He shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord, in front of the curtain. The sevenfold sprinkling before the curtain for the community sin offering replicates exactly the ritual of verse 6 for the high priest's sin. The identical ritual for both communicates the identical gravity: the community's corporate inadvertent sin is as serious before God as the high priest's personal inadvertent sin. The thoroughness of the sevenfold sprinkling is not reduced because the sin is communal rather than individual. The complete atonement that the seven sprinklings represent is applied equally to every level of the covenant community's failure.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse