Scripture Daily

Context No. 1908 of 4322 · Leviticus

Context · Reflection

Leviticus 16:18-22: in context

18“He shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the bull’s blood, and some of the goat’s blood, and put it around on the horns of the altar. 19He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and make it holy from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. 20“When he has finished atoning for the Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is ready. 22The goat shall carry all their iniquities on himself to a solitary land, and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.

On the Day of Atonement, after making atonement with blood for the Holy Place and the altar, Aaron presents the live goat. He lays both his hands on its head and confesses over it all the iniquities and transgressions and sins of the people, putting them on the head of the goat. Then the goat is sent away into the wilderness, carrying on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land, released there, never to return. The people's sins are laid on the goat and carried far away.

The picture of the scapegoat is one of the most vivid in all of Scripture: the people's sins, confessed and laid on the head of the goat, carried away into the wilderness, to a solitary land, never to return. It is a visible enactment of what atonement accomplishes: sin borne by another and removed, taken away, carried off, so that it no longer stands against the people. The sins did not simply vanish; they were laid on the goat, which bore them away. And this points forward, unmistakably, to Christ, the true bearer of our sins. What the scapegoat pictured, Christ accomplished: the LORD laid on him the iniquity of us all; he bore our sins in his own body; he carried them away. Our sins were not merely overlooked or ignored; they were laid on Christ, who bore them and carried them away, so that they no longer stand against us. There is deep comfort in this for the burdened conscience. We can carry our sins as a weight that will not lift, feeling them always present, always accusing, never removed. The scapegoat, and the Christ it foreshadowed, proclaim that our sins have been carried away, borne by another to a solitary land, removed from us. As far as the east is from the west, the psalmist says, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. The sin laid on Christ was carried away, not to return; and the one whose sins are borne by Christ need not carry them any longer. This is not to make light of sin, which had to be atoned for at great cost; it is to grasp what the atonement means, that our sins, laid on Christ, have been carried away, removed, so that they no longer stand against us. The scapegoat bore the people's sins into the wilderness, never to return; and Christ has borne ours away, so that for those who are his, the sins that accuse us have been carried off, removed as far as the east is from the west.

Do I carry my sins as a weight that will not lift, always present and accusing, or can I take hold of what the scapegoat pictured and Christ accomplished, that my sins, laid on him, have been carried away to a solitary land never to return, removed as far as the east is from the west, so that they no longer stand against me?

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