Levítico 16

Levítico 16

Meyer - Unto a solitary land. (R.V.) This chapter is full of Christ in his most precious death for men. Its various aspects are set forth under these diverse sacrifices, as light reflected from the many facets of a diamond. We think now only of the live goat which was led away into the wilderness. We see in it:— Christ made sin. — With both hands Aaron, in symbol, transferred all the iniquities, sins, and transgressions of the people to the head of the goat, which became so identified with them that it was accounted an unclean thing; and even he who led it away must needs wash his clothes and bathe. This is what the apostle means when he says that Jesus was made sin for us. Our sins met in Him; were assumed by Him; He stood before God as though, in some mysterious sense, they were his own. Christ bearing sin away. — As the goat went away, the eyes of the people followed it, and they were taught to believe that sin was no longer reckoned to them. Aaron put off his linen garments and arrayed himself in festal robes, and came forth to bless the congregation. What rejoicing must have broken from the crowds! So Jesus, in his matchless grace, has borne away the sin of the world into a land of forgetfulness. “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Christ’s loneliness. — He was alone in his mediatorial work. None could bear Him company. Loved ones might stand beside his cross, or in after ages suffer, as He did, deaths of martyrdom; but none could do what He did as the sacrifice for sin. Ah, how lonely He was! Even the Father seemed to have forsaken Him! Before the universe, in that dread hour, the Savior stood in awful, unapproachable solitude! Tale Of Two Goats - In all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest. --Hebrews 2:17+ Two goats without blemish stood before the high priest in the bright Middle Eastern sun. Lots were cast, and the priest slowly led one to the altar to be killed as a sin offering for the people. Its blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. That goat was a sacrifice. The other goat, known as the scapegoat, portrays another truth. The priest placed both his hands on its forehead and confessed the sins of Israel. Then the goat was led out into the desert and turned loose. As it wandered away, never to be seen again, it symbolically took Israel's sins along with it. They were gone. The people were reconciled to God. That goat was a substitute. Both of these goats were pictures of what Christ would do for us. The cross became an upright altar, where the Lamb of God gave His life as a sacrifice for sin. And what the scapegoat symbolically portrayed for Israel—the removal of their sins—Jesus fulfilled in reality. He became our substitute. Because of our identification with Him as believers, our sins have been taken away completely. Guilty, vile, and helpless we, Spotless Lamb of God was He; Full atonement! Can it be? Hallelujah, what a Savior! —Bliss (Play Modern rendition of Man of Sorrows) (Play Hallelujah! What A Savior) Jesus took our place to give us His peace. THE SCAPEGOAT "It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people." - John 11:50 The company was losing money. The price of its stock was sliding, and the corporate board was grumbling. So the president, desperate to do something, fired the vice-president in charge of sales. In a similar situation, a college basketball team was mired in a losing season after 6 consecutive successful years and three visits to the NCAA Tournament. Attendance was down and the alumni were howling. So the university fired the coach. In both cases, good people were released because the organization needed a scapegoat. They focused the blame on one person, even though many were at fault. That's what happened to Jesus. The high priest Caiaphas, without knowing the full import of his words, said it would be best to sacrifice one man, Jesus. He thought it would save the nation from the oppressive Romans (Jn. 11:47-50). What he didn't realize was that Jesus was bearing the guilt and penalty for the sins of the world in fulfillment of the Old Testament picture of the two goats -- one a sacrifice for sin, the other a scapegoat which symbolically carried their sins away (Leviticus 16). Lord, thank You for eternal life, For dying in my place, For taking all my punishment, For showing me Your grace.-- Sper Christ became our scapegoat that we might escape sin's penalty. The origin of that word comes from a ceremony performed with two goats on the Hebrew Day of Atonement (known today as Yom Kippur). The high priest would sacrifice one goat and symbolically place the sins of the people on the head of the other—the scapegoat—before it was sent into the wilderness carrying away the blame of the sin (Lev. 16:7-10). But when Jesus came, He became our scapegoat. He offered Himself up “once for all” as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of “the whole world” (1 John 2:2; Heb. 7:27). That first goat had been sacrificed as a sin offering for God’s people and symbolized Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. The other goat was a representation of the completely innocent Jesus accepting and removing our sin and guilt. Jesus our Savior left heaven above, Coming to earth as a Servant with love; Laying aside all His glory, He came, Giving His life, taking all of our blame. —Hess Jesus takes our sin and gives us His salvation. James Hastings - Great Texts of the Bible - THE SCAPEGOAT The goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a solitary land.—Lev. 16:22. I THE DAY OF ATONEMENT THIS is part of the ritual of the Day of Atonement. Now the Day of Atonement represents the culminating institution of the Levitical system. Not only, from a merely formal point of view, does Lev. 16 form the climax of the sacrificial and purificatory ordinances contained in Lev. 1–15, but the ceremonial itself is of a peculiarly comprehensive and representative character. It was a yearly atonement for the nation as a whole (including the priests); and not only for the nation, but also for the sanctuary, in its various parts, in so far as this had been defined during the past year by the sins of the people in whose midst it stood. ¶ In Rabbinical literature the Day of Atonement becomes practically the great Day of Repentance, the culmination of the Ten Days of Repentance. It brings with itself purification, the Father in Heaven making white the sin committed by the son, by His forgiveness and pardon. “It is the Day of the Lord, great and very terrible,” inasmuch as it becomes a day of judgment, but also the Day of Salvation. “Israel is steeped in sin through the Evil Yezer in their body, but they do repentance and the Lord forgives their sins every year, and renews their heart to fear Him.” “On the Day of Atonement I will create you a new creation.” It is thus a penitential day in the full and in the best sense of the word. ¶ The Talmudical treatise on the ritual of the Day of Atonement is entitled Yoma, “the day,” which sufficiently expresses its importance in the series of sacrificial observances. It was the confession of the incompleteness of them all, a ceremonial proclamation that ceremonies do not avail to take away sin; and it was also a declaration that the true end of worship is not reached till the worshipper has free access to the holy place of the Most High. Thus the prophetic element is the very life-breath of this supreme institution of the old covenant, which therein acknowledges its own defects, and feeds the hopes of a future better thing. II THE TWO GOATS 1. On this day the Congregation of Israel brought two goats for the purpose of atonement. For these, lots were cast at the door of the sanctuary, “one lot for Jehovah, and the other lot for Azazel.” The one on which the lot of Jehovah fell was then slain as a sin-offering. The other was brought before God “to make atonement over it, to send it away for Azazel into the wilderness.” Then, after the sins of the congregation had been confessed, this animal was made the bearer of all