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Leviticus
Chapter Sixteen
Leviticus 16
Chapter Contents
The great day of atonement. (1-14) The sacrifices on it,
The scape-goat. (15-34)
Commentary on Leviticus 16:1-14
Without entering into particulars of the sacrifices on
the great day of atonement, we may notice that it was to be a statute for ever,
till that dispensation be at an end. As long as we are continually sinning, we
continually need the atonement. The law of afflicting our souls for sin, is a
statue which will continue in force till we arrive where all tears, even those
of repentance, will be wiped from our eyes. The apostle observes it as a proof
that the sacrifices could not take away sin, and cleanse the conscience from
it, that in them there was a remembrance made of sin every year, upon the day
of atonement, Hebrews 10:1,3. The repeating the sacrifices,
showed there was in them but a feeble effort toward making atonement; this
could be done only by offering up the body of Christ once for all; and that
sacrifice needed not to be repeated.
Commentary on Leviticus 16:15-34
Here are typified the two great gospel privileges, of the
remission of sin, and access to God, both of which we owe to our Lord Jesus.
See the expiation of guilt. Christ is both the Maker and the Matter of the
atonement; for he is the Priest, the High Priest, that makes reconciliation for
the sins of the people. And as Christ is the High Priest, so he is the
Sacrifice with which atonement is made; for he is all in all in our
reconciliation to God. Thus he was figured by the two goats. The slain goat was
a type of Christ dying for our sins; the scape-goat a type of Christ rising
again for our justification. The atonement is said to be completed by putting
the sins of Israel upon the head of the goat, which was sent away into a
wilderness, a land not inhabited; and the sending away of the goat represented
the free and full remission of their sins. He shall bear upon him all their
iniquities. Thus Christ, the Lamb of God, takes away the sin of the world, by
taking it upon himself, John 1:29. The entrance into heaven, which
Christ made for us, was typified by the high priest's entrance into the most
holy place. See Hebrews 9:7. The high priest was to come out
again; but our Lord Jesus ever lives, making intercession, and always appears
in the presence of God for us. Here are typified the two great gospel duties of
faith and repentance. By faith we put our hands upon the head of the offering;
relying on Christ as the Lord our Righteousness, pleading his satisfaction, as
that which alone is able to atone for our sins, and procure us a pardon. By
repentance we afflict our souls; not only fasting for a time from the delights
of the body, but inwardly sorrowing for sin, and living a life of self-denial,
assuring ourselves, that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. By the
atonement we obtain rest for our souls, and all the glorious liberties of the
children of God. Sinner, get the blood of Christ effectually applied to thy
soul, or else thou canst never look God in the face with any comfort or
acceptance. Take this blood of Christ, apply it by faith, and see how it atones
with God.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Leviticus》
Leviticus 16
Verse 2
[2] And
the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all
times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon
the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.
At all times —
Not whensoever he pleaseth, but only when I shall appoint him, namely, to take
down the parts and furniture of it upon every removal, and to minister unto me
once in the year.
Lest he die —
For his irreverence and presumption.
In the cloud — In
a bright and glorious cloud, over the mercy-seat, as a token when I would have
him come.
Verse 3
[3] Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin
offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.
With a young bullock — That is, with the blood of it; the body of it was to be offered upon the
altar of burnt-offerings.
A sin-offering —
For his own and family's sins; for a goat was offered for the sins of the
people.
Verse 4
[4] He
shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his
flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall
he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in
water, and so put them on.
The linen coat — It
is observable, the high-priest did not now use his peculiar and glorious robes,
but only his linen garments, which were common to him with the ordinary
priests. The reason whereof was, because this was not a day of feasting and
rejoicing, but of mourning and humiliation, at which times people were to lay
aside their ornaments.
These are holy —
Because appropriated to an holy and religious use.
Verse 8
[8] And
Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other
lot for the scapegoat.
For the Lord —
For the Lord's use by way of sacrifice. Both this and the other goat typified
Christ; this in his death and passion for us; that in his resurrection for our
deliverance.
Verse 11
[11] And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for
himself, and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall
kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself:
The bullock —
Mentioned in general, Leviticus 16:6. The ceremonies whereof are here
particularly described. This was a different bullock or heifer from that Numbers 19:2,5,9,10,17, as appears by comparing
the places.
Verse 12
[12] And
he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before
the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within
the vail:
Within the veil —
That is, into the holy of holies, Leviticus 16:2.
Verse 13
[13] And
he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the
incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not:
Upon the fire —
Which was in the censer, Leviticus 16:12.
Verse 14
[14] And
he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon
the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the
blood with his finger seven times.
Upon the mercy-seat — To
teach us, that God is merciful to sinners only through and for the blood of
Christ. With his face east-ward, or upon the eastern part, towards the people,
who were in the court which lay east-ward from the holy of holies, which was
the most western part of the tabernacle. This signified that the high-priest in
this act represented the people, and that God accepted it on their behalf.
Before the mercy-seat — On the ground.
Verse 15
[15] Then
shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring
his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of
the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat:
Then shall he kill the goat — He went out of the holy of holies, and killed it, and then returned
thither again with its blood. And whereas the high-priest is said to be allowed
to enter into that place but once in a year, that is to be understood, but one
day in a year, though there was occasion of going in and coming out more than
once upon that day.
Verse 16
[16] And
he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the
children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and
so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among
them in the midst of their uncleanness.
Because of the uncleannesses of Israel — For though the people did not enter into that place, yet their sins
entered thither, and would hinder the effects of the high-priest's mediation on
their behalf if God was not reconciled to them.
In the midst of their uncleanness — ln the midst of a sinful people, who defile not themselves only, but
also God's sanctuary. And God hereby shewed them, how much their hearts needed
to be purified, when even the tabernacle, only by standing in the midst of
them, needed this expiation.
Verse 17
[17] And
there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to
make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an
atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of
Israel.
In the tabernacle — ln
the holy place, where the priests and Levites were at other times. This was
commanded for the greater reverence to the Divine Majesty then in a more
special manner appearing, and that none of them might cast an eye into the holy
of holies, as the high-priest went in or came out.
Verse 18
[18] And
he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make an atonement
for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the
goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about.
The altar before the Lord — That is, the altar of incense, where the blood of sacrifices was to be
put, particularly the blood of the sin-offerings offered upon this day of
atonement, and which is most properly said to be before the Lord, that is,
before the place where God in a special manner dwelt. His going out relates to
the holy of holies, into which he was said to go in, Leviticus 16:17.
Verse 19
[19] And
he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse
it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.
Seven times — To
signify its perfect cleansing, (seven being a number of perfection) and our
perfect reconciliation by the blood of Christ.
Verse 21
[21] And
Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess 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, and shall send him
away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:
All the iniquities — He
mentions iniquities, transgressions, and sins, to note sins of all sorts, and
that a free and full confession was to be made, and that the smallest sins
needed, and the greatest sins were not excluded from, the benefit of Christ's
death here represented.
On the head —
Charging all their sins and the punishment due to them upon the goat, which
tho' only a ceremony, yet being done according to God's appointment and
manifestly pointing at Christ upon whom their iniquities and punishments were
laid, Isaiah 53:5,6, it was available for this end.
And hence the Heathens took their custom of selecting one beast or man, upon
whom they laid all their imprecations and curses, and whom they killed as an
expiatory sacrifice for their sins, and to prevent their ruin.
A fit man —
Heb. a man of time, that is, of years and discretion, who may be trusted with
this work.
Into the wilderness —
Which signified the removal of their sins far away both from the people, and
out of God's sight. And here the goat being neglected by all men, and exposed
to many hazards from wild beasts, which were numerous there, might farther
signify Christ's being forsaken both by God and by men, even by his own
disciples, and the many dangers and sufferings he underwent. The Jews write,
that this goat was carried to the mountain called Azazel, whence the goat is so
called, Leviticus 16:10, and that there he was cast down
headlong.
Verse 24
[24] And
he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place, and put on his garments,
and come forth, and offer his burnt offering, and the burnt offering of the people,
and make an atonement for himself, and for the people.
He shall put on his linen garments — Not his ordinary priestly linen garments, for he was to leave them in
the tabernacle, Leviticus 16:23, but the high-priestly garments,
called his garments properly, and by way of distinction. And this change of his
garments was not without cause. For the common priestly garments were more
proper for him in the former part of his ministration, both because he was to
appear before the Lord in the most holy place to humble himself and make
atonement for his own and for the people's sins, and therefore his meanest
attire was most fit, and because he was to lay his hands upon that goat on which
all their sins were put, by which touch both he and his garments would be in
some sort defiled, and therefore as he washed himself, so we may presume his
linen garments were laid by for the washing, as the clothes of him who carried
away the scape-goat were washed, Leviticus 16:26. And the high-priestly garments
were most proper for the latter part of his work, which was of another nature.
Verse 29
[29] And
this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the
tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all,
whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:
The seventh month —
Answering part to our September and part to our October; when they had gathered
in all their fruits, and were most at leisure for God's service: This time God
chose for this and other feasts, herein graciously condescending to men's
necessities and conveniences. This feast began in the evening of the ninth day,
and continued till the evening of the tenth.
Your souls —
Yourselves, both your bodies, by abstinence from food and other delights, and
your minds by grief for former sins, which though bitter, yet is voluntary in
all true penitents, who are therefore here said to afflict themselves, or to be
active in the work.
Verse 31
[31] It
shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a
statute for ever.
A sabbath —
Observed as a sabbath-day from all servile works, and diligent attendance upon
God's worship.
Verse 32
[32] And
the priest, whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in
the priest's office in his father's stead, shall make the atonement, and shall
put on the linen clothes, even the holy garments:
He — The high-priest, who
was to anoint his successor.
Verse 34
[34] And
this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the
children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the LORD
commanded Moses.
This shall be an everlasting statute — By which were typified the two great gospel privileges; remission of
sins, and access to God, both which we owe to the mediation of the Lord Jesus.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Leviticus》
16 Chapter 16
Verse 2-3
I will appear in the cloud.
