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In Job 1:4-5, Job offers a sacrifice for the sins of his sons in case they had sinned. I am missing something from this. I know we pray for other people and ask them to pray for us. Was this sin sacrifice offered with their consent and participation or could it be offered without their knowledge? Would it's effect be forgiveness of sinful thoughts or actual sinful deeds? Or am I totally missing the meaning of it? How does it pertain to us in the Christian age? 

Though the Holy Scripture does not place the Book of Job in chronological order, Job's life preceded the establishment of the priesthood and the five offerings mentioned in the Book of Leviticus. Thus, the sacrifices which Job offered were likened to the offerings of Abraham and Jacob. Whether Job's life preceded the lives of these great patriarchs or came after them is uncertain. There is a difference between the burnt offering and the sin offering mentioned in Leviticus. The burnt offering (Leviticus 1) was a voluntary dedication, devotion, commitment, and worship, as a sweet aroma to the Lord. The entire animal with its entrails were consumed, symbolic of dedicating all to God. The sin offering was mandatory by the one who committed the sin, for atonement and forgiveness and, thus, needed to confess his sins, and place his hand on the sacrifice that was to be offered by the priest (Leviticus 4). In the passages of Job 1:4-5, the intent of Job's offering may have been to absolve his children of their sins as a sin offering, but since he was not a priest, his offering is actually neither a sin offering nor a burnt offering according to the rites of the priesthood revealed in the Holy Book of Leviticus. His children attended this ceremony for sanctification, as the passage states, and no mention is made of their own confessions of their sins. "Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all" (Job 1:5). Thus, Job was proactively interceding on their behalf, should his children have sinned, and reminding them to return, worship, and sanctify themselves before God.