the sins of the now reconciled Israel, and was led away into the wilderness and there let loose “in a solitary land.” ¶ Most solemn as the services had hitherto been, the worshippers would chiefly think with awe of the high-priest going into the immediate presence of God, coming out thence alive, and securing for them by the blood the continuance of the Old Testament privileges of sacrifices and of access unto God through them. What now took place concerned them, if possible, even more nearly. Their own personal guilt and sins were now to be removed from them, and that in a symbolical rite, at one and the same time the most mysterious and the most significant of all. All this while the “scapegoat,” with the “scarlet-tongue,” telling of the guilt it was to bear, had stood looking eastwards, confronting the people, and waiting for the terrible load which it was to carry away “unto a land not inhabited.” Laying both his hands on the head of this goat, the high-priest now confessed and pleaded: “Ah, Jehovah! they have committed iniquity; they have transgressed; they have sinned—Thy people, the house of Israel. Oh, then, Jehovah! cover over (atone for), I intreat Thee, upon their iniquities, their transgressions, and their sins, which they have wickedly committed, transgressed, and sinned before Thee—Thy people, the house of Israel. As it is written in the law of Moses, Thy servant, saying: “For on that day shall it be covered over (atoned) for you, to make you clean; from all your sins before Jehovah, ye shall be cleansed.” And while the prostrate multitude worshipped at the name of Jehovah, the high-priest turned his face towards them as he uttered the last words, “Ye shall be cleansed!” as if to declare to them the absolution and remission of their sins. Then a strange scene would be witnessed. The priests led the sin-burdened goat out through “Solomon’s Porch,” and, as tradition has it, through the eastern gate, which opened upon the Mount of Olives. Here an arched bridge spanned the intervening valley, and over it they brought the goat to the Mount of Olives, where one, specially appointed for the purpose, took him in charge. Tradition enjoins that he should be a stranger, a non-Israelite, as if to make still more striking the type of Him who was delivered over by Israel unto the Gentiles. Scripture tells us no more of the destiny of the goat that bore upon him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, than that they “shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness,” and that “he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.” But tradition supplements this information. The distance between Jerusalem and the beginning of “the wilderness” is computed at ninety stadia, making precisely ten intervals, each half a Sabbath-day’s journey from the other. At the end of each of these intervals there was a station, occupied by one or more persons, detailed for the purpose, who offered refreshment to the man leading the goat, and then accompanied him to the next station. By this arrangement two results were secured: some trusted persons accompanied the goat all along his journey, and yet none of them walked more than a Sabbath-day’s journey—that is, half a journey going and the other half returning. At last they reached the edge of the wilderness. Here they halted, viewing afar off, while the man led forth the goat, tore off half the “scarlet-tongue,” and stuck it on a projecting cliff; then, leading the animal backwards, he pushed it over the projecting ledge of rock. There was a moment’s pause, and the man, now defiled by contact with the sin-bearer, retraced his steps to the last of the ten stations, where he spent the rest of the day and the night. But the arrival of the goat in the wilderness was immediately telegraphed, by the waving of flags, from station to station, till, a few minutes after its occurrence, it was known in the Temple, and whispered from ear to ear, that “the goat had borne upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited.” 2. What, then, was the meaning of a rite on which such momentous issues depended? Everything about it seems strange and mysterious—the lot that designated it, and that “to Azazel”, the fact that, though the highest of all sin-offerings, it was neither sacrificed nor its blood sprinkled in the Temple; and the circumstance that it really was only part of a sacrifice—the two goats together forming one sacrifice, one of them being killed, and the other “let go,” there being no other analogous case of the kind except at the purification of a leper, when one bird was killed, and the other dipped in its blood, and let go free. For the common worshipper, then, the broad impression of this Day of Atonement was that the sins of the people were not only atoned for by the death of a victim, but separated from them and banished to forgetfulness through the same offering in another phase. While in the typical sacrifice this could be effected only by means of two victims, in the eternal reality to which it pointed the one Saviour who died and rose again becomes at once the atoning Sacrifice and the risen Sanctifier by whom our sin is removed. ¶ These two goats were not for Aaron, but for the people. We must regard them as if they were but one offering, for it needed both of them to set forth the divine plan by which sin is put away; one was to die, and the other was typically to bear away the sins of the people. One goat was to show how sin is put away in reference to God by sacrifice, and the other goat was to show how it is put away in reference to us, God’s people, by being carried into oblivion. ¶ Man hath not done anything on the day of sacrifice more pleasing to God than spilling blood; for verily the animal sacrificed will come on the day of resurrection with its horns, its hair, its hoofs, and will make the scale of his good actions heavy: and verily its blood reacheth the acceptance of God, before it falleth upon the ground: therefore be joyful in it. III FOR AZAZEL 1. Of the two goats it is stated (16:8) that the one was “for Jehovah,” the other “for Azazel” (R.V.; the A.V. uses here the word “scapegoat”). “Azazel” is not mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament, and its meaning is much disputed. In the apocryphal Book of Enoch, Azazel is a spirit, the leader of the evil angels who formed unholy alliances with the “daughters of men” (Gen. 6:2, 4). But whatever the precise attributes with which Azazel was invested at the time when the ritual of Lev. 16 was framed, there can be little doubt that the ceremonial was intended as a symbolical declaration that the land and people are now purged from guilt, their sins being handed over to the evil spirit to whom they are held to belong, and whose home is in the desolate wilderness, remote from human habitations (verse 22, “into a land cut off”). No doubt the rite is a survival from an older stage of popular belief, engrafted on, and accommodated to, the sacrificial system of the Hebrews. For the expulsion of evils, whether maladies or sins, from a community, by their being laid symbolically upon a material medium, there are many analogies in other countries. The belief in goblins, or demons (Jinn), haunting the wilderness and vexing the traveller, is particularly common in Arabia: in the Old Testament it is found in Lev. 17:7; Isa. 13:21, 34:14 (“satyrs,” lit. he-goats, and Lilith, the night-monster). Azazel must have been such a spirit, sufficiently distinguished from the rest, in popular imagination, to receive a special name, and no doubt invested with attributes which, though unknown to us, were perfectly familiar to those for whom the ceremonial of Lev. 16 was first designed. ¶ The rendering of the A.V., “scapegoat,” inherited from the “Great Bible” of 1539, may be traced back through Seb. Münster (“caper abiturus”), Coverdale (“the free goat”), Luther (“der ledige Bock”), and Jerome (“caper emissarius”) to the Greek translation of Symmachus; but it implies a derivation opposed to the genius of the Hebrew language, besides being inconsistent with the marked antithesis between “for Azazel” and “for Jehovah,” which does not leave it open to doubt that the former is conceived as a personal being, to whom (cf. verse 26) the goat is sent. All the principal modern authorities agree in explaining Azazel as a personal name. “Scapegoat” is, however, a felicitous expression; it has become classical in English; and there is no reason why it should not be retained as a term descriptive of the goat sent into the wilderness, provided it be clearly understood that it is in no way a rendering of the Hebrew. 