Jehovah appearing in a cloud
I. The cloudy
dispensations. By a cloud I understand a density approaching to darkness and
gloom; and yet that very density and darkness inhabited by the glory of God. If
the glory of God were to burst upon us without a cloud, it would be nothing
less than a consuming fire. The Church of God has to pass through dispensations
that are cloudy in her public capacity, in God’s providential dealings with her
individual members. Look, for instance, at the Church of God as a body at the
present time. Is she not beclouded? Are there not clouds of ignorance,
superstition, idolatry, despotic power--clouds of carnal wickedness under the
name of Christianity, overspreading Zion? The cloud is still more dense when it
overwhelms the soul, as it regards its conflicts when darkness overspreads the
mind, and the poor believer cannot pray, cannot sing, nor cannot believe.
II. The appearance
that is promised. “I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat.” He appears
as a wonder-working God; and when in any of the dispensations to which I have
referred, the hand of God is seen, how are the souls of God’s people filled
with awe! “I will appear.” Is it the Church that is overwhelmed with a cloud? I
will appear for her deliverance, though I may suffer her to pass through fire
and through water first. Is it Providence that is mysterious--every hope cut
off, all prospects darkened? “I will appear,” says Jehovah. Mark the
promise--it is positive--“I will appear.” The cattle upon a thousand
hills are His property; the gold and the silver He declares are all His own;
the hearts of kings are in His hands, and He turns them as rivers of water as
He pleases. So that He appears working wonders frequently in the world, and
those very things which were most threatening appear to be the very things that
God was making use of for the real advantage of His people.
III. The mercy
displayed. It is the mercy of the Triune Jehovah, the gift of mercy from God
the Father--immutable, eternal, covenant mercy--the mercy of God. That mercy is
fully and freely displayed in the person of Christ; yea, more, so far as
regards our view of it--the mercy of God the Father laid up from everlasting,
recorded in the covenant, fixed in decree, is, to a certain extent, concealed
from us, until we discover it in the person of Christ. But when we are brought
to view Him as the mercy promised, and then mark the display of that mercy in
His incarnation, in His obedience, in His merit, in His blood, in His
sufferings, in His victories, in His present employment before the throne, why
He is all mercy--mercy embodied in the person of the glorious Mediator. And
then, if we look at the merciful dealings of God the Holy Ghost with His
people, in melting their hearts, making them new creatures, giving them life
Divine, perfecting the work He has first commenced in personal experience--why
we come to this conclusion that our God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is the
God of mercy, a merciful God. Then mark the transcendent glory of this mercy,
how it is displayed in the face of misery, and rebellion, and ingratitude, and
all our wanderings, and all our wants.
IV. The effects
which follow when Jehovah comes down and appears in the midst of the cloud. It
is not merely for a momentary interposition, but for a permanent deliverance,
and mercies may be expected by all the praying seed of Jacob. Now allow a
familiar illustration here. If a benevolent individual, very wealthy, were
accustomed to take a seat, as they used to do in olden times, at the gate of
the city, or in any other place of public concourse, and to do so for the very
purpose of distributing his bounty, would not that gate be crowded? Who would
not go there? Even if we did not want pecuniary alms, if honours, jewels were
to be distributed by this person, who would not be there? Who would not receive
some token of the kindness and favour of such an one? My hearer, is it not
grievous that you and I are not oftener at the mercy-seat? (J. Irons.)
The concealing cloud
I once visited an invalid woman. She had been confined to
bed for a long time, and when I spoke to her, she said: “I think the Lord has
forgotten me altogether.” The eye of faith had grown dim through bodily
weakness, and I replied to her, “Did you ever go down the river and see the
lighthouse?” She said she had. “Well, suppose you lived on the opposite side
from it, and one day the mist came down, and it grew so thick that you could
not see the lighthouse on the other side; would you believe it was there?” “Oh,
yes,” she said, “because I had seen it before.” “And there is another thing
would make you believe, I said; “you would hear the shrill whistle coming from
the lighthouse warning mariners of the danger that was near. In the same way
you should believe that the Lord is still near you; that He has not forgotten
you, although a cloud has come between you and God; if you will but listen, you
will hear His voice speaking to you; the mist will soon roll away if you look
right at Him with the eye of faith.” She did look, and beheld Jesus as
precious to her as ever. (J.
Cameron.)
Make an atonement.
The annual atonement
Before Adam transgressed
he lived in communion with God, but after he had broken the covenant he could
have no more familiar fellowship with God. Under the Mosaic dispensation, in
which God was pleased in His grace to dwell among His people and walk with them
in the wilderness, it was still under a reserve: there was a Holy Place wherein
the symbol of God’s presence was hidden away from mortal gaze. No man might
come near to it except in one only way, and then only once in the year, “The
Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet
made manifest, while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing.” Our subject
illustrates the appointed way of access to God. This chapter shows that the way
of access to God is by atonement, and by no other method. I want you to notice
that, of course, this was only a type. The great Day of Atonement did not see
an actual atonement made, nor sin really put away; but it was the figure of
heavenly things to come. The substance is of Christ.
I. Now,
then, let us come to the text, and note, first, what was done on that
particular day. The text tells us what was done symbolically--“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.”
1. The
persons themselves were cleansed. If any of them had become unclean so as to be
denied communion with God and His people, they were made clean, so that they
might go up to the Tabernacle, and mingle with the congregation. All the host
were that morning regarded as unclean, and all had to bow their heads in
penitent sorrow because of their uncleanness. After the sacrifice and the
sending away of the scapegoat the whole congregation was clean and in a
condition to rejoice. It is a far simpler thing to remove outward stains than
it is to purge the very substance and nature of man; yet this is what was done on
the Day of Atonement typically, and this is what our redeeming Lord actually
does for us. We are outlaws, and His atonement purges us of outlawry, and makes
us citizens; we are lepers, and by His stripes we are so healed as to be
received among the clean.
2. Their
persons being
made clean, they were also purged of all the sins confessed. Sin that is
confessed is evidently real sin, and not a mere dream of a morbid conscience.
There is a certain mythical cloud of sin which people talk about, and affect to
deplore, and yet they have no sense of the solid heinousness of their actual
iniquity. Sin confessed with tears, sin which causes the very heart to
bleed--killing sin--this is the kind of sin for which Jesus died. Sin which you
dare not confess to man, but acknowledge only as you lay your hand upon the
Divine sacrifice--such sin the Lord removes from you. The passage is very
particular to mention “all sins.” “The goat shall bear upon him all their
iniquities.” This includes every form of stir, of thought, of word, of deed, of
pride, of falsehood, of lust, of malice, of blasphemy. This comprehends crimes
against man, and offences against God, of peculiar blackness; and it does not
exclude sins of inadvertence, or carelessness, or of omission. Transgressions of
the body, the intellect, the affections are all blotted out.
3. It
seems that the Divine atonement puts away the sin of sin--the essence and heart
of sin. Sin has its core, its mortal spot, within each iniquity there seems to
lie a something more essentially evil than the act itself: this is the inner
hate of the mind. Whatever may be the sin of the soul, or the soul of the sin,
atonement has been made for it all. The Lord Jesus has not left upon those for
whom He has made atonement a single spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, so far
as their justification is concerned. He has not left an iniquity for which they
can be condemned before the bar of judgment. “Ye are clean every whit” is His
sure verdict, and none can contradict it
4. Not
only were all the sins that they had committed put away, but also all their
holy things were purged. I do feel so glad that our Lord has atoned for the
sins of our holy things. I feel so glad that Jesus has purified our prayers.
Many saints spend much time in hearty, earnest cries to God; but even on your
knees you sin; and herein is our comfort--that the precious blood has made
atonement for the shortcomings of our supplications. We need pardon for our
psalms and cleansing for our hymns. Jesus puts away not only our unholy things,
but the sins of our holy things also.
5. Once
more, on that day all the people were cleansed. This gives great comfort to
those of us who love the souls of the multitude. All who believe are justified
from all things.
II. Now
we notice, in the second place, how it was done.
1. The
atonement was made first of all by sacrifice. We know that the blood of bulls
and of goats could never take away sin; but very distinctly do these point to
the sufferings of our Redeemer. The woes He bore are the expiation for our
guilt.
2. Notice,
next, that the atonement was made not only by the blood of sacrifice, but by
the presentation of the blood within the veil. With the smoke of incense and a
bowl filled with blood Aaron passed into the most Holy Place. Let us never
forget that our Lord has gone into the heavenly places with better sacrifices
than Aaron could present. His merits are the sweet incense which burns before
the throne of the heavenly grace. His death supplies that blood of sprinkling
which we find even in heaven.
3. Furthermore,
atonement was made effectual by its application to the thing or person
cleansed. The atonement was made for the Holy Place: it was sprinkled seven
times with blood. The same was done to the altar; the horns thereof were
smeared seven times. So to make the atonement effectual between you and God the
blood of Jesus must be sprinkled upon you by a lively faith.
4. Further,
inasmuch as no one type was sufficient, the Lord set forth the method of the
removal of sin, as far as we are concerned, by the scapegoat. One of two goats
was chosen to live. It stood before the Lord, and Aaron confessed all the sins
of Israel upon its head. A fit man, selected for the purpose, led this goat
away into a land not inhabited. What became of it? Why do you ask the question?
It is not to edification. You may have seen the famous picture of the
scapegoat, representing it as expiring in misery in a desert place. That is all
very pretty, and I do not wonder that imagination should picture the poor
devoted scapegoat as a sort of cursed thing, left to perish amid accumulated
horrors. But please observe that this is all mere groundless fancy. The
Scripture is entirely silent as to anything of the kind, and purposely so. All
that the type teaches is this: in symbol the scapegoat, has all the sin of the
people laid upon it, and when it is led away into the solitary wilderness, it
has gone, and the sin with it. We may not follow the scapegoat even in
imagination. It is gone where it can never be found, for there is nobody to
find it: it is gone into a land not inhabited--into “no man’s land,” in fact.
Stop where the Scripture stops. Sin is carried away into the silent land, the
unknown wilderness. The sins of God’s people have gone beyond recall. Where to?
Do not ask anything about that. If they were sought for they could not be
found; they are so gone that they are blotted out. Into oblivion our sins have
gone, even as the scapegoat went out of track of mortal man. “Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God’s elect?”
