IN our July number we spoke about the sacrifices which the children of Israel brought to the Tabernacle. The sacrifices for sin chiefly occupied us. Amongst these sacrifices there is one of a peculiar character, of which we now shall speak. If you will open your Bibles at the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus, and then turn to the ninth and tenth chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews, you will find instruction concerning a sin offering, which in many respects differed from the other sin offerings. It was an offering made for sin once a year, and not for the particular sins of one person, but for the whole nation of Israel.
You have read the first few verses of the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus! They are very solemn. God would not allow Aaron to come at all times into the Holiest of All, where His ark was. Why was this? It is necessary to look into the tenth chapter for the answer. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, had offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not, and they had perished for their disobedience. Then the Lord prevented Aaron from coming frequently into His presence, and would only permit him to enter the Holiest of All once a year. The sons of Aaron had been unholy and disobedient, therefore the priest's freedom of entering Jehovah's presence was forfeited.
The Holy of Holies—that sacred inner chamber of the Tabernacle—became thus, in the eyes of the priests and people of Israel, a place of the utmost solemnity. God dwelt there in His holiness, and amongst all the people of Israel only one man, and that one man only once a year, dared approach this dwelling-place of God. Sin had separated man from God. Alas! what a terrible separation exists between the sinner and God. But it is our joy to tell of the sacrifice of Jesus, and of His blood, which not only cleanses away the sins of all who believe, but which has also made a way for believers into God's very presence.
I would ask my dear young friends to turn once more to the picture of the Tabernacle in our July number. All the children of Israel assemble round the Tabernacle, but only such as have an offering to bring can come to its door ; no one of all the tribes, unless of the tribe Levi, may pass beyond the brazen altar, which stands just within the curtained enclosure.
Beyond the brazen altar you observe the brazen laver: to this the priests only who are engaged in the service of the Tabernacle may come. After the laver is the Tabernacle itself. Inside it the priests only who have the holy work of attending to the things in the holy place may go. A vail separates the holy place from the Holiest of All, and into this inner chamber, as we have said, only one man, the High Priest, may ever enter, and he only once a year. What a long way off must God have seemed to be from His people in those days! How different from the privilege Christians possess I Now little children—yes, every little child who believes, has liberty to go right into God's presence through the blood of Jesus.
I think you can all see how sin kept Israel at a distance from the holy God. God is “of purer eyes than to behold evil "(Heb. 1:1313But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? (Hebrews 1:13)), so He shut Himself away from His people Israel, though He dwelt among them. There is no freedom for anyone whose sins are not atoned for to enter God's holy presence.
Now, I wonder if you understand in your hearts this truth—If a sacrifice for the sin, which shuts out from God, be brought into His presence, then God can look at the sacrifice for the sin instead of the sin itself. This, in a figure, was the happy lesson taught by the great Day of Atonement. Aaron because of sin was not to go at all times into the Holiest of All, but when he went he was to go there with the blood of a sacrifice for himself, and also for the people of Israel, and this blood was brought into the place where God dwelt to make atonement for the sins of the people. The blood shed for Israel's sin, and not the
sin, was therefore before God in the Holiest of All. Aaron was quite alone in the tabernacle of the congregation when he went in to make an atonement. He was a figure to us of our great High Priest, Jesus Christ our Lord, who did all the work Himself. Not one of my dear young friends, I trust, thinks even for a moment that he or she can put away the smallest of his or her sins.
“Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears for ever flow,
Naught for sin could e'er atone,
But Thy blood, and Thine alone."
Yes! Jesus has finished the work His Father gave Him to do; His precious blood has made atonement for us who believe on Him. Now, what was the High Priest doing in the Tabernacle of the congregation that day? He was sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy seat. The seat was, as it were, God's holy throne—the place to which man could not come because of sin. But the blood shed for sin was put upon the place where God dwelt. The High Priest entered into the Holiest with his hands full of sweet incense, from which we learn how that God required the man, who once a year was a type of His blessed Son entering His presence in heaven for us with His own blood (Heb. 9: 12), should approach Him only with the mercy seat covered with the cloud of incense—that is, with the throne of God covered right over, as it were, with the sweetness of the perfection
of the Lord Himself. Our only hope is Jesus and His blood; but what a hope is this! In Him and by His work we are brought to God.
How happy is this contemplation as we think of our holy God! Lo! the perfection of His Son is ever before Him, and the precious blood Jesus shed on our behalf, because of our sins, speaks for us in His presence instead of our sins crying out against us. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus . . . let us draw near" (Heb. 10:19-2219Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19‑22)); and these words, “draw near," are as much for little children as for grown-up people.
Perhaps some of you are saying, "But the picture is of a live goat being led by a man into the wilderness, and we have been reading all this time about the blood of a goat which was slain." Well, the slain goat was "the Lord's lot," the live goat was the people's. I wish you first to think of God's satisfaction in the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and if you believe that the very righteousness of God is satisfied by the death of Christ for us, I am sure you will be able to take in the happy lesson of the scapegoat for yourselves.
The people could not see the High Priest sprinkle the blood of the slain goat in the holiest before the mercy-seat; but when he had made an end of reconciling by blood the holy place, then he laid both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confessed over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat.
Here was something for them. And what were they to see? The goat, with their sins upon its head, led out of the camp, far, far away from them all. What a happy sight! It was going away from them all. Would it come back again? No; never. The goat was never to return and bring their sins back again. God had looked upon the blood instead of their sins, and now they had the joy of knowing that their sins were gone out of the camp away from them all.
As you look at the picture think of the happy reality of the Christian’s joy. His sins are gone, never to be remembered again forever. Jesus has put them away by the sacrifice of Himself, and God remembers them no more. Hence, we who believe God can rejoice in our sins being forgiven and forgotten by our God.