2. The Jewish rite presents marks of strong kinship with similar rites which are still observed in every part of the world. It was originally a rite of exorcism, and was modified into an object-parable of those great ethical lessons which God wished to impress upon the conscience of the chosen people, and in due time upon the human race. On the four great continents, and in many islands of the sea, it is carried out, with the variation due to local conditions, at fixed seasons of the year, or in times of epidemic. In some form or other it must have been in vogue before the dispersion of the primitive races, or at least have been suggested by ideas common to mankind in the cradle-lands of the prehistoric dawn. It was practised amongst unlettered and classical races alike, and in some parts of Europe variant types of the ceremony have survived the spread of the Christian faith. ¶ In some of the islands of South-Eastern Asia the ceremony is found in one of its most elementary forms. The custom has, of course, adapted itself to conditions where domestic animals are unknown and the inland areas present no deserts into which a scape-victim bearing the ills of the people could be dismissed. A ship is prepared on board which rice, eggs, and tobacco are placed, whilst a priest cries out: “All ye sicknesses, measles, agues, depart!” The ship is carried down to the shore, launched when a breeze begins to blow from off the land, and left to drift out to sea. The priest then cries out, “All the sicknesses are gone!” and the people who had shut themselves up in their homes through fear come forth again with a sense of relief. In the inland parts of the island the priests brush the people with branches of trees which are supposed to gather up all the evil influences that cleave to their bodies, and then throw the infected branches into the river to be carried out to sea. ¶ A tribe of American Indians make white dogs their scape-victims, and drive them off into the prairie, whilst another tribe paint a man black to represent a demon and at last chase him from the village. A similar custom prevails amongst the aborigines of the Chinese Highlands. In times of epidemic a man is chosen for the victim, his face is smeared with paint, and with curses and tomtoms he is then driven forth from the hamlet and forbidden to return. 3. The Jewish religion took hold upon a truth in this crude observance common to all races, and taught the multitude to look for release from sin by one who should be made sin for them. In the prefigurative ceremony the burden of the assembly’s sin was transferred to a pair of victims, one of which was slain at the altar where its life was offered to an offended God, whilst the other was driven forth into the wilderness, carrying into inaccessible places the burden placed upon it. The principle needed fine definitions and careful safeguards in the after-ages, but it expressed a rough and enduring truth without which social and religious life are alike impossible. The vicarious principle is not ordained to compromise or destroy responsibility, but the denial of its presence and working, within divinely appointed limits, involves the denial of that providential order under which mankind is placed. ¶ But how is the modern world to be taught the vicarious principle when it has so little knowledge of the meaning of sin? No doubt ignorance of the nature of sin is largely due to ignorance of the Bible. Holman Hunt tells us his experience of this double ignorance when he returned from Palestine with his great picture, “The Scapegoat.” Mr. Gambart, the picture-dealer, was ever shrewd and entertaining. He came in his turn to my studio, and I led him to “The Scapegoat.” “What do you call that?” “ ‘The Scapegoat.’ ” “Yes; but what is it doing?” “You will understand by the title, Le bouc errant.” “But why errant?” he asked. “Well, there is a book called the Bible, which gives au account of the animal. You will remember.” “No,” he replied; “I never heard of it.” “Ah, I forgot, the book is not known in France, but English people read it more or less,” I said, “and they would all understand the story of the beast being driven into the wilderness.” “You are mistaken. No one would know anything about it, and if I bought the picture it would be left on my hands. Now, we will see,” replied the dealer. “My wife is an English lady; there is a friend of hers, an English girl, in the carriage with her. We will ask them up; you shall tell them the title; we will see. Do not say more.” The ladies were conducted into the room. “Oh, how pretty! what is it?” they asked. “It is ‘The Scapegoat,’ ” I said. There was a pause. “Oh yes,” they commented to one another, “it is a peculiar goat; you can see by the ears, they droop so.” The dealer then, nodding with a smile towards me, said to them, “It is in the wilderness.” The ladies: “Is that the wilderness now? Are you intending to introduce any others of the flock?” And so the dealer was proved to be right, and I had over-counted on the picture’s intelligibility. 4. This rite also provided a form of absolution which comforted the conscience-stricken Israelite, and gave fresh courage to his soul. It addressed itself to the imagination, and accomplished this specific end in a more vivid and impressive way than the common sacrifices of the tabernacle. This action-parable, in which perhaps there was much of condescension to the superstition of the age, helped men to feel that the load of guilt was gone, that clouds of gathering wrath had been dispersed, and that the sky from which God looked down was fair and smiling once more. In many places where similar rites were observed, the people crouched with fear in their houses, and some trace of this feature of the custom appears in the Book of Leviticus, which forbade the people entering into the tabernacle whilst the goat for sacrifice was being offered. When the rite had been accomplished, men and women breathed freely once more, as though the world were no longer a place of penalty and a prison-house. The sense of fear was dispelled from the heart as the dim figure of the man leading the scapegoat disappeared over the tops of the hills, and no news of the year was received with greater gladness than the word signalled back to the city that the victim with its burden had passed into the waste wilderness. The rite was obviously adopted to keep alive the expectation of a time when evil should be cast forth into the desolate spaces of the Universe, and the last trace of sin and its curse should be taken away from the city and the people of God. The ceremony was surely a prophecy in symbol of the true Day of Atonement, when the Man of God’s choice should carry the burdens of the race into the land of forgetfulness and gracious oblivion. ¶ No sins are reckoned against us by God; on His side they are all put away—in relation to Him they have no existence. Hence our Lord says (Matt. 9:2): “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins have been done away.” “Son”—for He is speaking to him as to a child of God, and tells him, without any solicitation on his part, an eternal fact, viz.