5. Yet
the ceremony was not quite finished; for now everybody who had had a hand in it
must needs be washed, so that everybody might be clean. Everybody becomes
purged; the whole camp is clean right through. No sin remains upon Him on whom
the Lord once laid the iniquities of us all. The great atonement is made, and
everything is cleansed, from beginning to end. Christ hath put it all away for
ever by the water and the blood which flowed from His riven side. All is
purified, and the Lord looks down on a clean camp; and soon He will have them
rejoicing before Him, each man in His tabernacle, feasting to the full.
III. In
the third place, I ask your attention, for a brief interval, to this special
point--who did it? The answer is, Aaron did it all. Now fix your eye on the
great Antitype of Aaron. There was none with our Lord: He trod the winepress
alone. He His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree. He alone went
to where the thick darkness covered the throne of God, and none stood by to
comfort Him. “All the disciples forsook Him, and fled.” Worship our Lord as
working salvation by His own single arm. Let that truth abide in your
hearts--our High Priest alone has made reconciliation.
IV. Lastly,
what were the people to do for whom this atonement was made? There were two
things they had to do that day, only I must add that one of them was doing
nothing.
1. For
the first thing, they had to afflict their souls that day. It was a day of
confession of sin. And should not confession be made with sorrowful repentance?
To acknowledge sin without grieving over it is to aggravate sin.
2. Not
only was it a day of confession, but it was a day of sacrifice. No
tender-hearted Israelite could think of that bullock, and ram, and goat dying
for him, without saying, “That is what I deserve.” When we think of our dying
Lord our emotions are mingled: we feel a pleasing grief and a mournful joy as
we stand at Calvary.
3. Once
more, it was a day of perfect cleansing, and hence, by a strange logic, a day
of the affliction of the soul; for, oh 1 when sin is forgiven, when by Divine
assurance we know that God has blotted out our sins like a cloud, then it is we
mourn over our iniquities. Afflict your soul when you remember what you once
were.
4. On
the Day of Atonement they were to afflict their souls, and yet they were to
rest. Can these things come together--mourning and resting? I never am so truly
happy as when a sober sadness tinges my joy. Nothing is more really sweet than
the bitterness of repentance” Nothing is more healthful than self-abhorrence,
mixed with the grateful love which hides itself in the wounds of Jesus. The
purified people were to rest; they were to rest from all servile work. I will
never do a hand’s turn to save myself by my own merits, works, or feelings. I
have done for ever with all interference with my Lord’s sole work. They were
assuredly to cease from all sinful work. How can the pardoned man continue in
sin? We have done with toiling for the devil now. We will no more waste our
lives in his service. We are slaves no longer: we quit the hard bondage of
Egypt and rest in the Lord. We have also done with selfish work; we now seek
first the kingdom of heaven, and look that all other things shall be added unto
us by the goodness of our Heavenly Father. Henceforth we find rest by bearing
the easy yoke of Christ. We joy to spend and be spent in His beloved service. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
The Day of Atonement
I. First,
the person who was to make the atonement. And at the outset we remark that
Aaron, the high priest, did it. Inferior priests slaughtered lambs; other
priests at other times did almost all the work of the sanctuary; but on this
day nothing was done by any one, as a part of the business of the great Day of
Atonement, except by the high priest. Old rabbinical traditions tell us that
everything on that day was done by him, even the lighting of the candles, and
the fires, and the incense, and all the offices that were required, and that,
for a fortnight beforehand, he was obliged to go into the Tabernacle to
slaughter the bullocks and assist in the work of the priests and Levites, that
he might be prepared to do the work which was unusual to him. All the labour
was left to him. So Jesus Christ, the High Priest, and He only, works the
atonement. There are other priests, for “He hath made us priests and
kings unto God.” Every Christian is a priest to offer sacrifice of prayer and
praise unto God, but none save the High Priest must offer atonement.
1. Then
it is interesting to notice, that the high priest on this day was a humbled
priest. As Mayer tells us, he wore garments, and glorious ones, on other days,
but on this day he wore four humble ones. Jesus Christ, then, when He made
atonement, was a humbled priest. He did not make atonement arrayed in all the glories
of His ancient throne in heaven. Upon His brow there was no diadem, save the
crown of thorns; around Him was cast no purple robe, save that which He wore
for a time in mockery; in His hand was no sceptre, save the reed which they
thrust in cruel contempt upon Him; He had no sandals of pure gold, neither was
He dressed as king; He had none of those splendours about Him which should make
Him distinguished among men. Oh! my soul, adore thy Jesus, who when He made
atonement, humbled Himself and wrapped around Him a garb of thine inferior
clay.
2. In
the next place, the high priest who offered the atonement must be a spotless
high priest; and because there were none such to be found, Aaron being a sinner
himself as well as the people, you will remark that Aaron had to sanctify
himself and make an atonement for his own sin before he could go in to make an
atonement for the sins of the people. We have a spotless High Priest; we have
one who needed no washing, for He had no filth to wash away,
3. Again,
the atonement was made by a solitary high priest--alone and unassisted. No
other man was to be present, so that the people might be quite certain that
everything was done by the high priest alone. God kept that holy circle of
Calvary select to Christ, and none of His disciples must go to die there with
Him. O glorious High Priest, thou hast done it all alone!
4. Again
it was a laborious high priest who did the work on that day. It is astonishing
how, after comparative rest, he should be so accustomed to his work as to be
able to perform all that he had to do on that day. I have endeavoured to count
up how many creatures he had to kill, and I find that there were fifteen beasts
which he slaughtered at different times, besides the other offices, which were
all left to him. He was ordained priest in Jeshurun, for that day, toiled like
a common Levite, worked as laboriously as priest could do, and far more so than
on any ordinary day. Just so with our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a labour the
atonement was to Him! It was a work that all the hands of the universe could
not have accomplished; yet He completed it alone.
II. The
means whereby this atonement was made (see Leviticus
16:5; Leviticus
16:7-10).
The first goat I consider to be the great type of Jesus Christ the Atonement;
such I do not consider the scapegoat to be. The first is the type of the means
whereby the atonement was made, and we shall keep to that first.
1. Notice
that this goat, of course, answered all the pre-requisites of every other thing
that was sacrificed; it must be a perfect, unblemished goat of the first year.
Even so was our Lord a perfect Man, in the prime and vigour of His manhood.
2. And
further, this goat was an eminent type of Christ from the fact that it was
taken of the congregation of the children of Israel, as we are told at the
fifth verse. The public treasury furnished the goat. So Jesus Christ was, first
of all, purchased by the public treasury of the Jewish people before He died.
Thirty pieces of silver they had valued Him at--a goodly price; and as they had
been accustomed to bring the goat so they brought Him to be offered, not indeed
with the intention that He should be their sacrifice, but unwittingly. Indeed,
Jesus Christ came out from the midst of the people, and the people brought Him.
Strange that it should be so! “He came unto His own, and His own received Him
not”; His own led Him forth to slaughter; His own dragged Him before the
mercy-seat.
3. Note,
again, that though this goat, like the scapegoat, was brought by the people,
God’s decision was in it still. Mark, it is said, “Aaron shall east lots upon
the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat.” I
conceive this mention of lots is to teach that although the Jews brought Jesus
Christ of their own will to die, yet, Christ had been appointed to die; and
even the very man who sold Him was appointed to it--so saith the Scripture.
Christ’s death was fore-ordained, and there was not only man’s hand in it, but
God’s.
4. Next,
behold the goat that destiny has marked out to make the atonement. Come and see
it die. The priest stabs it. Mark it in its agonies; behold it struggling for a
moment; observe the blood as it gushes forth. Ye have here your Saviour. See
His Father’s vengeful sword sheathed in His heart; behold His death agonies;
hear His sighs and groans upon the Cross; hark to His shriek, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,”
and you have more now to think of than you could have if you only stood to see
the death of a goat for your atonement. As the blood of the goat made the
atonement typically, so thy Saviour dying for thee made the great atonement for
thy sins, and thou mayest go free.
5. But
mark, this goat’s blood was not only shed for many for the remission of sins as
a type of Christ, but that blood was taken within the veil, and there it was
sprinkled. So with Jesus’ blood, “Sprinkled now with blood the throne.”
III. We
now come to the effects.
1. One
of the first effects of the death of this goat was the sanctification of the
holy things which had been made unholy. Is it not sweet to reflect that our
holy things are now really holy?
2. But
observe, the second great tact was that their sins were taken away. This was
set forth by the scapegoat.
3. One
more thought concerning the effects of this great Day of Atonement, and you
will observe that it runs throughout the whole of the chapter--entrance within
the veil. Only on one day in the year might the high priest enter within the
veil, and then it must be for the great purposes of the atonement. Now the
atonement is finished, and you may enter within the veil: “Having boldness,
therefore, to enter into the holiest, let us come with boldness unto the throne
of the heavenly grace.” The veil of the Temple is rent by the atonement of
Christ, and access to the throne is now ours.
IV. Now
we come to notice, in the fourth place, what is our proper behaviour when we
consider the day of atonement. You read at verse 29, “And this shall be a
statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the
month, ye shall afflict your souls.” That is one thing that we ought to do when
we remember the atonement. “Law and terrors do but harden,” but methinks the
thought that Jesus died is enough to make us melt. Then, better still, we are
to “do no work at all,” as ye find in the same verse (29th). When we consider
the atonement, we should rest, and “do no work at all.” Rest from your own
righteousness; rest from your toilsome duties: rest in Him. “We that believe do
enter into rest.” As soon as thou seest the atonement finished, say, “It is
done, it is done!” Then there was another thing which always happened. When the
priest had made the atonement, it was usual for him, after he had washed
himself, to come out again in his glorious garments. When the people saw him
they attended him to his house with joy, and they offered burnt-offerings of
praise on that day: he being thankful that his life was spared, and they being
thankful that the atonement was accepted; both of them offering burnt-offerings
as a type that they desired now to be “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
unto God.” The atonement is finished; the High Priest is gone within the veil;
salvation is now complete. He has laid aside the linen garments, and He stands
before you with His breastplate, and His mitre, and His embroidered vest, in
all His glory. Hear how He rejoices over us, for He hath redeemed His people,
and ransomed them out of the hands of His enemies. Come, let us go home with
the High Priest; let us clap our hands with joy, for He liveth; the atonement
is accepted, and we are accepted too; the scapegoat is gone, our sins are gone
with it. Let us, then, go to our houses with thankfulness, and let us come up
to His gates with praise, for He hath loved His people, He hath blessed His
children, and given unto us a day of atonement, and a day of acceptance, and a
year of jubilee. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Moses and Christ; the Day
of Atonement
I. The
divine redeemer.
