Re-commitment (3)

Refocus

Leviticus 16:5-10

The Day of Atonement was the greatest day of the year for Israel. The Hebrew word for atone means to cover. The Old testament sacrifices could not actually remove sin, only to cover them. On this day, people confessed their sins as a nation, and the High Priest went to the most holy place to make atonement for them. Sacrifices were made and blood was shed so that the people’s sins could be covered until Christ’s sacrifice on the cross would give people the opportunity to have their sin’s removed forever.

Aaron had to spend hours preparing himself to meet God. But now we can approach God anytime Hebrews 4: 16. Prayer is our approach to God, and we are to come with boldness. What a privilege! We are offered easier access to God than the High Priests of the Old Testament times! Still we must never forget that God is holy nor let this privilege cause us to approach God carelessly. The way to God has been open by Christ. But easy access to God does not eliminate our heart to draw near in prayer.

After conducting the usual morning sacrifice in his priestly robes, including the ephod, a garment with precious stone representing the twelve tribes of Israel, God commanded the High Priest to present a sacrifice for himself and his family dressed in linen clothes like the other priest wore. This is because he was a mere man, subject to the same sins as hid brethren. He had to enter the Holy of Holies for the time to place coals of fire on the altar with incense so that the smoke of the incense would fill the Holy of Holies.

This event with the two goats occurred on the Day of Atonement. The two goats represent the two ways God was dealing with the Israelites’s sin (1) He was forgiving their sin through the first goat, which was sacrificed, and (2) he was removing their guilt through the second goat, the scapegoat, which was sent into the wilderness with a scarlet ribbon around his neck. The same ritual had to be repeated every year. Jesus Christ’s death replaced this system once and for all. We can have our sins forgiven and guilt removed by placing our trust in Christ.

The first goat was slain, but the second goat was not slain to represent the fact that spirit cannot be but it can be separated from God for eternity. Separation from God amounts to spiritual death. Man cannot destroy a spirit.

We see in the actions of the people and the High Priest a type of our atonement through Christ. He fulfilled the type. He died for us and carried His blood into the Holy of Holies in heaven for us. The figure of the High Priest going into the Holy of Holies and making eternal Redemption. Jesus made one sacrifice for sins forever, but the Priest made an atonement once a year.

Jesus Christ’ sacrifice was so much more worthy than that of an animal substitute. The animal substitute was sufficient only for annual forgiveness of unintentional sins, and for atonement of the nation of Israel only. Christ, as our substitute, was satisfaction for forgiveness of all the sins forever, and for the whole world- for all the people for all time. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting our trespasses against us” (2 Corinthians 5:19). His offering perfectly fulfilled the requirements for our atonement, removal of sin and its’ consequences, and reconciliation with God.

The New Testament, Christ’s death on the cross was atonement for our sins, in the pattern of Old Testament sacrifices ( Exodus 32:30). In fact the word atonement is mentioned eight-one time in the Bible, eighty which are found in the Old Testament, and it allude to the various animal offering that would atone man’s sins.