Friday, January 31, 2020

Substitutionary Atonement

Leviticus 16:1-22 
1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered profane fire before the Lord, and died; 2 and the Lord said to Moses: “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. 3 “Thus Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering. 4 He shall put the holy linen tunic and the linen trousers on his body; he shall be girded with a linen sash, and with the linen turban he shall be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore he shall wash his body in water, and put them on. 5 And he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering, and one ram as a burnt offering.
    6 “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. 7 He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 8 Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. 9 And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord's lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. 10 But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.
    11 “And Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bull as the sin offering which is for himself. 12 Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. 13 And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die. 14 He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.
    15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. 16 So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. 17 There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel. 18 And he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord, and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. 19 Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, cleanse it, and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.
    20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. 21 Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. 22 The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.

Holiness in worship and atoning sacrifices is brought to Aaron’s mind by Moses at God’s command.  He is to remind Aaron of his two sons who did not bear the Lord’s holiness in mind with an untimely and inappropriate sacrifice.  The priest such as Aaron must approach God on His terms and according to His word.  He shall be clean and holy, prepared with sacrifices for himself and for the people; the two goats from the people of God were identified by God with one for the Lord and one for them.  The goat for the Lord was sacrificed, yet the one for the people was to be set free after being given to the Lord and atonement made on it as the scapegoat.  Even now we use the term scapegoat to identify one who does not deserve the accusations and punishment given it in place of the guilty one.  The sin offering is killed and its blood atonement made; the scapegoat has the sins of God’s people imparted to it, then sent away from the tabernacle into the wilderness.  It takes the sins led by a man who is worthy and released far away as it carries their iniquities where no one lives.  We see the typology of these goats in the life and work of Christ who alone is worthy as our sacrifice and redeemer.  As our sacrifice, His blood is shed with His life by His death which atones or pays the price we owe for our sin, namely our own death (Hebrews 9:22).  Then we see Him as a scapegoat who took our sin confessed to Him as if it were His instead, and takes our guilt and punishment away from the holy place of God as the worthy one leading Himself away as our scapegoat; He took our sin’s just due on Himself through the cross, yet brings us back in mercy to approach Him with the imputed righteousness and holiness of Christ Jesus our Savior!  We then live where nobody should in our condemned state (wilderness) because He has truly borne our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5-6, 11, 1 John 2:2) by offering Himself as our sacrifice (Hebrews 7:27).  He is therefore seen pictured in both of these goats as our substitutionary atonement. 

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