The Bible Binge: 2GOATSFTW (Leviticus 16:29-34)

Lists for 2023

The end of the year is full of lists. Here are thetop 10 news stories of 2023, depending on the news outlet:

Damar Hamlin cardiac arrest on the field

Implosion of the Titanic sub

Chinese spy balloon

Student loans

Trump indictments

Matthew Perry death

Mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine

Kevin McCarthy elected as House speaker, then removed

The boom of Artificial Intelligence and Sam Altman

Hamas attacks Israel and Israel goes to War

This was also the year that Chuck-E-Cheese got rid of all of their animatronics. OK… not necessarily the biggest news story.

There’s also the top 10 ten songs, the top 10 movies, top 10 best sellers, top 10 video games, top 10 places to visit, top 10 searches (which include Wordle, the death of Queen Elizabeth, Ukraine, and Will Smith). There’s no shortage of lists for 2023.

What are your lists?

This is New Year’s Eve. 2023 is coming to an end. What’s on your list for 2023? How do you feel about 2023? Over the next few hours, most of us will be replaying 2023 in our mind. Highlights. Lowlights. Things that made us happy. Things that made us sad. Some of us will stay up and watch the ball drop… at 11pm here. Some of us will head to bed early. Some of us will watch the fireworks in our neighborhoods. As we head into 2024, what are your expectations for the coming year? I think very few of us will spend the next day or so thinking this is just another 24-hour cycle. At the very least, most of us are not working tomorrow. That makes it different. Some will be working, and we need them to.

We have all of these questions, all of these expectations in the next few hours. But there’s one thing today’s Bible Binge text puts front and center for us as we look back on 2023 and ahead to 2024. Something that must be at the top of any list of 2023. In fact, it should be at the top of your list for 2024. Here’s what should top your list and mine:

The Top of Any List: Forgiven.

That’s the biggest story. That’s the biggest byline. That’s the biggest event. That’s the biggest thing that marks your life. Forgiven. You are loved. You are forgiven. That beats all the bad stuff that happened to you this year. That beats all the good stuff that happened to you this year.

The book of Leviticus

Our Bible Binge reading has us at the super exciting book of Leviticus this week. That’s a book that most of us just skip right over. The book of Leviticus doesn’t exactly read like a warm, fuzzy Christmas story, does it? In fact, we get to Leviticus in our Bible reading, and we’re scanning. How can we get through this to get to the good stuff in Numbers? All these regulations.

Here’s the deal with Leviticus. If Exodus is about God’s rescue and coming to live with his people, Leviticus is how that relationship will be maintained. Over and over in the book Israel is being reminded that God is a holy God, and sin is bad and must be dealt with through rituals and deaths of animals. Relationship with God is created, sustained, and maintained through God’s gift of sacrifice. In fact, the apex of the book, the climax is the Day of Atonement, where an entire chapter, chapter 16 is given to one of the most important days on Israel’s calendar, the day when the sin problem takes center stage and is spectacularly dealt with.

That’s where we’re at this morning. We heard some of it read moments ago. The Day of Atonement, known now as Yom Kippur, was the one day every year in which Israel as a nation acknowledged their sins, and provided sacrifices to atone for their sins. It was the one day a year that the high priest entered the very inner room of the tabernacle, the Holy of Holies, and sprinkled blood on the altar to purify everything… people, animals, the Tabernacle buildings, from sin.

All of this seems weird and odd to us. And it most certainly seems very bloody. This is one of the reasons that Leviticus is a foreign book to us. We don’t like the details of the rituals, we aren’t comfortable with all the blood, and most of this just offends our sense of morality. Do we really have to be reminded again and again of our sin?

The answer is “yes”, whether we like it or not. An entire chapter.. in fact, and entire book has been dedicated in our Bibles to show us not only how pervasive the sin problem is in our lives, but also its devastating effects. We don’t like thinking about it. We skip Leviticus, sure, because it has a lot of boring details in it, but we have to admit, deep down we just don’t want to deal with it. But if we’re going to rightly understand 2023 or 2024, we have to spend some time here.

The Day of Atonement

This chapter details the highlight of Israel’s year the Day of Atonement. If we’re going to understand why this is important, there’s one word we have to get right in this chapter… it’s the word that occurs more than any other in this chapter:

Atonement

What does it mean? There are many ways “atonement” gets defined, and any number of those definitions will determine just what you think of Jesus and God.

Atonement is simply this:

Atonement is the process by which God makes the sinner right with Himself.

There are all sorts of presuppositions in that statement. One is that

God and the sinner are not right with each other.

The second is that there must be something done to make God right with the sinner.

The third is that only God can make things right.