—that his sins have no existence as in the mind or eye of God. The same truth is expressed in the parable of the prodigal son—there is no reckoning of sin against the prodigal on the father’s side. Rest, weary heart! The penalty is borne, the ransom paid, For all thy sins full satisfaction made! Strive not to do thyself what Christ has done, Claim the free gift, and make the joy thine own; No more by pangs of guilt and fear distrest, Rest! calmly rest! IV SACRIFICE AND SEPARATION Once a year the sins of the people were thus solemnly atoned for, and the nation’s lost holiness was restored (verse 30, “to cleanse you: from all your sins shall ye be clean before Jehovah”). The slain goat made atonement for the people’s sins, and restored their peace and fellowship with God; the goat over which the people’s sins were confessed, and which was afterwards sent away to Azazel in the wilderness, symbolized visibly their complete removal from the nation’s midst (Ps. 103:12; Mic. 7:19): a life was given up for the altar, and yet a living being survived to carry away all sin and uncleanness: the entire ceremonial thus symbolized as completely as possible both the atonement for sin and the entire removal of the cause of God’s alienation. 1. Sacrifice.—No specific mention is made of this rite in the subsequent books of the Bible, but it probably coloured the language of the prophet as he portrayed the Suffering Servant of Jehovah, who was despised and rejected, and from whom men hid their faces. The iniquity of the erring flock laid by a Divine hand upon His sacred person suggests the picture of the high priest transferring the common sin to the scape-victim by words of confession and the laying on of his hands. When the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews asserts that it is not possible for “the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sin,” he perhaps has in view at the moment the offerings of the great Day of Atonement. This rite of course is included without express mention in the statement that the meaning of all sacrifice is consummated and fulfilled in the death of Jesus Christ. Our Lord gathers up into His ministry and death the peculiar lines of thought indicated in this ceremony. In setting Himself to deal with the problem of suffering by first of all attacking the problem of sin, Jesus was bringing home to the multitude the fundamental lesson of this ancient ritual. 2. Separation.—We can almost see the figure of the scape-victim, looming through the shadows of the night, as Matthew describes the great healer casting out devils when the sick were brought to His feet in the Sabbath twilight. The evangelist seems to see the sicknesses He healed transferred to His weary form, and weighting His sympathetic soul, and sums up the picture in the memorable words of the prophet, “Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses.” In Jesus Christ the rite comes back into some kind of external likeness to the primitive form, but with an unutterable difference, a difference consisting in an overwhelming contrast rather than a comparison. The scape-victim is the Man of Sorrows, chosen not by lot, but by the decree of the Most High, proclaimed through signs and wonders which God did by Him in the midst of the people. He is selected, if we may use the contrast without irreverence, not like the victim of primitive societies, who was singled out for the office by a degradation which seemed openly to challenge the wrath of the gods, but because of His transcendent dignity and holiness. It is no slave or war-captive who is dragged to this pathetic and ignominious ministry, but the Lord of heaven and the Prince of the kings of the earth, drawn by His own free compassions for the guilty and burdened race, made a curse to redeem us from the curse which cleaves to all offenders against God. ¶ “Unto a solitary land.” The solitude of the Sin-bearer is something altogether distinct from the solitude of the Holy One. In His human life, our blessed Lord was, in a certain sense, solitary for this simple reason that He moved on a higher platform than others. He did not find Himself able to educate His own most intimate followers into sympathy with His own real aspirations, or to bring them under the law of life, under which He moved and acted. They remained of the earth, earthy, while He was above it, breathing a purer atmosphere, and living by a higher law. This solitude of holiness separated Him from sinners: but that very separation which, from time to time, made Him lead, in His humanity, a strange lonesome life, yet brought Him into such full contact with all the glorious beings and the realities of the spirit-world, that such a solitude could hardly be looked upon with any considerable regret, or be the source of any actual pain. But it was otherwise now. We are speaking, not of the solitude of the Representative of holiness and purity, but of the solitude of the Sin-bearer, because He was the sin-bearer. ¶ It was a weary journey that the scapegoat took. It left the fertile fields, and the babbling brooks of Israel, far behind: the distant heights of Carmel disappeared on the far-off horizon; before it, there opened up a boundless waste of desert sand, while the “fit man” trudged on relentlessly, farther, and farther, many a weary mile, and still the scapegoat followed him, bearing the sins of the people. The grassy plains have disappeared; the last palm tree is lost in the distance; the sound of running waters has long since died upon the ear; and all around there is the barren waste of desert sand; and still the man trudges on, and still the scapegoat follows him. All alone in the desolate wilds, all alone in a blighted land, and not inhabited. And then the fit man disappears. He had led the goat into the solitude, and lo, it is left alone—all alone. Wistfully it gazes round on the dreary scene. Oh, for one blade of grass! oh, for one drop of water! Its eyes are strained, its nostrils dilated, if by chance it may catch a breath of something like fertility borne in the gale from the distance: but no. In solitude and weariness it still goes wandering on, and every step it takes, brings it farther, and farther still, into the silent desolate desert: the scapegoat is all alone. The weary day drags out its long hours: the dark and mournful night closes in; the morning sun rises up with blistering heat; its lips are parched, its limbs are trembling: it sinks amidst the desert sand, and dies. For it must be remembered that it was a late custom that threw it over the rock; at the first it was simply left to die. And so the scapegoat bore the sins of the people into the land of separation. Leave it there, and come to Calvary. We seem to see the Scapegoat of the human family led by the hand of the “fit man.” We read in the Epistle to the Hebrews that the Lord Jesus Christ, “by the eternal Spirit” offered Himself to God. That same Spirit of God that led Him alone into the wilderness, not that He might find comfort, but that He might meet with temptation, has led Him right up to Jerusalem. He set His face like a flint to go; but still the Spirit led, and still He pursued His leading, until He finds Himself in Gethsemane. The terrible darkness is beginning to gather round Him, and the agony to oppress His soul; but the Spirit of God leads on, and the Scapegoat continues to follow. He finds Himself all alone in the judgment hall, separated from those who were dearest to Him, and not one friendly voice raised up on behalf of the dying Son of God: but the Spirit still leads on, and the Scapegoat must still follow. He finds Himself nailed to the cross, and His lips are parched with thirst, and His body quails in agony. Will He not now pause and call for the ten legions of angels? Might He not raise those languid, dying eyes, and demand a draught of the sparkling waters of life from His Father’s hand? But the Spirit still leads on; and the Scapegoat must follow. Deeper and deeper, into the darkness; down into the solitude of sorrow, down into the desolate land not inhabited; and, by and by, from the breaking heart, there rings throughout God’s universe the cry of “the Forsaken,” “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” The Scapegoat has found the land of separation at last, all alone in the darkness. The isolating influences of sin have done their work. He is shut out from the light of His Father’s eye, or to Himself He seems to