Day of Atonement, the high priest cleansed himself ritually and put on his elaborate robes, with the breastplate (near the heart, signifying that he carried the people in his heart) and ephod ( on the shoulder, signifying that he had power on their behalf) representing the twelve tribes. Then he began his daily sacrificing. He, the priest would have to sacrifice for his own sin. Very likely he would have already slaughtered twenty-two different animals by the time he reached the event known as atonement. It was an exceptionally busy and bloody thing that he did on this day. After finishing all these sacrifices, he took off the robes of glory and beauty and went and bathed himself again completely. He then put on a white linen garment, with no decoration or ornament at all, and performed the sacrifice of the atonement.

When the high priest was done with the sacrifice of atonement, he put the robes of glory back on. In the garment of white linen, the high priest took the coals off the bronze altar, where the sacrifice was going to be made. He put them in a gold censer with incense and carried it into the Holy of holies. Then the high priest went out and took a bullock purchased with his own money, because it was to be offered for his own sin. After slaughtering the bullock and offering the sacrifice, he had another priest assist him in catching the blood as it drained off. He swirled some of it in a small bowl and carried it into the Holy of Holies, where he sprinkled it on the mercy-seat. The people could hear the bells on his robe as he moved about. He hurried out, and the people breathed a sigh of relief at seeing him. Had he entered the Holy of Holies ceremonially unclean, he would have been struck dead.

When he came out, two goats were waiting for him by the bronze altar. In a small urn were two lots to determine which goat would be used for which purpose. One lot was marked for the Lord and the other for Azazel, for the scapegoat. As each lot was drawn it was tied to the horn of one of the goats. The goat designated for Jehovah was then killed on the altar. Its blood was caught in the same way as that of the bullock and was swirled in the bowl as it was carried into the Holy of Holies. This blood, too, was sprinkled on the mercy-seat, but this time for the sins of the people. Again he hurried back out.

He then placed his hands on the goat that remained, the scapegoat, symbolically placing the sins of the people on the goat’s head. That goat was taken far out into the wilderness and turned loose, to be lost and never to return.

The first goat represented satisfaction of God’s justice, in that sin had been paid for. The second represented satisfaction of man’s conscience, because he knew he was freed of the penalty of sin.

The two goats actually are two parts of one offering (Leviticus 16:5). They represented propitiation and pardon, two aspects of the one atoning sacrifice.

The rabbis designated the Day of Atonement with the simple word Yoma, “The Day.” It was on this day that sin was dealt with in a more adequate way tan in any other ceremony of the Mosaic system.

The instructions and restrictions of this day grew out of the historical incident of the rebellion and disobedience of Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, when they intruded into the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle., and were immediately put to death by the direct judgment of God (Leviticus 10). The great Day of Atonement offered an explanation for the sudden death of these two men. The utter holiness of God and the utter sinfulness of man are made clear in this service.

The word for “atonement” is the Hebrew kaphar, which means ‘to cover,” or “to ransom, to remove by paying the price.” God did not take away sins in the Old Testament; He covered them until Christ came and removed them (Acts 17:30, Romans 3:24-25, Hebrews 9:8,9,15).

The trespass offering is called the “guilt offering” in some of the other translations.

One of the notable distinctions between the sin offering and the trespass offering is that the latter, restitution was always required. Sin is coming short of God’s standards. Trespassing is overstepping the mark. It also means the unlawful possession or use of another’s property. It was very similar to the sin offering in what was required for the offering. The trespass offering was given for some specific sins committed: for instance, not testifying when you should have testified, touching something unclean, swearing thoughtlessly, lying, robbery, embezzlement, extortion, and things like that.

This trespass offering was very similar to the sin offering. But the emphasis of this offering was on the outward acts of sin, whether they be unintentional or intentional. It was that outward act of sin that was being addressed. The word for trespass or guilt is literally “a fault,” a commitment of a fault. It is an outward sin.

The difference between the sin offering and the trespass offering is this: the sin offering was offered for the root of sin (in our heart); and the trespass, or guilt offering, was offered for the fruit of sin (the outward act).

