The Book of Leviticus

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter opens by recalling "the death of the two sons of Aaron," Nadab and Abihu, who died offering strange fire. Against that solemn background God gives the law of approach: Aaron must "come not at all times into the holy place within the vail." The most holy place, where God appeared in the cloud above the mercy seat, was not open at will, not even to the high priest, on pain of death. Only on one day a year could he enter, and only in a prescribed way: bathed, clothed not in his golden garments but in plain white linen, and never without blood. He brought a bullock as a sin offering for himself and his house, and from the people two goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. The two goats were set before the LORD, and lots were cast upon them, "one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat." One would be slain; the other would be sent away alive. Together they would picture the whole of atonement.

Gospel Focus

"That he come not at all times" tells us something sobering and wonderful at once. Under the old covenant, the way into God's immediate presence was shut. A veil hung between, and only one man, one day a year, with blood, could pass it, and even he entered trembling. The message was plain: sin has closed the way to God, and no one may stroll into His holiness uninvited. The New Testament explains that "the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing" (Hebrews 9:8). The restricted door was itself a sermon, teaching Israel to long for a way in that did not yet exist. And notice the high priest laid aside his glorious garments and came in humble white linen, a shadow of the Son of God who laid aside His glory and took the form of a servant to make atonement for us. The guarded door was never meant to be the end of the story; it was the ache that the gospel would answer.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

First Aaron killed the bullock for his own sin and, taking a censer of burning coals and sweet incense, passed through the veil so that the cloud of incense covered the mercy seat, "that he die not." Then he brought the bullock's blood within the veil and sprinkled it "upon the mercy seat eastward" and "before the mercy seat... seven times." Next he killed "the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people," and did the same with its blood, sprinkling it on and before the mercy seat. By this blood he "made an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel," and for the tabernacle itself, which dwelt "in the midst of their uncleanness." The very sanctuary of God, defiled by a whole year of the people's sin, was cleansed by blood. At the center of Israel's holiest day stood this single act: blood, carried by the priest, sprinkled before God, over the law the people had broken.

Gospel Focus

Here is the beating heart of the gospel in shadow. The high priest could enter God's presence only with blood, and the whole day turned on that blood upon the mercy seat. The book of Hebrews holds this exact picture up beside the cross: "into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood" (Hebrews 9:7), but Christ, "by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Hebrews 9:12). Aaron carried the blood of a goat; Jesus carried His own. Aaron entered a tent made with hands; Jesus entered heaven itself. Aaron did it every year, for it never finished the work; Jesus did it once, and it was done for ever. The mercy seat sprinkled with blood is Calvary in gold and shadow, for God "hath set forth" Christ "to be a propitiation through faith in his blood" (Romans 3:25). At the cross, the blood was placed exactly where the law we broke was kept, and there mercy covered judgment. The way to God has always been the same: not our worthiness, but blood upon the mercy seat.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Now comes the second goat, and one of the most vivid acts in all the law. Aaron 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." Then the goat was led away "by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness," and released in "a land not inhabited," bearing upon him all their iniquities, gone. The two goats together showed two sides of one atonement. The first goat, slain, its blood on the mercy seat, dealt with the guilt of sin before God. The second goat, sent away alive, dealt with the presence of sin among the people, carrying it clean out of the camp and out of sight, into a place from which it would never come back. Sin was both paid for and carried away.

Gospel Focus

The two goats are one of the clearest pictures of Christ in the Bible, for it took two goats to show what one Saviour would do. The slain goat is Christ our sacrifice, whose blood was offered to God; the scapegoat is Christ our sin-bearer, who carried our sins away. On the cross, "the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6), exactly as Aaron laid Israel's sins on the goat's head, and He bore them away so completely that God says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12). This is the wonder the world cannot grasp: our sins are not merely forgiven, they are gone, carried into a land not inhabited, put where they can never be found against us again. John the Baptist looked at Jesus and named Him by this very picture: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). He is both goats, slain and sending sin away, so that the believer stands before God not only pardoned but with his transgressions removed forever.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God fixed the day forever: "in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all." It was a sabbath of solemn rest, for native and stranger alike, and its purpose was breathtaking: "on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD." Once a year the whole nation was cleansed, from all its sins, before God. Yet the very words "once a year" and "everlasting statute" carried a quiet ache. The day had to come again next year, and the year after, and every year without end, for the work was never truly finished. The blood of goats could cover Israel's sin for a season, but it could never take it away for good. The greatest day of the Jewish year was, in the end, a promise waiting to be kept.

Gospel Focus

The endless repetition is exactly the point the New Testament seizes upon. "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4); that is why the Day of Atonement returned every single year. Each Day of Atonement was a fresh reminder that sin was still there, still needing to be covered again. But "now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews 9:26). Where the high priest came again and again, Christ came once; where the blood of goats covered sin for a year, the blood of Jesus takes it away for ever. The believer does not wait for next year's atonement, hoping to be made clean again; in Christ we are already "clean from all our sins before the LORD," washed once and completely. And the call to "afflict your souls" still stands in spirit: we come to this atonement not proudly, as those who deserve it, but humbly, denying our own righteousness, bowing low to receive the cleansing Christ has purchased. The Day of Atonement was a shadow that returned every year; the substance came once, and it is finished.