be: the joy, the delight of His Life is gone: the blessed fellowship seems broken: there is a horrible sense of loneliness within His heart, and a terrible desolation within His guiltless soul. So He sinks, He staggers, He dies: Jesus, “the Forsaken.” And so He bore our sins into the land not inhabited. No witnessing spirit can find them there; no denizen of those dreary regions can rediscover them. They are left amid the wastes of desolation; they are sunk like a stone into the depths of the vast ocean of infinite love. They are lost sight of by man; the very devils of hell cannot rediscover them; the angels find them obliterated from their view, and God Himself has turned His back upon them, and left them in the land of separation. “Now have I won a marvel and a Truth;” So spake the soul and trembled, “dread and ruth Together mixed, a sweet and bitter core Closed in one rind; for I did sin of yore, But this (so said I oft) was long ago; So put it from me far away, but, lo! With Thee is neither After nor Before, O Lord, and clear within the noon-light set Of one illimitable Present, yet Thou lookest on my fault as it were now. So will I mourn and humble me; yet Thou Art not as man that oft forgives a wrong Because he half forgets it, Time being strong To wear the crimson of guilt’s stain away; For Thou, forgiving, dost so in the Day That shows it clearest, in the boundless Sea Of Mercy and Atonement, utterly Casting our pardoned trespasses behind, No more remembered, or to come in mind; Set wide from us as East from West away: So now this bitter turns to solace kind; And I will comfort me that once of old A deadly sorrow struck me, and its cold Runs through me still; but this was long ago. My grief is dull through age, and friends outworn, And wearied comforters have long forborne To sit and weep beside me: Lord, yet Thou Dost look upon my pang as it were now!” Jerry Bridges - THE SCAPEGOAT The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area.(LEVITICUS 16:22) The greatest scapegoat in all of history is the Lord Jesus Christ. The word is never used of Him in the Bible, but it is used of a male goat in the Old Testament sacrificial system which pictured the one great sacrifice of Jesus in His death. Each year this elaborate system of sacrifices reached its climax on the great Day of Atonement, when two male goats were selected. One was to be killed and its blood sprinkled on and before the mercy seat in the Most Holy Place where God symbolically dwelt (Leviticus 16:15–19). This goat’s death as a sacrifice to God symbolized our Lord’s propitiatory sacrifice for us on the cross. The priest would lay his hands on the head of the second goat “and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins.” Then the goat would be led “away into the wilderness,” never to be seen again. This goat was called the scapegoat because all the guilt of the people was symbolically transferred to it, and their sins carried away into the desert (verses 20–22). The death of the first goat symbolized the means of propitiating the wrath of God through the death of an innocent victim substituted in the sinner’s place. The sending away of the second goat set forth the effect of this propitiation, the complete removal of the sins from the presence of the Holy God and from His people. Since both goats represented Christ, we may say Christ became our scapegoat, bearing the guilt of our sins in His propitiatory sacrifice and by that act bearing them away from the presence of His holy Father. Jerry Bridges - REMOVED Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!(JOHN 1:29) Expiation is another seldom-used and little-understood theological word. You can readily see its spelling similarity to propitiation. In fact, the two words are often confused, though significantly different in meaning. Propitiation addresses God’s wrath. It is the work of Christ saving us from that wrath by absorbing it in His own person as our substitute. Expiation, which basically means “removal,” accompanies propitiation and speaks of Christ’s work in removing or putting away our sin. Such is the symbolism of the two goats used on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:20–22). The first goat represented Christ’s work of propitiation as it was killed and its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat. The second goat represented Christ’s work of expiation in removing or blotting out the sins that were against us. The object of propitiation is God’s wrath; the object of expiation is our sin, which must be removed from His presence. The two goats together constituted one offering, and both represent the work of Christ on our behalf. It would have been a blasphemous affront to a holy God to send one goat away into the desert without first sacrificing the goat whose blood symbolized the blood of Christ that alone propitiates the wrath of God. Do you see how the work of Christ is infinitely greater than the greatest depth of your sin? The work of Christ is finished. Nothing more remains to be done. God’s wrath has been propitiated. Our sins have been removed. The question is, will we appreciate it, not only at our initial moment of salvation but for our day-to-day acceptance with God? Only as we do this will we truly begin to appreciate the glory of the cross and the unsearchable riches of Christ. Charles Stanley - The Divine Scapegoat SCRIPTURE READING: Leviticus 16:1–22 KEY VERSE: Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Through repeated usage, the term scapegoat has become quite familiar to our secular culture. Its meaning—“an innocent party being blamed”—has its roots, however, in an ancient Hebrew ritual known as the Day of Atonement. This holy day occurred once each year. The high priest took two male goats as a sin offering for the iniquities of the people. One goat was slaughtered, and its blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. The remaining goat was sent into the wilderness—after the high priest had placed his hands on the goat’s head and confessed the sins of the nation over it. Through this “scapegoat” observance, God showed His mercy to the Israelites, allowing Him to continue His covenant relationship with them. In much the same way, Jesus became the divine scapegoat for the sins of the world. He was and is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29 NASB). Our sins were placed on Him at Calvary. Indeed, our sins put Him there. Jesus took the blame so that we could live. Have you trusted in His atonement? Have you come to Him for the forgiveness of your sins? Have you been healed of your transgressions through His sacrifice? Almighty God, thank You for the sacrifice of Your Son, Jesus, as the divine scapegoat for my sins. I praise You that He took the blame, so I could live. I rejoice in the liberating truth of His atonement for me. Leviticus 16:23 "Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there. Lev 16:4 Eze 42:14 44:19 Ro 8:3 Php 2:6-11 Heb 9:28 Leviticus 16 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: Hebrews 9:28+ so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. AARON'S SECOND WASHING Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there After completing the solemn duties within the Holy of Holies, Aaron was commanded to remove the simple linen garments he had worn to enter God’s presence. These special clothes, set apart for the work of atonement, were to be left in the holy place and not worn again for ordinary service. The change of garments signified the completion of the atoning work for that day, the temporary nature of the priest’s ministry, and the separation between the sacred and the common. It foreshadowed Christ, our Great High Priest, Who laid aside the “garments” of His earthly humiliation after His finished work on the cross and was clothed again with glory and majesty at the Father’s right hand (cf. John 17:5; Philippians 2:9–11). Leon Hyatt A second washing of Aaron took place next. It is possible that the first washing (v. 4) represented ceasing to sin, whereas this washing represented removing the effects of sin. In both cases, washing symbolized removing sins through the effort of the person himself, a concept with which the Israelites were now familiar after the revelations concerning the cleansing ceremonies (see comments on Lev. 11:25,28,31-38,40 in MESSAGE 14, on Lev. 12:4 in MESSAGE 15, on Lev. 14:2-9 in MESSAGE 17, on Lev. 14:49-53 in MESSAGE 18, and Lev. 15:11- 27 in MESSAGE 19). In preparation for the washing, Aaron was to enter The Tent of Meeting and remove his clothes with the exception of his breeches (see comments on Lev. 8:6 in MESSAGE 10). He was to leave his clothes there, so obviously he was to leave the Tent. ILLUSTRATIONS - 1. Changing Clothes After a Great Task Picture a firefighter who, after battling flames, removes the smoke-soaked uniform and lays it aside. The uniform served its purpose in the crisis, but once the work is done, it is left behind. So Aaron laid aside his linen garments once the work of atonement was complete—pointing to Christ, who laid aside His humiliation garments when His saving work was finished. 