Leviticus 16:5-22 – Jesus, God’s atoning sacrifice and scapegoat for us.

On the Day of Atonement, Aaron was told to bring a bull and a ram for the sin offering and burnt offering for himself and his household.  He would first offer the bull for the sin offering for himself and the household. According to verse 14, he would take the blood and sprinkle it on “…the mercy seat on the east side; also in front of the mercy seat, he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times”. Since the mercy seat was in the Holy of holies, he was required to do something before he could go inside. Verses 12-13 said that “he shall take a firepan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense, and bring it inside the veil.  He shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, otherwise he will die.” 

On the part of the people, they would bring two male goats for the sin offering and a ram for the burnt offering. At the door of the tent of meeting, Aaron would cast lots for the two goats. One would be for the LORD as their sin offering, the other would be the scapegoat which would be led outside the camp and be released. The one offered to the LORD would signify that their sin had been atoned for. The scapegoat would signify the effect of the atonement. Before the scapegoat was released, “Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.” This scapegoat took the sin and impurities of the Israelites and be led into the wilderness. The scapegoat is to us a picture of Jesus Christ our Lord, who bore our sins, and took them away so that we could be freed from the guilt of our sins.

We know for sure that everyone, including the priest, was in need of forgiveness. As the officiating minister, he needed first to make atonement for himself before he could help the congregation in officiating the ceremony for their atonement. But Jesus our High Priest had no sin to atone for. Being the perfect Son of God, He could make perfect atonement for us once and for all. The Aaronic priesthood had to conduct this ceremony yearly, but Christ did it once and for all at Calvary. We who had submitted to His Lordship are cleansed forever. He is both our atoning sacrifice and the scapegoat who had freed us from our guilt and shame caused by our sinfulness. Let us ever live to the glory of His praise!