1. His
humiliation.
2. His
sinlessness.
II. The
divine sacrifice.
1. God
admits vicarious suffering into His righteous rule.
2. The
sacrifice of Christ avails to remove all condemnation.
III. The
human worshipper--Our
sinning, seeking selves.
1. Without
personal participation everything will be as nothing.
2. The
spirit in which we must participate is that of penitence and faith. (W.
Clarkson, B. A.)
The Day of Atonement
Now, what did such a ritual
mean? If it be said that the Divine forgiveness depended upon such a day, then
why did the world wait twenty-five hundred years before its appointment? If
absolutely necessary, why was it not enjoined upon Abraham, and especially upon
Adam in Paradise? What is the meaning of sacrifice? What relation does it bear
to forgiveness of sin? We observe--
1. God’s
character is not changed by sacrifices. He neither regards sin with less
hatred, nor loves the sinner more because of these. The Sacrifice of Calvary--compared
with which all others are as shadows to the light--was the natural outcome of
the Divine nature, rather than the means of changing that nature (Romans
5:8; 1 John
4:9-10).
2. These
mere sacrifices possessed no intrinsic value. If there were a value in these,
it must have been either to Him in whose name they are offered, or to man for
whom they were offered. Happily for us the Scriptures settle both points (Isaiah
1:13; Micah
6:6-8; Psalms
40:6; Psalms
51:16-17).
Thus much, therefore, follows: these sacrifices were not transactions of any
intrinsic value to God, in themselves considered. Every part of that ceremonial
for the childhood age was a Divine lesson, pointing to a greater offering and
sacrifice to come. While God accommodated His laws to the perception of
childhood, He made use of them to proclaim eternal truths--a fact we shall see
illustrated in the lessons of the Day of Atonement. In it we have--
I. The
divine testimony against sin.
II. The
basis of atonement.
III. The
necessity for a perfect high priest. (D. O. Mears.)
The climax of sacrificial
worship--the Day of Atonement
I. There
is the voluntary humiliation of the high priest. The Day of Atonement was the
high priest’s day: he undertook the atoning work, and no man was to venture
near the Tabernacle (Leviticus
16:17)
while he was engaged in it. The first thing required of him was humiliation.
II. The
high priest was required next to perfume the audience-chamber with incense.
Prayer is the beginning, middle, and end of the redemptive work. It seems
evident from this that we must put away those business-like illustrations of
atonement as a hard bargain driven on the one side and paid literally and in
full on the other. We must allow a sufficient sphere in our conceptions for the
play of intercession and appeal, and remember that while it is a God of justice
who is satisfied, He proves Himself in the transaction a God of grace.
III. After
the incense there is brought in the blood, first of his own sin-offering and
then of the people’s. The blood of Jesus Christ is symbolised by both, and the
act of sprinkling it before God is also to be attributed to our great High
Priest. The law of mediation is that self-sacrifice stimulates the element of
mercy in the Judge. And if it be objected that surely God does not require such an
expensive stimulant, the reply is, that the self-sacrificing Son and the
stimulated Father and Judge are in essence one. The act is consequently a
Divine self-sacrifice to stimulate the element of mercy towards man and make it
harmonise with justice.
IV. But
the high priest was expected not only to secure the pardon of sin, but also to
put it away by the dismissal of the scapegoat. For the pardon of sin is not all
man needs. He requires sin to be put away from him. Now this putting away of
sin was beautifully represented in the dismissal of the scapegoat. This second
sin-offering, after having the sins of the people heaped upon its head by the
priestly confession, is sent away in care of a faithful servant in the wilderness,
there to be left in loneliness either to live or die. Here again we have a type
of Jesus.
V. The
high priest having thus disposed of sin, resumed his glorious garments and
offered the burnt-offerings for himself and the people. It is Christ who offers
this burnt-offering, and is the Burnt-offering. That is to say, He has offered
for men a perfect righteousness, as well as afforded us a perfect example. Our
consecration to God is ideally to be a perfect one--but really how imperfect!
But Christ is made unto us sanctification; we are complete in Him; we are
accepted in the beloved; and we learn and try to live as He lived, holy as He
was holy. Moreover, upon the burnt-offering was presented the fat of the
sin-offering, the Lord thus emphasising His satisfaction with the atonement,
and His acceptance of it.
VI. The
washing of the three men officiating on the day of atonement conveys surely the
idea of the contaminating power of sin. (R. M.,Edgar, M. A.)
The Day of Atonement
I. The
authority for the day and its measures.
1. Both
authorised of God (Leviticus
16:1-2).
2. Both,
then, Divinely important.
II. The
typical meaning of the
jewish atonement-day.
1. The
Divinely stated reason for its appointment (Leviticus
16:16).
2. The
Divinely appointed measures for its observance.
Lessons:
1. The
hatefulness, heinousness, and guiltiness of sin are here shown.
2. God’s
desire to provide for the removal of its guilt, and the prevention of its
consequences, demonstrated.
3. The
comprehensiveness of the provision in the atonement. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
The Day of Atonement -
I. Note
the chief services of the day of atonement.
II. Show
that the sacrifices then offered were strictly propitiatory. When you consider
the two goats as together constituting the sin-offering, you must receive as
the only satisfactory account of the transaction that which sets forth the
scapegoat as exhibiting the effects of the expiation which was represented by
the death of the other. The sins of the people were laid upon the head of the
scapegoat, and borne away to the wilderness; but this scapegoat was a part of the
sin-offering, and therefore, by combining the parts of the sin-offering, you
have before you both the means and the effect: you have the means, the shedding of blood
without which there is no remission; you have the effect, the removal of guilt,
so that iniquity, though searched for, can nowhere be found. It seems certain
that such was the view entertained by the Jews, who were wont to treat the
scapegoat as actually an accursed thing. Though not commanded by the law, they
used to maltreat the gnat Azazel--for by this name was the scapegoat known--to spit upon him, and
pluck off his hair. Thus they acted towards the goat as they acted towards
Christ, who, in a truer sense than the Azazel, was “made sin for us.” And if
further proof were needed of the idea which the Jews themselves attached to the
ceremony of the imposition of hands on the head of the victim, it is to be
found in the forms of confession which their writers have transmitted as used
ordinarily in expiatory sacrifices. It appears, for example, that when an
individual presented his own sacrifice, he laid his hands on the head of the
offering, saying amongst other things, “Let this victim be my expiation”--words
which were universally considered equivalent to an entreaty that evils which
ought in justice to have alighted upon the offender might fall upon the
sacrifice. And it is every way worthy of note, as marking the traditional idea
of the great day of expiation, that the modern Jews, as well as the ancient,
hold fast the notion of a strict propitiatory atonement. Where, then, can be
the ground for doubting, that by “atonement,” in our text, is to be understood
what we understand by it in Christian phraseology; that there was effected a
real removal of guilt and its consequences from the Jewish transgressor, when
on the great and solemn day of expiation, in compliance with a Divine statute
an atonement was made for the children of Israel for all their sins once every
year?
III. And
here we bring you back to the main argument we have all along had in hand--the inferring from
the character of the legal sacrifice that of the Christian. If you can once
show that the sacrifices of the law typify the sacrifice of Christ, and that
the sacrifices of the law were strictly propitiatory, it follows as an
irresistible deduction--notwithstanding the cavils of philosophising
sects--that the Lamb of God died truly as a Sin-offering, making, by His death,
atonement for the world. Indeed, if no reference were made to the Old
Testament, the language of the New is so explicit that nothing but the most determined
prepossession could fail to find in it the doctrine that Christ’s death was a
propitiatory sacrifice. But the connection between the two dispensations, and
therefore the two Testaments, is so strict in every point, that it were no just
examination of the gospel which would keep the law out of sight; therefore we
come to examine more definitely the correspondence between the sacrifice of the
Saviour and those which have just been reviewed. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The Day of Atonement
By referring to Leviticus
16:29, you
will find that this Day of Atonement was appointed for “the seventh month.”
Seven, as you remember, is a symbol of completeness. This location of these
solemnities in the seventh month, would therefore seem to refer to the fact
noted by the apostle, that it was only “when the fulness of the time was come,
God sent forth His Son to redeem them that were under the law.” He lived when
the world was sufficiently at peace to give Him a hearing--when the human mind
was maturely developed, and competent to investigate His claims--when the ways
were sufficiently open for the immediate universal promulgation of His
gospel--and when the experience of four thousand years was before men to prove
to them how much they needed such a Teacher and Priest as He. His appearance,
therefore, to take away our sins, was in “the fulness of time”--in the Tisri or
September of the world--when everything was mature and ripe. He put the Day of Atonement
in “the seventh month.” You will also notice that this great expiation service
occurred but once in a complete revolution of time--“once a year.” A year is a
full and complete period. There is no time which does not fall within the year.
And the occurrence of the Day of Atonement but once in the entire year plainly
pointed to another great fact noted by the apostle, that “Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many.” There is no repetition in His sacrificial
work. “Christ was once offered”; and in that one offering of Himself, all the
eras of human existence were condensed and included. It was the event of this
world’s year. It is also to be observed, that the atoning services of this
remarkable day had respect to the whole nation at once. They were “to make an
atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation.” Most of
the other offerings were personal, having respect to particular individuals,
and to special cases of sin, uncleanness, or anxiety. But on this day the
offerings were general, and the atonement had respect to the entire people.
This recalls another great evangelic truth, namely, that Christ “died for
all”--“gave Himself a ransom for all”--“by the grace of God tasted death for
every man”--and “is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.”