You step through these doors any given Sunday and those three assumptions are always, always in play during the service. There’s a fourth assumption we’ll get to in a moment. But these three have to be on our radar always. Sin breaks relationship with God, atonement is the fix, and forgiveness is the end result. These assumptions are in play in this chapter as God is dealing with Israel.. and God outlines just what is involved with atonement to make everything right.

Two Goats

We are going to shorten the process down to this: A bull and two goats are what is necessary for the sin problem to be taken care of. A bull and one goat will be sacrificed, and the other goat will be turned loose in the wilderness. Now, there’s a lot more going on here in this chapter, but these two goats tell us everything we need to know about what atonement looks like. Two goats. If either goat goes missing from this equation, we don’t get a full picture of what is involved with atonment.

The first goat is sacrificed. For atonement to be made, there must be a death by blood. A life exchanged for a life. Here’s what God says in the next chapter:

Leviticus 17:11 The life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement.

Atonement is being made for a life by taking the life and the blood from the animal sacrifice. The animal dies so that the sinner can live. Blood is required because it is considered the life giving element of the body.

The second goat is led out into the wilderness.

Here’s what God says to Moses about this goat:

Leviticus 16:21–22 “Aaron will lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the Israelites’ iniquities and rebellious acts—all their sins. He is to put them on the goat’s head and send it away into the wilderness by the man appointed for the task. The goat will carry all their iniquities into a desolate land, and the man will release it there.”

The first goat dies as the payment for sin and the recipient of punishment. This second goat carries the sins away. Both give us a complete picture of atonement. Atonement is the process by which God is made right by the sinner. And that process involves a blood sacrifice, a death, and payment for sin. And it also involves the removal of sin.

The Psalmist says this about that second goat:

Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

The payment is made with the blood sacrifice. And the sins are removed and taken away forever. Sin is exterminated. That’s atonement. Two goats. One atonement. Two goats for the win.

Two Goats = One Atonement = Total forgiveness

So what does all of this mean? What is the win here?

Throughout the book of Leviticus there’s a phrase that appears over and over and over:

“The priest will make atonement, and he will be forgiven.”

He will be forgiven. He will be forgiven. He will be forgiven. Forgiveness is the win. Forgiveness is the result of atonement. You see, God doesn’t simply passover sin. He doesn’t simply give a wink and a nod. Sin is forgiven through sacrifice.

The writer of Hebrews says it this way:

Hebrews 9:22 “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

A goat must die. A goat must be led into the wilderness taking the sins with it.

All of this, of course, lands on Jesus. There is no need for a Day of Atonement there is no longer a need for two goats because Jesus has become both the sacrifice and the sin remover… becoming the payment for sin and removing our sin completely. He cleanses us of our sin through His death. His death for our life. The two goats have their end in Jesus. Jesus dies. You get forgiveness.

Identity and Freedom

Why does this matter? Why this reminder? The importance of Leviticus 16 cannot be understated. This is what Jesus has done for you, and continues to do for you. Whatever happened in 2023? Regardless of what happened… know this… you’re forgiven. Whatever is going to happen in 2024? You’re forgiven. You’re free. That’s freedom. Leviticus 16 is how much Jesus loves you and cares for you.

I know too many people who need to hear this all of the time, and that includes me. I know those who are restless, who are full of anxiety, and seem to always be looking and searching for identity in all sorts of different things. And at the bottom of it all, they do not know or believe they are loved. That they are forgiven. And that that’s their identity.

Leviticus 16 cuts through all that. Jesus has died for your sin and removed your sin. You are free. Free to make mistakes. Free to not worry about whether you’ve done enough, repented enough. Jesus has given you forgiveness. Sin has no hold on you. The devil or the law can no longer accuse us of sin. Sin does not define you. Jesus and His forgiveness is your identity. That means you don’t have to worry about whether you’re always doing it right. You don’t have to be right. You’re free to get it wrong. You’re just free. Forgiveness is king. Jesus is your two goats for the win.

So make your lists. Celebrate the day, the night. Enjoy the moment of a new year. Because I guarantee you this. You know what Israel was doing the day after the day of Atonement? Celebrating. Relief. For one brief shining moment… all is right with the world. All sins atoned for. All sins forgiven. Of course, it wasn’t permanent. We wouldn’t get that until Jesus. But that’s the point, right? Because of Jesus, that Day after the Day of Atonement is your life all of the time. Always forgiven. Always free. Always in the good graces of a God who deeply and desperately loves you. Jesus is your two goats for the win every day of next year. Happy New Year. You’re forgiven.

Let’s pray.

The Table

Two goats. One atonement. And Jesus did it all for us… and does it all for us right here. Jacub read it earlier… this is his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. It is here your forgiven. It is here your sins are removed. Forever. Receive what Christ has done for you in faith.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26

May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.