Scripture Daily

Context No. 3350 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 29:10-14: in context

10“You shall bring the bull before the Tent of Meeting; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. 11You shall kill the bull before the LORD at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 12You shall take of the blood of the bull, and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger; and you shall pour out all the blood at the base of the altar. 13You shall take all the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar. 14But the meat of the bull, and its skin, and its dung, you shall burn with fire outside of the camp. It is a sin offering.

In the ceremony ordaining the priests, a bull is offered as a sin offering. Aaron and his sons lay their hands on its head, and it is killed; its blood is put on the altar's horns and poured out at its base, its fat burned on the altar. But a striking detail follows: the body of the bull, its flesh and skin and refuse, is carried outside the camp and burned there. It is a sin offering.

The sin offering, bearing the people's sin, was taken outside the holy space to be consumed. Hebrews sees in this a shadow of Christ: he too suffered outside the gate, bearing our sin outside the camp, cast out that we might be brought in. The sin-bearer is carried out; that is where the offering for sin is consumed. It points ahead to Jesus, crucified outside the city walls, made an outcast in our place, so that we, defiled, could be welcomed into God's presence. He went out so that we could come in.

Do I grasp that Christ was cast outside the camp, bearing my sin, so that I might be brought in, and does that move me to go to him there?

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