I. It
was to the high priest a day which imposed numerous inconveniences, anxieties,
and humiliations. And so was it with our great High Priest when He undertook to
expiate the guilt of man. Separated from His heavenly home, He became a
suffering, laborious, self-denying servant. No gold glittered upon His brow, or
tinkled with His steps, or mingled its glory with royal colours to adorn His
robe. No jewelry sparkled on his shoulders or on His breast. No chariots of
grandeur bore Him to the place of His mighty deeds of love. And thus amid
privations, humiliations, and anxieties which made Him sorrowful even unto
death, did He go through with the services of the great day of the world’s
expiation.
2. It
was to the high priest a day which imposed all its services upon him alone.
Thus, when Jesus undertook the expiation of the world’s guilt, “of the people,
there was none with Him.” Isaiah says, “I looked, and there was none to help.”
His “own arm brought salvation.” He “His own self bore our sins in His own body
on the tree.”
3. The
Day of Atonement was to the high priest also a very oppressive and exhausting
day. His duties, in his complete isolation, were really crushing. So laborious
and trying was his work that after it was over the people gathered round him
with sympathy and congratulation that he was brought through it in safety. But
it was only a picture of that still more crushing load which was laid upon our
great High Priest when making atonement for the sins of the world. None among
all the sons of the mighty could ever have performed the work which He
performed, and lived. All His life through there was a weight upon Him so
heavy, and ever pressing so mightily upon His soul, that there is no account
that He ever smiled. Groans and tears and deep oppression accompanied Him at
almost every step. And when we come to view Him in His agonising watchings and
prayers in the garden, and under the burdens of insult and wrong which were
heaped upon Him in the halls of judgment, and struggling with His load
along that dolorous way until the muscles of His frame yielded, and He fell
faint upon the ground, and oppressed upon the Cross until His inmost soul
uttered itself in cries which startled the heavens and shook the world; we have
an exhibition of labour, exhaustion, and distress, at which we may well sit
down and gaze, and wonder, and weep, in mere sympathy with a sorrow and
bitterness beyond all other sorrow.
II. We
come now to look at the atonement itself. Here we find that several kinds of
offerings were to be made. The object was to make the picture complete, by
bringing out in different offerings what could not all be expressed by one.
They were only different phases of the same unity, pointing to the one offering
of Jesus “Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot
to God.” There is a multiplication of victims, that we may see the amplitude
and varied applications of the one great atonement effected by Christ Jesus.
The most vital, essential, and remarkable of these atoning services was
that relating to the two goats, as provided for in verses 7-10, 15-17, 21, 22.
One of these goats was to be slain as a sin-offering, and the other was to have
the sins of Israel laid upon its head, and then to be taken away alive and left
in the wilderness. The one typified the atonement of Christ in its means and
essence; the other the same atonement in its effects.
III. A
word now with regard to the people to be benefited by the services Of this
remarkable day. That the services and offerings of this day were meant for the
entire Jewish nation is very clear and distinct. But not all were therefore
reconciled and forgiven. The efficacy of these services, in any given case,
depended upon the individual himself. The atonement day was to be a day of
contrition, of weeping, of soul-sorrow for sin, of confession, reformation, and
return to God, a day of heart-melting and charity. Without these accompaniments
its oblations were vain, its incense useless, its solemnities but idle
ceremonies. And, as it was with the type, so it is with the Antitype. Would you, then, have
Christ’s atoning day to be a blessing to thy soul, come to it with a moved and
melting heart; come to it with thy spirit bowed for thy many, many sins; come
to it as the humbled prodigal came back to the kind father he had wronged; come
to it as the poor heart-broken publican came, smiting thy guilty breast and
crying, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
The ceremonies of the Day
of Atonement
The Day of Atonement was
one of the most
interesting, as it was perhaps the most solemn and impressive, of all the holy
days of the Jews. For seven days previously the high priest had been making
preparation for taking up his abode within the Temple precincts. The services
of the day began with the first grey light of dawn; for then the high priest,
after performing the ordinary morning service, arrayed himself in his fine
white liner garments and prepared to go within the awful sanctuary where the
Shechinah dwelt. But first he must confess his own sins, and so he lays his
hand upon the head of the bullock, which was to be for his sin-offering, and
said, “O Jehovah, I have committed iniquity, I have sinned, I and my house.”
Ten times in this prayer he repeated the name of Jehovah--a word which had an
awful significance in the ears of every Jew; and every time he repeated it,
those who stood near cast themselves with their faces to the ground, while the
multitude responded, “Blessed be the name; the glory of His kingdom is for ever
and ever.” “After some other ceremonies,” says Edersheim, “advancing to the
altar of burnt-offering, he next filled the censer with burning coals, and then
ranged a handful of frankincense in the dish destined to hold it. Every eye was
now strained toward the sanctuary as, slowly bearing the censer and the
incense, the figure of the white-robed priest was seen to disappear within the
Holy Place--the place that had never been visited by any other except the high
priest, and which he had not seen for a full twelvemonth. After that nothing
further could be seen of his movements. The curtain of the most Holy Place was
folded back, and he stood alone and separated from all the people in that awful
gloom of the holiest of all, only lit up by the red glow of the coals in the
priest’s censer.” What a sight met his eyes as they became accustomed to the
gloom!--the mercy-seat; on either side the outstretched wings of the cherubim;
and above them the visible presence of Jehovah in the cloud of the Shechinah.
He whose name alone, in after-years, the Jews dared not pronounce was there,
and upon him, revealed in the cloud, gazed the white-robed priest as he stood
alone in that awful presence. Then, when the smoke of the incense filled the
place, came this prayer from the lips of the priest: “May it please thee, O
Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, that neither this day nor during this
year any captivity come upon us. Yet if captivity befall us this day or this
year, let it be to a place where the law is cultivated. May it please Thee, O
Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, that want come not upon us either
this day or this year. But if want visit us this day or this year, let it be
due to the liberality of our charitable deeds.” After further prayer and other
ceremonies the priest returned to the people, and then began perhaps the most
unique and interesting service of the day--the sending away of the scapegoat.
Earlier in the day two goats, as similar in all respects as could be found,
were chosen; lots were cast upon their heads, one being reserved for a
sacrifice, the other to be sent into the wilderness. Upon the horns of the
latter a piece of scarlet cloth or “tongue” was tied, telling of the guilt it
had to bear. After the sacrificing of the first animal the priest laid both his
hands upon the head of the second and confessed the sins of the people. “O
Jehovah, they have committed iniquity; they have transgressed; they have
sinned,” &c. “Then,” as Edersheim further says, “a strange scene would be
witnessed. The priest led the sin-burdened goat out through Solomon’s Porch
and, as tradition has it, through the Eastern Gate, which opened upon the Mount
of Olives. Here an arched bridge spanned the intervening valley, and over it
they brought the goat to the Mount of Olives, where one specially appointed
took him in charge.” The distance between Jerusalem and the beginning of
the wilderness was divided into ten stations, where one or more persons were
placed to offer refreshment to the man leading the goat, and then to accompany
him to the next station. At last they reached the wilderness, and their arrival
was telegraphed by the waving of flags from one station back to another until
in a few minutes “it was known in the Temple and whispered from ear to ear that
the goat had borne upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited.” (F.
E. Clark.)
Spiritual significance of
the ceremonies on the Day of Atonement
We cannot regard the
symbolical arrangements of this Day of Atonement without feeling that it is a
matter of supreme importance, of urgent, indispensable necessity, that some
means be devised whereby man may be separated, and separated for ever, from his
sins--their guilt, their power, their memory. All the ceremonies of this day
declare this fact, as do all the arrangements of the old economy, and indeed
all the utterances of God’s Word. What is the meaning of those abortive
attempts to discover some scapegoat, who, if he cannot wholly bear, may at
least share the burden and the blame? The religions and the irreligions, the
beliefs and the infidelities of men declare the same fact with unmistakable
plainness. Nothing can be more evident than that men have the haunting
consciousness of sin, from which they seek to escape; some in one way, some in
another. Man everywhere has knowledge enough of sin to feel that it would be
indeed a good thing to be separated, if not from sin itself (and from that the
sinner is not willing to part) at least from those wretched, miserable
consequences which follow in its train. Turning away from the vain and
fruitless efforts of men in this direction, we find that what is impossible
with men is possible with God. We find, indeed, that God has interposed in a
very wonderful way to secure this result--the separation of man from Bin, and
all the hateful and deadly consequences of sin, and that by the sacrifice and
substitution of His own Son, our Saviour. And the arrangements of the Day of
Atonement were Divinely ordered that they might prefigure, in its character and consequences, that
true atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ--that complete and finished sacrifice
offered once for all by Him, “who is a priest, not according to the law of a
carnal commandment, but according to the power of an endless life”--“a priest for
ever, after the order of Melchizelek.” And, as we have already remarked, our
attention is especially directed to two things--the means of atonement, and the
result, the consequences of atonement; in other words, to the sacrifice for
sin, and the separation from it. We have a picture of the one in the goat slain
and the blood sprinkled; we have a picture of the other in the leading forth
into the wilderness of the sin-burdened goat, to return no more. The truth to
which there is need for the most express testimony to be borne is the atonement
of Christ--atonement by means of blood-shedding and blood-sprinkling. Whether
men bear or forbear, whether it seem to them wisdom or foolishness, we must
everywhere proclaim the same truth, that the only atonement made known in God’s
Word is atonement by sacrifice by the substitutionary sacrifice of God’s own
Son. (T. M. Morris.)
The garments of the priest
They were of pure
white linen. The ordinary “golden garments” were laid aside, for only the
vestments of snowy purity
must be worn when the high priest enters into the Holy of Holies. The most
extraordinary care, too, must be taken to avoid defilement of every kind. Five
times during the Day of Atonement must the priest bathe his whole body; ten
times must he wash his feet; many times must he change his garments. These
precautions, at first thought, seem to our modern views unnecessary and
finical, but when we remember Him to whom all these symbols point, what type
can express His purity who was holy, harmless, and undefiled; who lived among
sinners yet without sin; who lived in leprous Judaea yet without spot or taint
of leprosy? The sinlessness of Christ! What can typify it? The snow, perhaps we
think, as it
falls from the laboratory of the clouds, each flake a crystal of exquisite form
and all covering with a fleecy mantle every brown, dirty, unsightly thing in
the landscape. But the snow itself, when it touches earth, soon becomes
defiled. The lamb washed in the running stream soon loses his purity; the high
priest himself, even for a single day, could not keep his garments unpolluted,
but must change them and wash his flesh over and over and over; but our High
Priest came and lived among sinners for three-and-thirty years, and yet knew no
sin. Pure as was the priest’s linen robe, it is but a poor, faulty
representative of the robe of righteousness of our High Priest. (F. E.
