ONCE a year there was a great day of atonement in Israel, and among the feasts of the Lord none was more solemn than it. It was a type for us of the day of all days most solemn to the Christian’s heart, even that upon which our Lord and Saviour died, and by Himself made atonement for our sins.
Atonement is rather a long word; it means agreement, and is the being at one of those who were not so. Where there is enmity or hatred between two persons, there cannot be agreement until that which causes the enmity is taken away. Unless there be satisfaction made to God for sin, God cannot look down upon the guilty sinner save in anger against the sins committed. Supposing you had done a sad wrong against a great person: however good and kind he might be, yet he could not look with favor upon the sins you had done, and he would have to be satisfied respecting the evil you had done, before he could smile upon you. God loves sinners, but hates sin; and our Lord Jesus Christ by dying on the cross made full satisfaction for the sins which we have committed, He put sins away by His sacrifice.
Once a year the great Day of Atonement took place in Israel. The people assembled together, and sacrifices were made, and the blood of a kid was taken by the high priest into the tabernacle, and he passed with it through the golden room where the golden candlestick and the golden table and the golden altar were, and then, having in his hand the golden censer, he entered the second golden room where the ark of the covenant stood, which, too, was overlaid with gold. The outer room was the Holy place, the inner one the Holiest of All. And upon and before the ark, the blood of the goat was sprinkled as an atonement for the sins of the children of Israel.
No eye of man saw what the high priest did, God alone watched him in that solemn moment, and God accepted the atoning blood of the sacrifice, and so reconciliation was made.
Having finished this work, the high priest laid both his hands upon the head of a live goat, and confessed over him all the iniquities of the people, and then sent away this goat into the wilderness by the hands of a trustworthy man. This goat was called the scapegoat. It was presented alive before the Lord to make an atonement with Him, and it wandered away from the people of Israel, into a place uninhabited, where it was separated from them.
They saw not the blood of the slain goal taken into God’s presence, and they lost sight of the scape-goat, upon which their sins were confessed. God saw the blood, of the one which had been sacrificed for them, and God commanded that the other upon which their sins were laid should be sent far away out of sight. God accepted the blood, and put the sins far, far away, never to be remembered again.
How plainly this teaches us of the value of the precious blood of Christ. The Lord made a full and complete atonement on the cross, and God has received Him as a man into His presence in heaven itself. And as for our sins, they are remembered by God no more.
What, then, have we to do? To wait till the Lord comes again. “Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time.” Soon, very soon, He will come again, and when He comes it will be “unto salvation.” May you be every day looking for the Saviour, and waiting for His coming the second time.