The ritual involved the sinner confessing the sin (Numbers 5:7), restoring the property involved, or its equivalent in money, paying a fine equivalent to 20% of the value of the damaged property, and sacrificing a ram to the Lord (Leviticus 5:15,18). The priest would value the ram to make sure of its worth, lest the offender try to atone for his sins by giving the Lord something cheap. The restitution and fine were first given to the priest so he would know it was permissible to offer the sacrifice (Leviticus 6:10). If the offended party wasn’t available to receive the property or money, then it could be paid to one of the relatives; if no relative was available, it remained with the priest (Numbers 5:5-10).

The trespass offering illustrates the solemn fact that it is a very costly thing for people to commit sin and for God to cleanse sin. Our sin hurts God and hurts others. True repentance will always bring with it a desire for restitution. We will want to make things right with God and with those we have sinned against.

Forgiveness comes only because of the death of an innocent substitute. The passage in Isaiah 53:10 states clearly that when Jesus died on the cross, god made His Son “a guilt offering” (NIV). The penalty we should have paid, He paid for us!

The nation of Israel had to offer 6 different sacrifices in order to have a right relationship with God, but Jesus Christ

“offered one sacrifice for sins forever” (Hebrews10:12)

and took care of our sin problem completely. Aren’t you glad?

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior” (Luke1:46,47).

This is the first of the non-sweet savor offerings. The 2  non-sweet offerings are the Sin Offering and the Trespass Offering. The sin offering speaks of the sin as a nature. The trespass offering speaks of sin as an act.

It is the longest account of any offering since it is twice as long as any of the other 4. The burnt offering was 17 verses; the meal offering, 16 verses; the peace offering, 17 verses; the trespass offering, 19 verses; the sin offering, 35 verses. Evidently the Spirit of God thought this was very important.

The burnt offering was a voluntary offering; the sin offering was commanded. The burnt offering ascended; the sin offering was poured out. The one went up and the other went down.

The sin offering had to be brought to the lord no matter who the sinner was, and the higher the sinner’s position in the nation, the more expensive the sacrifice. The greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility and the consequences. If the priest sinned, he had to bring a young bullock (Leviticus 4:1-12). If the whole congregation sinned, they also brought a bullock (vs.13-22). A ruler brought a male kid of the goats (vs.22-26), while one of the “common people” (“a member of the community,”) brought a female kid of the goats or a female lamb (vs.27-35). A poor person could bring a dove or a pigeon, and a very poor person could bring a non-bloody sacrifice of fine flour ( Leviticus 5:7-13).

Whatever animal was brought, the offender had to identify with the sacrifice by laying hands on it. When the whole nation sinned, it was the elders, they were responsible before God to over see the spiritual life of the people. The animal was slain, and the blood presented to God. In the case of the high priest and the nation, some of the blood was sprinkled before the veil and applied to the horns of the altar of incense in the holy place, and the rest was poured out at the base of the altar. This reminded the nation that the sins of the leaders had far greater consequences. The blood of the sacrifices brought by the leaders or the common people was applied to the horns of the brazen altar at the door of the tabernacle.

Note that while the fat of the sacrifice was burned on the altar, the body of the sacrifice was burned in a clean place outside the camp (vs. 8-12,21). Why?  For one thing, it made a distinction between the sin offering and the burnt offering so that the worshippers wouldn’t be confused as they watched. But even more, it reminded the people that the sins of the high priest and the whole congregation would pollute the whole camp; and the sin offering was too holy to remain in an unholy camp. The of this ritual was forgiveness (Leviticus 4:20,26,31,35, Leviticus 5:10,13, Leviticus 6:7).

As mentioned before, even though the sacrifice of animals can’t take away sin or change the human heart, the sacrifices pointed to the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:1-15).

He is our sin offering (Isaiah 53:4-6, 12, Matthew 26:28, 2 Corinthians 5:21 1 Peter 2:24). This offering foreshadowed our forgiveness through Christ’s blood (Hebrews 9:12-14, 1 John 1:9). The larger part of the offering was burned outside the camp, reminding us that the Lord suffered outside the gate (Hebrews 13:12).