Clark.)
There shalt be no man in
the Tabernacle . . . when he goeth in to make an atonement
When sin is to be
accounted for, we must face God each for himself, coming alone, one by one,
into His presence. Friends and loved ones can be with us in sinning, but not in
answering for sin. Help and cheer and sympathy can be given to us by our
fellows, up to the time when we are to meet God and give an account of
ourselves; then “every one of us shall give account of himself to God,” then
“every man shall bear his own burden,” then “every man shall receive his own
reward according to his own labour,” then “every man’s work shall be made
manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire,
and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” How we lean on
human helpers: children on parents, husband and wife on one another, scholar on
teacher, people on pastor, friend on friend! But there shall be no one of these
earthly supporters with us when we enter the holy place of God’s presence,
seeking an atonement for our sins. Then we must stand alone, face to face with
God. (H. C. Trumbull.)
Trusting in the Substitute
A good old Christian
woman in humble life was once asked, as she lay on her dying pillow, the ground
of her hope for eternity. She replied, with great composure, “I rely on the
justice of God”; but seeing that the reply excited surprise, added, “Justice,
not to me, but to my Substitute, in whom I trust.”
A proffered substitute
During the Franco-Prussian
War, an English clergyman was travelling in the district occupied by the German
army. There he met a German gentleman, whose route lay in the same direction,
and quickly becoming friends, they resolved to accompany each other. As they
walked out one day they saw a small company of soldiers come out of the camp
with a handcuffed prisoner in their midst. Wondering what was about to be done,
they waited until the party had approached, then asked the officer what they
were going to do with that man. “Shoot him.” “Why?” “He has been robbing the dead, and by the law
of the land he must die.” “Poor man,” said the clergyman, “is he prepared to
die?” “I do not know,” replied the officer, “but you can speak to him if you
like.” The minister at once took advantage of the permission, and began to
speak to the prisoner about his soul. He had not spoken long when the wretched
man burst into tears. The clergyman stopped, thinking something he had said had
broken him down, but he was speedily undeceived by the man exclaiming, “Oh,
sir, I am not weeping because of anything you have said, or because I am going
to die; I am weeping because I do not know what will become of my wife and
children when I am gone.” These words touched the old German gentleman, who
said as he gazed with tears in his eyes at the prisoner, “I tell you what. I
have no one in the world to feel my loss. I shall take your place, and as your
law demands a life I shall lay down mine.” And turning to the officer, he
continued, “Now, please, take off these handcuffs and put them on me.” “But,”
interposed the Englishman, “think what you are doing; is there no one who will
miss you?” “No one.” “Well,” said the officer, as soon as he had recovered from
his amazement, “I have no power to do what you wish, but you can come to the
camp and hear what the general says.” But it turned out the general had not the
power: the general, however, said, “The Crown Prince is here, and he has the power.”
To the Crown Prince they went, and when he heard the strange story he was very
much affected. “Our laws,” he said, “will not admit of a substitute being
executed for another, but though I cannot take your life, I can give you a
present of this man’s life. He is yours.” The prince could pardon, but God
cannot pardon without a Substitute, even Jesus who died in our stead that we
might live. (W. Thompson.)
Need for the great
atonement
Mr. Hardcastle, when
dying, said, “My last act of faith I wish to be to take the blood of Jesus, as
the high priest did when he entered behind the veil; and when I have passed the
veil I would appear with it before the throne.” So, in making the transit from
one year to another, this is our most appropriate exercise. We see much sin in
the retrospect; we see many a broken purpose, many a misspent hour, many a rash
and unadvised word; we see much pride and anger, and worldliness and unbelief;
we see a long track of inconsistency. There is nothing for us but the great
atonement. With that atonement let us, like believing Israel, end and begin
anew. Bearing its precious blood, let us pass within the veil of a solemn and
eventful future. Let a visit to the fountain be the last act of the closing
year, and let a new year still find us there. (J. Hamilton, D. D.)
Christ’s anesthesia for
the remembrance of sin
If the Creator of the
universe has provided in nature an anaesthesia for physical pain, shall He not
much more, in grace, provide one for moral pain? There is a wholesome and necessary
pain for both the physical and the moral natures--the pain which gives warning
of the disease, or indicates its presence; but when the physician comes, his
province is to effect the cure without the pain as far as possible, as it is a
retarding element in the process of recovery, exhausting the patient’s
strength, which is all needed for recuperation. Just such a useless
devitalising pain for the soul would be the eternal regretful remembrance of
sin, therefore it is that God declares, “Your sins and transgressions shall not
be remembered nor come into mind”; “Blessed is he whose transgression is
covered”; “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” “As
far as the east is from the west, so far will I remove thy transgressions from
thee”; “I will not look upon them nor remember them.” And yet in this age of
questioning people say, “How shall I not remember when science tells me memory
is indestructible?” As well may the patient in his incredulity ask, “How shall
I not feel the knife penetrating to the bone, when the mere scratch of a pin
gives me pain?” Christ is the anaesthesia for the soul’s regretful remembrance
of sin.
Sinners always ready to
conceal their sin
It is said of the
elephant that before he drinks in the river he troubleth the water with his
feet, that so he may not see his own deformity, and it is usual with such as
are well struck in years, not so much to mind the looking-glass, lest therein
they behold nothing but hollow eyes, pale cheeks, and a wrinkled front, the
ruins of a sometime more beautiful visage. Thus it is that men by nature are
hardly drawn to the confession of their sins, but every man is ready to hide
his sins by excusing them with Aaron, by colouring them with fair pretences, as
did the Jews, by laying them on others as Adam did, or by denying them with
Solo-men’s harlots; they are ready to decline sin through all the eases, as one
said wittily: in the nominative by pride, in the genitive by luxury, in the
dative by bribery, in the accusative by detraction, in the vocative by
adulation, in the ablative by extortion, but very loth to acknowledge them in
any case, very hardly brought to make any confession of them at all. (T.
Adams.)
Value of repentance
In the country of Arabia,
where almost all trees are savoury, and frankincense and myrrh are even as
common firewood, styrax is sold at a dear rate, though it be a wood of unpleasant smell,
because experience proveth it to be a present remedy to recover their smell,
who before had lost it. We all of us have lived in the pleasures of sin, have
our senses stuffed and debilitated, if not overcome; and the best remedy
against this malady will be the smelling to styrax, the unsavoury and
unpleasing smell of our former corruptions; thus David’s sin was ever before
him, and St. Augustine (as Possidonius noteth), a little before his death,
caused the penitential psalms to be written about his bed, which he still
looking upon, out of a bitter remembrance of his sins, continually wept, giving
not over long before he died. This practice will work repentance not to be repented of. (J.
Spencer.)
Christian’s confession of
sin
You may have noticed in
the biography of some eminent men how badly they speak of themselves. Robert
Southey, in his “Life of Bunyan,” seems at a difficulty to understand how John
Bunyan could have used such depreciating language concerning his own character. For it is true,
according to all we know of his biography, that he was not, except in the case
of profane swearing, at all so bad as most of the villagers. Indeed, there were
some virtues in the man which were worthy of all commendation. Southey
attributes it to a morbid state of mind, but we rather ascribe it to a return
of spiritual health. The great light which shone around Saul of Tarsus brighter
than the midday
sun, was the outward type of that inner light which flashes into a regenerate
soul, and reveals the horrible character of the sin which dwells within.
Believe me, when you hear Christians making confessions which seem to you to be
unnecessarily abject, it is not that they are worse than others, but that they
see themselves in a clearer light than others. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Hindrances to repentance
removed
They who have water
running home in conduit pipes to their houses, as soon as they find a want of
that which their neighbours have in abundance, by and by they search into the
causes, run to the conduit-head, or take up the pipes to see where they be
stopped, or what is the defect, that so they may be supplied accordingly. Even
so must every man do, when he finds that the grace of repentance flows into
other men’s hearts, and hath no recourse or access into his soul, by and by sit
down and search himself what the cause should be, where the hindrance is that
stays the course, where the rub lies which stoppeth the grace of repentance in
him, seeing they that live lit may be) in the same house, sit at the same
table, lie in the same bed, they can be penitent for their sins, sorry that
they have offended God, and so complain in bitterness of soul for their sins;
but he that had the same means, the same occasions, more sins to be humbled
for, more time to repent, and more motives to draw him to the duty, is not yet
moved with the same, nor any way affected with the sense of sin; this must needs
be matter of high concernment to look about him. (J. Spencer.)
True repentance
I think that men
look upon repentance and humiliation before God very much as they do upon a
voyage from the tropics to the North Pole. Every single league as they advance
toward the Arctic region they leave more and more behind them greenness, and
fruit, and warmth, and civilisation, and find themselves more and more in the
midst of sterility, barrenness, ice, and barbarism. I think that men repent
toward the frigid zones. They think that to go to God is dreary and desolate in
the extreme. It is not. The sinner is an Esquimaux! He lives in ice and burrows
underground, and is but little better than a beast. But if by any means he
becomes fired with a conception of a better clime, and leaving his hibernating
quarters, he takes the ship Repentance and sails toward the torrid zone, at
every league he is surprised by the new forms of vegetation by which he is
surrounded. He has seen oak-trees only about as high as his knee. Not long after
he sets out on his voyage he is astonished to see them as high as his head. By
and by, as he draws near the tropics, he is lost in wonder and ecstasy to see
them lifting themselves far above him in the air. And with what satisfaction
does he compare the delightful home that he has found with the miserable one
that he has left behind. (H. W. Beecher.)
Two kids of the
goats for a sin-offering.--
Christ typified by the two
goats
I. As to
the goat that was put to death. To die as a sacrifice for human guilt was the
great end of Christ’s life and mission into our world. Thus was He represented
by the goat that was sacrificed. Notice how the figure was still further
carried out.
