Leviticus 16:16-27
After sprinkling the blood on the mercy seat and before it, Aaron then cleansed the holy place. In virtue of Christ’s finished work, God can now go on with His people even though the flesh is still in us, for we are not now in the flesh, but accepted in Him. The veil has now been rent, and we draw near as worshippers. Israel, however, has not entered into the good of all this, for the veil is still upon their hearts. It is not until they own Christ as their true Messiah, and the work He has finished as the ground of blessing, that blessing will come to them nationally. This will be when He comes to set up His kingdom in righteousness, and then, like Thomas, they will see and believe.
Substitution
We now come to the scapegoat, which speaks to us of substitution. The first goat, as we remarked, was for the Lord’s lot, and opened up the way of blessing in meeting God’s claims against sin. There is, however, our personal need as sinners and our actual sins which must be put away. This we see in the scapegoat. The Lord Jesus died for all, but the Scripture never says that He bore the sins of all, but of many (Isaiah 53:12). And so here in our chapter the actual sins of the children of Israel were confessed over the head of the scapegoat by the high priest, and then the goat was let go by the hand of a fit man to carry them to a land not inhabited. Their sins were, as it were, carried away and forgotten. Surely this is just what the Lord Jesus has done for all those who believe in Him. He who is both our Great High Priest and our Scapegoat, has confessed and borne our sins in Calvary’s dark hours. They are now gone forever from the very memory of God, and the Holy Spirit is now a witness to us saying, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 10:17).
We have been noticing that all this which took place on the day of atonement in Israel was just a type and shadow of the work of the Lord Jesus on Calvary. How our hearts are bowed in worship as we think of it. God’s claims have been fully met, and a place of nearness for us as worshippers secured, while we rejoice in the fact that all our personal guilt has been fully met, so that our sins are gone, never to be charged against us again. The notable contrast between the type and the reality is, however, that here in the type it had to be repeated again every year, but now the perfect work of the Lord Jesus has been done “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). It is gloriously and forever complete, as is the perfect standing of every believer, even the feeblest.
The Burnt Offering
After all this Aaron came out and offered his burnt offering and the burnt offering for the people. We, the church, as now in the holy of holies, have entered into the good of all this, but Israel, as we have remarked, will not be in the good of it until they see Him coming as their Deliverer. Then they will know that His work has been accepted, and blessing will come to them in that day when they have truly afflicted their souls in repentance.
The bodies of the bullock and the goat, whose blood had been brought into the sanctuary, were then taken out and burned outside the camp. The camp was the place of earthly religious ceremony, but blessing must come through the despised One who suffered outside the gate (Hebrews 13:12).
For Further Meditation
1. What part of Christ’s work does the scapegoat represent?
2. There are many different ways that Christ’s work at Calvary is presented in Scripture. We are told about substitution, propitiation, atonement and sanctification, among others. Can you distinguish between each of these?
3. You can find great, brief definitions of each of these terms in the Concise Bible Dictionary by G. Morrish or in the online version of the dictionary found at bibletruthlibrary.org.