2. Graduation Robes A student wears special robes on graduation day—symbolizing a solemn occasion. Once the ceremony is over, those robes are no longer needed and are removed. Aaron’s linen garments were like those robes: unique for the Day of Atonement. Christ, however, after finishing His “ceremony” of sacrifice, did not just remove His robes but was clothed with eternal glory. 3. Courtroom Advocate An attorney puts on a robe when stepping before a judge. The robe represents a role for that moment in court. When the case is settled, the robe is taken off. Aaron’s linen garments represented his role as mediator on that solemn day. Christ, in contrast, remains our eternal Advocate at God’s right hand—He never steps away from His priesthood (Heb 7:25). 4. Work Clothes vs. Glory Clothes Think of a king who puts on simple work clothes to walk among his people in disguise. Once the work is accomplished, he puts on his royal robes again. Aaron’s linen garments were “work clothes” of humility. Christ put on the “work clothes” of human flesh, then after His finished work, He was clothed in majesty and honor once more (Phil 2:9–11). 5. Painter’s Coveralls A painter wears simple, plain coveralls while laboring on a project. Once the work is done, the coveralls are discarded and he appears again in clean attire. Aaron’s garments functioned like coveralls for a sacred task. Jesus, by contrast, never “puts away” His priestly role, but He does exchange the garments of humility for the shining robes of eternal glory. Leviticus 16:24 "He shall bathe his body with water in a holy place and put on his clothes, and come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. He shall bathe his body with water in a holy place: Lev 16:4 8:6 14:9 22:6 Ex 29:4 Heb 9:10, Heb 10:19-22 Rev 1:5,6 put on his clothes: Lev 8:7-9 Ex 28:4-14 29:5 offer his burnt offering: Lev 16:3,5 make atonement for himself and for the people: Lev 16:17 Leviticus 16 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Possibly Puts These On CLEANSED AND CLOTHED FOR SERVICE He shall bathe his body with water in a holy place and put on his clothes, and come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement (kaphar; Lxx = exilaskomai) for himself and for the people - After completing the inner work of atonement with the blood sacrifices, the high priest was required to wash himself with water in a holy place and put back on his regular priestly garments, although some think these were still the linen garments. Only then could he come forth and present the burnt offerings for himself and for the people. This ritual underscored the necessity of personal cleansing, priestly readiness, and public sacrifice. The washing emphasized that fellowship with God demanded purity, while the burnt offerings symbolized total consecration to God. Both priest and people alike needed atonement—reminding us that no one stood above the need for God’s mercy. Ultimately, this pointed to Christ, the sinless High Priest, Who needed no cleansing Himself but offered one perfect sacrifice, fully consecrated to God, to secure atonement for His people forever. David Guzik feels that "When atonement was finished, the priest emerged from the tabernacle in glory - with the humble garments taken off and in his normal clothes for glory and beauty. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest was humble (Lev. 16:4), he was spotless (Lev. 16:11), and he was alone (Lev. 16:11-14), and he emerged victorious - just like Jesus was in accomplishing our work of atonement." Lindsey - After the high priest removed and left his linen garments in the Tent of Meeting, he bathed (to assure ceremonial purity) and put on his regular garments of high priestly splendor for the incineration ritual. He then sacrificed the burnt offering of a ram (Lev 16:3) for himself and the burnt offering of a second ram (Lev 16:5) for the people along with the fat of the sin offering (apparently referring to both the bull of the high priest and the goat of the people). It is noteworthy that it was now the burnt offerings that made atonement for himself and the people (cf. Lev 1:4). (See Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament - Page 198) What Happens in Lev 16:23–24? After finishing the atoning sacrifices inside the Most Holy Place, Aaron returns to the tent of meeting and removes the linen garments he had worn inside (Lev 16:23). Then comes Lev 16:24: “He shall bathe his body with water in a holy place and put on his clothes.” Question: Which clothes? The phrase “his clothes” here most naturally refers to his regular high priestly garments (the “golden garments”). Reason: once his unique work in the Holy of Holies was finished, he resumed his normal priestly identity before the people, which involved putting back on his full, glorious vestments. Leon Hyatt does not agree with Guzik and Lindsey - Aaron was to wash himself at the laver in the courtyard and then return again to the outer room of The Tabernacle and dress himself again in his special clothes. Most commentators have tried to explain how the second clothes were different from the ones Aaron took off. This effort is unnecessary. Aaron did not remove his clothes in order to dress himself in different clothing. He did in order to wash himself and then put back on the same clothes he had removed. The sequence of events makes that procedure plain. The place of removing his outer clothing was The Tent of Meeting. He was to leave his clothes there, a strange procedure unless he was to go back to put them on again. The place of washing was “Holy Place.” This expression is the same term used in Leviticus 10:17 (see comments on that verse in MESSAGE 13 under the heading Why have you not eaten the sin-offering in The Place of Holiness), except that here the article is omitted. Even though the article is missing here, it is obvious that the term was meant to refer to The Holy Place or the courtyard, because the laver was located there. After washing his hands and feet, Aaron was to go back into the Tent and put on his holy clothing. Then he was to “come forth” to offer rededication-offerings. The offerings were offered in the courtyard, so he had to reenter the tent portion of The Tabernacle in order to “come forth” to offer them. It should be obvious that the reason he reentered The Holy [Place] was to put back on the clothes he had left there. Next, Aaron was to offer the rededication offering for himself and the rededication-offering for the people, even though the ceremonies of the sin-offerings were not finished. Offering the rededication-offerings in the midst of the ceremony of the sin-offerings shows that the meanings of the two offerings closely resembled each other, a fact that had previously been shown in Leviticus 5:7-10 (see comments on those verses in MESSAGE 2). The rededication-offerings were offered to symbolize complete surrender of the whole life to Jehovah. This same surrender of the worshiper’s life was symbolized in the