II. In
the goat which was kept alive.
1. Over
the head of this goat the sins of the people were confessed, and on it
symbolically laid. Thus Jesus came to be our Surety and Substitute.
2. Iniquities,
transgressions, and sins, were confessed, and laid on the scapegoat. Showing us
here the extent of Christ’s sacrifice for all kinds of guilt, whether arising
from neglect of God’s commands or the wilful violation of His righteous
prohibitions. In the sacrifice of Christ there was an atonement for every kind
of sin, and for all grades and classes of sinners.
3. The
scapegoat was dismissed into the wilderness with the imputed iniquity of the
people upon it. Thus has Jesus truly borne our guilt away. He has obtained for
a world of transgressors the offer of pardon. For the polluted race of Adam the
means of purity. For condemned and dying sinners the favour of God and the gift
of eternal life. Notice--
III. How
the benefits of the scapegoat were conferred upon the people. Aaron was to lay both
his hands upon the head of the scapegoat, and there confess all the sins of the
people. How clearly does this show us the appointed medium by which we enjoy
the salvation of Christ.
1. There
must be implicit faith or confidence in His person and sacrifice.
2. Faith
in Jesus will ever be accompanied by sincere repentance. It will be connected
with ingenious confession, deep contrition, entire self-abasement, and
self-loathing before God, with earnest forsaking of the paths of impenitence
and sin.
Application:
1. We
see here the connection between sin and death. Sin deserves death, exposes to
death; where it is unforgiven it will involve in eternal death. “The soul that
sinneth,” &c.
2. In
Christ’s death is the only real sacrifice for sin: “He died for our sins.” What
a glorious truth! How precious! how momentous!
3. Faith
is the only medium of securing to the soul the benefits of that death. (J.
Burns, D. D.)
Lessons
1. Of
the divers lots appointed for men, of some unto life, some unto death.
2. Ministers
should have a great care to govern their families.
3. Christ
alone sufficient to save us.
4. Remission
of sins not procured by any strength in man, but by faith in Christ.
5. Righteousness
not by the words of the law, but by faith only in Christ. (A. Willet, D. D.)
Moral observations
1. Divine
secrets not curiously to be searched into.
2. To
approach and draw near before God with holiness and reverence.
3. Of
the force and efficacy of prayer.
4. Of
the profit and fruit of fasting.
5. Remission
of sins only granted to the penitent.
6. Evil
thoughts and lusts to be cast away. (A. Willet, D. D.)
The two goats
The two goats really
formed one and the same figure--one was slain and one was led off into the
wilderness; but to typify that the figure was one, and the same, they must both
be exactly alike, they must cost the same price, they must be bought at the
same time; one was slain for sin, the other was led away far into the
wilderness, bearing the sins of all the people laid upon His head. Our Lord, in
His life and death, combined both these types. He was slain for sin and bears
the sin away. There is one element of this ceremonial that we must carefully
note. The idea of vicarious sacrifice is very prominent. This element must
never be lost out of our doctrine of the atonement. An atonement without the
sacrifice is no atonement. “According to the law I may almost say all things
are cleansed with blood, and apart from the shedding of blood is no remission.”
Bring every beautiful thought and theory into the atonement that belongs there:
the example, the upholding of law, the lustral effect on man’s moral nature,
are all there; but this is there too. Through the vicarious sacrifice of the
God Man our sins are borne for ever away into the wilderness, and are
remembered no more against us. (F. E. Clark.)
The two goats--various
interpretations
There have been disputes
about the interpretation of this. I may state that Faber, a very acute and able
critic upon Leviticus, thinks that the one goat was sacrificed for
sin-representing Christ’s death; that the scapegoat was dedicated to the evil
spirit-representing Christ put into the power of Satan to be tempted in the
wilderness. The reason that he thinks so is that the word for goat of “scape”
is azazel; and that name was applied to the fallen spirit by the Jews.
And therefore Faber thinks it was one goat for a sacrifice--to denote Christ’s
atonement; the other goat let loose to Satan, or sent away to Satan--to
represent the Saviour given up into the hands of the wicked one to be tempted
for a season. The second interpretation is by Bush, the American commentator, a
man of great sagacity and talent; and he thinks that the one goat that was
slain as a sacrifice represented Christ’s atonement for us, but that the other
goat represented the Jewish races let loose, bearing the fearful responsibility
of having trodden under foot the precious blood of Christ, and crucified the
Son of God, and stained their name and their nation with the infamy of that
crime; and that they, a blasted race, driven into the desert, were represented
by the scapegoat that was here let go. And he thinks on the same ground, that
when the lots were cast, and Jesus was condemned and Barabbas was let go, that
that was the carrying out of the same great symbol--Barabbas, the
representative of the Jews, let go, but branded with an inexpiable crime; and
Jesus, the Great Atonement sacrificed for the sins of all that believe. These
criticisms, however, are more plausible than true. I do think the old-fashioned
interpretation is the just one, and there is no valid reason for superseding
it: that the one goat sacrificed on the altar was the symbol of Christ our
Saviour or Atonement sacrificed for us; and that the other goat let loose into
the desert was the symbol and representation to the children of Israel of Jesus
rising from the dead, bearing the sins that He had exhausted, entering into
heaven, and there ever living to make intercession for us. I know there are
difficulties even in accepting the last of these; but those difficulties, if
they do not completely vanish, are much diluted when you notice the
accompaniments or the rites by which this goat was let loose into the
wilderness: that the priest was to lay his hands upon the head of the
scapegoat--the one that was presented alive; over it he was to confess all the
sins of the children of Israel, and then this scapegoat was let loose with the
sins of Israel upon its head. Now, the very phraseology that is applied to the
scapegoat is applied to Jesus: “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away”--that
carrieth away “the sins of the world.” And I cannot conceive a more beautiful
type of Christ our Saviour, or a more expressive exhibition of the mode in
which we become interested in Him than that of the high priest laying his hand
upon his head, transferring the sins of Israel to it, dismissing it, and the
sins blotted out, no more remembered, carried into a desert, passed away from
the reminiscences of Israel and of God for ever. (J. Cumming, D. D.)
The cloud of
the incense.
Intercession of Christ
I. The
doctrine of the intercession of Christ.
1. AS
typically exhibited under the law.
2. As
actually fulfilled in Christ. He not only suffered on the Cross, but ascended;
not on His own account, but ours. Illustrated by common analogies: as an
advocate appears on behalf of his clients; a king on behalf of his subjects; a
general as representative of his troops; a priest at the altar as
representative of whole body of worshippers; so Christ appears as the
representative of all His believing people. As our King He appears in beauty;
as Captain of salvation appears victorious; as Elder Brother; as Priest,
Counsellor, Advocate. Grand expression of His love. Not content to offer one
life on the Cross. He consecrates His new existence. Though raised to the
throne of reverence, does not overlook His little flock (John
17:1-26.).
II. The
benefits we derive from it.
1. The
forgiveness of our sins. “If any man sin.” After all done for us, we are guilty
and undeserving. But while our sins are crying out against us on earth, Christ
is pleading in heaven.
2. Relief
of our sorrows. Christ possesses a capacity of sympathy, especially in mental
distresses, tenderness of conscience, &c. Hannah prayed, but Eli’s heart
was not touched with feeling of her infirmity.
3. The
acceptance of our duties. These are maimed and imperfect. Enough evil in them
to render them offensive and displeasing to God. But Christ presents them (Revelation
8:2).
4. The
frustration of spiritual enemies. Satan is the avenger, but Christ is our
Advocate. “Peter, I have prayed for thee.” (S. Thodey.)
Verses 20-22
The goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities.
The scapegoat a type of Christ
I. The typical
sacrifice here enjoined.
1. Appointed by God. Therefore an atonement fully equal to our guilt;
a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice; an oblation which satisfies the
unbending law and even the infinitely holy mind of the great Jehovah, which
leaves justice nothing to ask for, and the redeemed sinner nothing to dread.
2. The efficacy of the sacrifice enjoined in it must be traced to the
Divine appointment.
II. The conduct
which Aaron was commanded to observe with respect to it. The mere appointment
of these two animals as a sin-offering was not sufficient to atone for the
transgressions of the Israelites: the one must be slain, and the other must be
presented before the Lord and have particular ceremony performed over it,
before Israel can be pardoned.
1. A part of this ceremony consisted in the confession of guilt. We
are called on to be very earnest in our efforts to become acquainted with the
full extent of our depravity; to be often looking into our hearts and reviewing
our lives, and to be particular and minute in acknowledging the sins which we
discover there.
2. It tells us that the high priest, slier having confessed over the
goat the sins of the people, was to transfer them to the victim before him; he
was to put them on its head, thus intimating that their guilt no longer rested
on them but on the devoted animal on which his hands were laid. The spiritual
meaning of this part of the ceremony is plain. It was designed to teach us figuratively
the same blessed truth which has now been revealed to us without a figure, and
which constitutes the substance and glory of the gospel, that “Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us”; that, “He
bare our sins in His own body on the tree”; that the Lord hath laid on Him “the iniquities of
us all.”
III. The benefits
which resulted from Aaron’s obedience to the injunctions given him. After the appointed confession had been made over it,
and the sins of the people put upon its head, the goat was to be sent away into
an uninhabited wilderness.
1. This was undoubtedly designed to show us the completeness of that
pardon of sin which Christ has purchased by the sacrifice of Himself for the
believing sinner. It is a pardon extending, not to a few iniquities, but to
all.
2. But the pardon the believing penitent receives through Christ is
an everlasting, as well as a complete pardon. This is strongly implied in the
text. The goat was not only to bear away all the iniquities of the children of
Israel, but it was to bear them away into “a wilderness,” into “a land not
inhabited”; a land cut off from all other countries; a desolate, unvisited, and
almost inaccessible region, in which the devoted animal was to be let go, and
where it would remain unseen and forgotten till it perished. The Israelites
therefore had not only the assurance that all their past iniquities were
pardoned, but they were taught also by this ordinance that they had no reason
to fear the return of them, or the revoking of this pardon. (C. Bradley, M.
A.)
The scapegoat
I. The scapegoat
represented the substitution of christ in the place of sinners.
