What is the meaning of Leviticus 4:29? He is to lay his hand • The ordinary worshiper, not just the priest, must touch the animal. This personal act shows that sin is a personal violation of God’s holiness and cannot be dealt with at arm’s length (compare Leviticus 1:4; Exodus 29:10). • By laying his hand on the victim, the sinner identifies himself with it. The action visibly proclaims, “This animal now represents me before God.” • Scripture stresses that this isn’t symbolic only; God accepts it as a real, God-ordained transfer of guilt (Numbers 8:10–12; Isaiah 53:6). on the head of the sin offering • The “sin offering” (so called in Leviticus 4:3, 14, 23, 29) is God’s provision when someone misses the mark of His law unintentionally. • Touching the head underscores substitution: the innocent stands in the place of the guilty, a picture ultimately fulfilled in Christ—“God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:21; also Isaiah 53:4-5). • Because Scripture is accurate and literal, we receive this transfer as an objective reality, not a ritualistic wish. and slaughter it • The worshiper himself must kill the animal (Leviticus 4:33). Sin demands death (Romans 6:23). • Bloodshed is indispensable: “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). • The gravity of taking a life drives home how seriously God views sin—nothing less than life can atone for it. at the place of the burnt offering • The same altar that continually burns the whole offering (Leviticus 1:9; 6:12-13) now receives the sin offering. Atonement and consecration happen side by side; forgiven people are invited into wholehearted devotion. • Location matters. God prescribed one altar, one way, one place (Deuteronomy 12:5-6). That unity foreshadows the one sacrifice of Christ, offered “outside the gate” yet accepted in heaven’s sanctuary (Hebrews 13:11-12). • The sinner sees that forgiveness is not a private transaction but part of the community’s worship; salvation binds the individual to the covenant people. summary Leviticus 4:29 teaches that the sinner personally transfers guilt to a substitute by laying his hand on the animal’s head, then takes responsibility for its death at God’s chosen altar. The verse highlights the personal nature of sin, the necessity of substitutionary bloodshed, and the integration of forgiveness with a life devoted to God. All of it points ahead to the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus, who fulfills every detail and secures real, literal atonement for all who trust Him. |
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