sin-offering by splattering of the blood of the sin-offering, so the rededication-offerings were offered here in the midst of the ceremony of the rededication-offerings to expand on the importance of total surrender in connection with the sin-offering, just as the blood ceremony in the most holy room of The Tabernacle and sending away the goat of complete removal had expanded on other aspects of the sin-offering. Leviticus 16:25 "Then he shall offer up in smoke the fat of the sin offering on the altar. Lev 16:6 Lev 4:8-10,19 Ex 29:13 Leviticus 16 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries THE RICHEST PART BELONGS TO GOD Then he shall offer up in smoke the fat of the sin offering (chattat/chattath) on the altar. In Levitical law, the fat—the best and richest portion—was always reserved for the LORD, never to be eaten by man (Lev 3:16-17). Its complete consumption by fire symbolized total devotion to God and the acceptance of the offering. Its complete consumption by fire symbolized total devotion to God and the acceptance of the offering. On the Day of Atonement, this final act demonstrated that the sin offering was fully given to God. Spiritually, it points to Christ, who wholly offered Himself up to God in perfect obedience, and whose sacrifice was a “pleasing aroma” (Eph 5:2) accepted by the Father on behalf of sinners. Leon Hyatt Then the fat of the sin-offerings was to be roasted on the altar. Though the words “fat” and “sin-offering” are in the singular, they undoubtedly referred to the fat from both the sin-offering of the priests and the sin-offering of the congregation. Offering the fat on the altar symbolized surrendering the best that was in their lives to God (see comments on Lev. 3:3-5 in MESSAGE 1 and on Lev. 4:8-10 in MESSAGE 2). Leviticus 16:26 "The one who released the goat as the scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water; then afterward he shall come into the camp. The one who released the goat as the scapegoat : Lev 16:10,21,22 shall wash his clothes and bathe his body: Lev 16:28 14:8 15:5-11,27 Nu 19:7,8,21 Heb 7:19 Leviticus 16 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: Heb 7:19+ (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. PURIFICATION OF THE GOAT BEARER The one who released (shalach; Lxx = exapostello) the goat as the scapegoat ('aza'zel) shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water; then afterward he shall come into the camp This verse addresses the uncleanness of the man who led the live goat (the scapegoat) into the wilderness on the Day of Atonement. After releasing the goat, he was required to wash his clothes and bathe his body before re-entering the camp. This washing emphasized that contact with the goat, which bore away the people’s sins, rendered the man ceremonially unclean. Before he could return to fellowship with the community, purification was necessary. Leon Hyatt The man who carried the goat of removal into the wilderness was to wash his clothes and bathe himself and then reenter the camp. The reason this instruction is mentioned here is that verses 27-28 say that a priest was to carry the meat of the sinoffering outside the camp, wash himself, and return to the camp. Thus, the return of both men to the camp are appropriately mentioned together. The meat of the sin-offering was to be carried outside the camp by a priest (see comments on Lev. 4:11- 12,21 in MESSAGE 2). Most likely the task of leading away the goat of complete removal also was to be carried out by a priest. They were to return to the camp together (ED: THIS LATTER IS CONJECTURE). Leviticus 16:27 "But the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp, and they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their refuse in the fire. But the bull of the sin offering: Lev 4:11,12,21 6:30 8:17 shall be taken outside the camp: Mt 27:31-33 Heb 13:11-14 Leviticus 16 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: Hebrews 13:11-14+ For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.13 Hence, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.14 For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. SIN BEARER REMOVED OUTSIDE THE CAMP But the bull of the sin offering (chattat/chattath), and the goat of the sin offering (chattat/chattath), whose blood was brought in to make atonement (kaphar; Lxx = exilaskomai) in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp, and they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their refuse in the fire. After the high priest finished sprinkling the blood of the bull and the goat in the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement, their carcasses were taken outside the camp and burned completely. This act symbolized the total removal of sin from the community. Nothing associated with these sin offerings could remain among God’s people, for they represented the guilt and defilement of Israel. By being carried “outside the camp,” the offerings pointed forward to Christ, Who suffered outside the gate to take away sin once and for all (SEE ABOVE FOR Hebrews 13:11–12). In this way, the ritual underscored both the seriousness of sin and the completeness of God’s provision in the ultimate sin-bearer. Outside the camp (28x in 27v in Scripture) - Ex 29:14; 33:7; Lev 4:12, 21; 6:11; 8:17; 9:11; 13:46; 16:27; 17:3; 24:14, 23; Num 5:3f; 12:14f; 15:35f; 19:3, 9; 31:13, 19; Deut 23:10, 12; Josh 6:23; Heb 13:11, 13 Outside the camp (this exact phrase 28x in 27v in NAS) - Ex 29:14; 33:7; Lev 4:12, 21+; Lev 6:11+.; Lev 8:17+.; Lev 9:11; Lev 13:46+.; Lev 16:27+ ; Lev 17:3+.; Lev 24:14, 23+.; Nu 5:3-4; 12:14-15; 15:35-36; 19:3, 9; 31:13, 19; Dt 23:10, 12; Josh 6:23; Heb 13:11+ Heb 13:13+. and "outside the gate" in Heb 13:12+. Gordon Wenham - The NT makes nothing of the scapegoat led away into the wilderness; but ever since the epistle of Barnabas, written c. A.D. 200, Christians have seen in the scapegoat a type of Christ. As it was led out to die in the wilderness bearing the sins of the people, so Christ was crucified outside Jerusalem for the sins of his people. (See The Book of Leviticus - Page 238) Richard Phillips on outside the camp… It is clear from what follows that the writer of Hebrews does not expect his readers to become popular by standing firm against false teaching. He therefore adds a statement that connects our disgrace to the disgrace of the cross, which was erected "outside the camp." He writes, "Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured" (Heb 13:12-13-+). Because Jesus taught the truth about God, about man, and about the only way of salvation, he was despised and rejected by men, and was literally cast outside the city gates. There He was put to death as one accursed. Jesus' whole ministry and message were outside the pale of worldly religion, and so he became an object of scorn and abuse. Outside the gate he suffered and died. In that separation, a principle is established for all who would come to God through Him. Outside the camp is where we go to find the grace of God, for that is where the Cross was raised, where God meets with us to forgive our sin and to accept us in the righteousness of the Son Whom the world despised. This means that if you want acceptance in the courts of respectable academia, if you want to be admired in the cocktail lounges of conventional and progressive worldly wisdom, and especially if you want to avoid the scandal of a religion that man rejects, then you may not have fellowship with this Jesus Christ. You may not approach His Cross by staying within the safe confines of the worldly city, for the Cross is found outside the camp. But if you go outside the gates of worldly acceptance, not because you have some grudge against the world but because you see Jesus there, you will gain the salvation He bought with His blood to make you holy unto God. Since salvation is found in Jesus Christ and in Him alone, the writer exhorts us, "Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured" (Heb 13:13+). This is an often suppressed truth about Christianity, that the blessings of salvation cannot be had without the disgrace of Jesus' Cross. Paul wrote, "Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1Cor. 1:22-24). To Timothy he wrote, "All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2Ti 3:12-+). Jesus made it quite clear that following him means rejection by this world. He said to the disciples, "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:18-19). If we want to be joined to Christ and his salvation, there is no way for us to avoid bearing the disgrace with which he was sent outside the camp… F. F. Bruce completes the analogy: Now, in the person of Jesus, God had again been rejected in the camp; His presence was therefore to be enjoyed outside the camp, where Jesus was, and everyone who sought Him must go out and approach Him through Jesus. In this context the "camp" stands for the established fellowship and ordinances of Judaism. To abandon them, with all their sacred associations inherited from remote antiquity, was a hard thing, but it was a necessary thing… What was formerly sacred was now unhallowed, because Jesus had been expelled from it; what was formerly unhallowed was now sacred, because Jesus was there. So it is today, that wherever Jesus is denied as the only Savior for sinners, whether in false churches, in families, or in the world at large, all who stand with him must be willing to go outside the camp. But to those who do decide to follow Him, Jesus says, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life" (Mark 10:29-30). (Hebrews Reformed Expository Commentary) Leon Hyatt The meat of the sin-offerings was to be incinerated outside the camp, in accordance with instructions given in Leviticus 4:11-12, 21 (see comments on those verses in MESSAGE 2). This portion of the ceremony symbolized Jehovah’s acceptance of the sinner back into His service after his sins were forgiven. In a sin-offering for a ruler and a sin-offering for an ordinary citizen, those portions of the sin-offering were given to the priests for their support. In a sin-offering for a priest and in a sin-offering for the congregation, of which the priest was a part, those portions were incinerated in a clean place outside the camp. That practice was commanded for sin-offerings that were in any way in behalf of the priests so the priests would not benefit from their own offerings. The meaning was the same whether the meat was given to the priests or incinerated in a clean place outside the camp. It meant that the forgiven person was accepted back by God for use in His service after he was forgiven and covered (see comments on Lev. 4:11-12, 21; in MESSAGE 2 and on Lev. 6:26 in MESSAGE 7). OUTSIDE THE CAMP: SHADOW & SUBSTANCE Leviticus 16:27 ⇄ Hebrews 13:11–12 Leviticus 16:27 vs Hebrews 13:11–12 (Shadow) Hebrews 13:11–12 (Substance in Christ) The bull and goat of the sin offering (their blood brought into the holy place) Jesus, the true sin offering whose blood secures sanctification Carcasses taken outside the camp Jesus suffered outside the gate (outside Jerusalem) Hides, flesh, and refuse burned completely Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice completely removes sin’s guilt Removal of what is unclean from the camp Christ bears our reproach/uncleanness away from the people Priest carries the sin offering away from the people Believers are called to go to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach Purpose: atonement; sin symbolically removed Purpose: sanctify the people through His own blood—real, final cleansing Leviticus 16:28 "Then the one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water, then afterward he shall come into the camp. Leviticus 16 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries UNDERSCORING THE CONTAGIOUS NATURE OF SIN Then - An expression of time - marks what is next in a narration. The one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water, then afterward he shall come into the camp - This shows that even those who disposed of the remains of the sin offering on the Day of Atonement were unclean and required to wash themselves before reentering the camp. This regulation underscored the seriousness of sin and the contagious nature of defilement under the old covenant. Contact with what had borne the guilt of the people made one ceremonially unclean, and cleansing was necessary before fellowship could be restored. In this way, God impressed upon His people both His holiness and the need for continual purification, pointing ahead to the perfect cleansing accomplished through Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice. The priest who carried the remains outside the camp was required to wash his clothes and bathe his body. This act symbolized the removal of any defilement that might have been incurred through contact with sin while outside the camp of God’s people. It did not imply that the meat itself, which was taken out and burned, was sinful or unclean. Interestingly, such a washing is not mentioned in Leviticus 4 in connection with the regular sin offerings. It is possible, however, that this detail was intended to apply to all sin offerings of both priest and congregation. If not, then it represents an expansion of the ritual on the Day of Atonement, providing a fuller picture of the complete removal of sin for the repentant believer. Leviticus 16:29 "This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; KJV - And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict (humble) your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you: in the seventh month: Lev 23:27-32 Ex 30:10 Nu 29:7 1Ki 8:2 Ezr 3:1 you shall humble your souls: Ps 35:13 69:10 Isa 58:3,5 Da 10:3,12 1Co 11:31 2Co 7:10,11 and not do any work: Lev 23:3,7,8,21,28,36 Ex 12:16 20:10 Isa 58:13 Heb 4:10 Leviticus 16 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: Leviticus 23:27 “On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the LORD. Leviticus 23:32 “It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath.” INTERPRETATION OF THE DAY OF ATONEMENT This shall be a permanent statute (chuqqah) for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble (humble) your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you - God now lays down the Day of Atonement as a permanent statute for His people. Every year, on the tenth day of the seventh month, Israel was to stop ALL work and humble themselves before the Lord. This humbling meant not only fasting and physical self-denial, but most importantly repentance and contrition of heart. Whether native-born Israelite or foreigner living among them, all alike were called to participate. By this solemn ordinance, God emphasized that atonement and cleansing come not through human effort or labor, but only by His appointed sacrifice. Permanent statue - everlasting. How could this be true today? For the unbelieving nation of Israel this would still be "permanent" statute but it is one that they cannot fulfill for they have no Tabernacle or Temple. This inability should frustrate them and drive them to Jesus, the better sacrifice. For you - For "who?" For the nation of Israel (see Lev 16:34 for the sons of Israel) and the alien who sojourns among you - You shall humble your souls - In contrast to other national days of gathering, the Day of Atonement was a day to humble your souls. NET Note - The verb “to humble” here refers to various forms of self-denial, including but not limited to fasting (cf. Ps 35:13 - "I humbled my soul with fasting" and Isa 58:3, 10). The Mishnah (m. Yoma 8:1) lists abstentions from food and drink, bathing, using oil as an unguent to moisten the skin, wearing leather sandals, and sexual intercourse (cf. 2Sa 12:16–17, 20). Mishnah Yoma 8:1 opens the final chapter of Yoma with a list of what “affliction/humbling” (innui nefesh) meant on Yom Kippur: “On the Day of Atonement it is forbidden to eat, to drink, to bathe, to anoint oneself, to wear sandals, and to engage in marital relations. But the king and the bride may wash their faces, and a woman after childbirth may wear sandals.”* (Mishnah Yoma 8:1) David