II. This
substitution of christ has made ample satisfaction for sin.
III. This atonement
by christ extends to all sins.
1. Iniquities. Some say these refer to our original depravity.
2. Transgressions. The violations of the positive laws of God.
3. Sins. Neglect of His holy commands. Perhaps they are used to
denote that the scapegoat bore away sins of every kind and description.
IV. That Christ, as
typified by the scapegoat, has effected substitution for all people.
V. In what way the
benefits of Christ’s substitution are received.
1. Faith is requisite.
2. Sins confessed and repented of.
Application:
1. Man’s criminal and dangerous condition. Laden with iniquities and
sins.
2. The only way of avoiding the terrible results of transgression.
“By Jesus Christ.”
3. The only means by which the blessings of salvation are to be
received. By true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
4. Let all men thus avail themselves of the redemption that is in
Christ. (J. Burns, D. D.)
The scapegoat
I. The innocent
victim.
1. Innocent. Had no sins of its own to bear. Thus Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:24). With sins of its own
how could it atone for the sins of others? No man selected who might
ceremonially bear the sins of the people away, and then return after being
ceremonially purified.
2. Divinely selected. Chosen by lot. “The lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” Jesus was the Lamb of God. The
lamb of Divine selection. Hence how great should be our confidence in this
Saviour!
3. Representative. Goat generally regarded as representing evil
propensities, and therefore as specially illustrating the wicked (Matthew 25:32-46). So Jesus took our
nature. Likeness of men and of sinful flesh (Philippians 2:7; Romans 8:3).
II. The imputed
transgressions.
1. Of all the people, and all their iniquities. Vast number, variety,
&c., of their sins. Jesus gave Himself a ransom for all. Died for our sins.
2. Transferred from the people by the will of God. By the grace of
God Jesus tasted death for us. Our sins laid upon Him according to the mercy of
God.
3. Transferred by the priest with confession. They were to be
acknowledged as the people’s sins. Confession of sin a condition of our
acceptance. Not that God does not
know, but that the act of confession brings our guilt home more
to our own heart, and tends to promote humility and an earnest desire for
mercy. Besides, God has willed it (chap. 5:5; Hosea 5:15), and added promises of mercy
to such as obey (Leviticus 26:40-42; Proverbs 28:13). And pardon follows (Psalms 32:5; 1 John 1:9).
4. Bearing this burden, the goat was then lead away into the
wilderness. Away from the camp, whither it might never return to defile it. The
iniquity to be clean gone for ever. The people not to be punished for the sins
thus “removed far” from them. Christ bore our reproaches, and was crucified
outside the camp.
III. The delivered
people.
1. Deliverance from sin the greatest deliverance. Other deliverances
being temporal, but this eternal; others bodily, &c., this spiritual.
2. It would promote happiness. They felt that a great load had been
removed. Rejoiced in spiritual liberty. The joy of imputed innocence. Now
looked upon with favour, their sins being borne away. “As far as the east is
from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.”
3. It would excite gratitude. Otherwise they would have had to answer
for their sins. Apply this to Jesus, and those who are saved from wrath through
Him.
Learn--
1. Christ Jesus was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sinners.
2. He made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made, &c.
3. The duty of confession and personal faith. (J. C. Gray.)
The scapegoat
I. That the
separation of man from his sins is a subject of tremendous moment.
1. The moral struggles of mankind show the necessity of man being
separated from his sins.
2. The influence of sin on human nature shows this. It has mortalised
our bodies, clouded our intellects, polluted our affections, burdened our
consciences, enfeebled and enslaved our powers.
3. The intervention of Christ shows this.
II. That a
penitential approach to God through sacrifice is the divine method of
separation.
1. Sin deserves death.
2. Through the death of another, the sinner’s death may be avoided.
III. That the
separation of man from his sin, if effected through the true sacrifice, is
complete. (Homilist.)
Man’s need of a scapegoat
As soon as man sins, and his conscience becomes at all alive to
the fact, and troublesome on account of it, he begins at once to look around
for some “scapegoat.” The sinner always feels, after the first flush and
excitement of sin have passed away, and the fire of its passion has died out,
that it would be an exceedingly desirable thing to put the guilt, burden, and
consequences of sin as completely away from himself as possible. Now that the
fleeting pleasure of sin has been extracted and only the bitter dregs remain,
the sinner would willingly and by any means get quit of them, and so he casts
around a glance of inquiry, hoping to discover some “scapegoat” with whom he
may share the blame of sin, or upon whom he may put it altogether. The first
sinners, in this matter, set an example which all sinners from that time to
this have diligently copied. Adam shabbily put the blame upon his wife, and Eve
foolishly put the blame upon the serpent, and both impiously sought to put the
blame upon God. Do we not in the offering of these vain excuses see our first
parents looking about for a “scapegoat,” who shall at least share the burden of
their recently contracted and still unacknowledged and unabsolved guilt? And
thus has it been with all sinners from that time to this. Still do we find men
seeking to explain the fact of sin, and to excuse the guilt of sin, by
referring to something outside of themselves. A man, for instance, commits some
sin: his conscience calls him to some kind of reckoning. And what, under such
circumstances, does he do? He does not, it is to be feared, cry out in
penitence before God, “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this
evil in Thy sight,” but instead of this he looks about for some “scapegoat.”
His conscience charges him with having told a lie. Well, if it were a lie, it
was a very white one; it was certainly told with the very best of intentions;
it was to obviate some very unpleasant consequences which would have
injuriously affected not only himself but others. A man gets drunk. He cannot
but admit that he was “overtaken,” or “overcome,” but he would like all his
friends to know that the circumstances were very peculiar, indeed, quite
exceptional; it was the excitement of the company which led him on, and not the
love of the drink. Another man takes some unfair advantage of his neighbour:
Well, he dares to say that his neighbours have often taken advantage of him. He
swears: ‘Tis an old habit into which he unconsciously lapses. He indulges in
ungovernable outbursts of anger: Well, he always had a hasty temper, and no one
could know how much he had to annoy and provoke him. You remind a man that he
is very seldom found in God’s house on the Lord’s day, and might be very often
met in the fields, or on the river or rail: He knows it isn’t altogether the
right sort of thing to do; he certainly was brought up differently at home and
at school; but then he is so pent up during the week that he wants a little
fresh air on Sunday. You expostulate with another who, while rarely or never
running into any actual excess, spends a great deal too much time and money in
the public-house. He excuses himself by reminding you that persons in his
station have not the same comforts at home which those have who live in larger
houses and on larger incomes; and that those who expostulate or condemn would
moderate their complaints if they knew more about the matter. And thus, but
that time would fail us, I might go through a much longer catalogue, and show
you how in every case men, as soon as their conscience becomes troublesome,
look about instinctively for some scapegoat. They endeavour to discover
something in their character, their temperament, their circumstances, their
education, their companionship, their occupation--something, in short, outside
of themselves, which shall bear in some degree the blame and guilt of sin,
which all the while they are indulging and cherishing. All such attempts are
vain. All such excuses empty and unavailing. These scapegoats break down under
the burden imposed upon them, and have no power to carry the guilt, the bitterness,
the clinging memory of one single sin into the wilderness of oblivion. It is my
pleasing task to direct your attention to the true Scapegoat: the provision
which God Himself has made for separating the sinner from his sins, and from
all their terrible consequences, finally and for ever. A provision which in its
Divine fulness is sufficient to meet, and more than meet, all the exigences of
our sinful nature. (T. M. Morris.)
Heathen imitations of the scapegoat
From this law of God, no doubt, did spring that custom among the
heathen who, offering sacrifices, used to ban and curse the head of the beast
offered in sacrifice with these words, “That if any evil be so come, either
upon the sacrificers themselves, or upon the whole country of Egypt, it would
please the gods to turn all upon that head.” The Massilians also yearly used to
make an atonement or expiation for their city with some holy man, whom, decked
and set out with holy garments and with garlands, after the manner of a
sacrifice, they led through the city, and putting all the evils upon his head
that might anyway hang over their city, they cast him into the sea, sacrificing
of him so unto Neptune, speaking these words with great solemnity, “Sis pro
nobis piaculum” (“Be thou an expiation for us”). Thus the heathen caught at
things, but not in a right manner, whereby we may well see what a darkness it
is to be deprived of the light of the Word of God. In like manner receiving it
from the doctrine of the old Fathers, by the tradition of Noah’s sons, that
there should in time come a Man who, taking upon Him the sins of all men,
should become a sacrifice for the salvation of all men; and notwithstanding the
manner how this should be, they used in great extremities and perils--as
plagues, famine, wars, &c.
to offer up men to their gods to appease their wrath thereby. So
in Livy we read Quintus Curtius did in a time of pestilence; the Decii, father
and son, in a time of hard war with the Latines and Samnites; Codrus, king of
the Athenians, in Lycurgus; Menceceus in Euripides, and the daughters of
Erecteus offered themselves to be sacrificed for their country. So Ahaz (2 Kings 16:1-20.); Manasseh (chap.
21.), and the King of Moab (chap. 3.), their own sons. This was a great
mistaking you plainly see, and therefore let it move you to send up thankful
thoughts to God for your better knowledge and understanding. (Bp. Babington.)
The solitary sin-bearer
The solitude of the sin-bearer is something altogether
distinct from the solitude of the Holy One. The solitude of holiness separated
Him from sinners; but that separation, which made Him lead in His humanity a
strange, lonesome life, yet brought Him into such full contact with all the
glorious beings and the realities of the spirit-world, that such a solitude
could hardly be looked upon with any considerable regret, or be the source of
actual pain. The solitude of the sin-bearer is different from that of the
representative of holiness and purity. Consider the causes of this solitude.
1. Wherever sin exists it is an isolating principle. Its tendency is
to induce seclusion and separation, to shut the person who is possessed of it
from all connection with that which is outside itself.
2. The scapegoat was to bear upon its head all the confessed iniquity
of the children of Israel, and to bear it into a land of separation. Christ was
the Scapegoat of the human family. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read that
He, by the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself to God. The scapegoat finds the land
of separation at last, all alone in the darkness. He bore our sins into the
land not inhabited. No witnessing spirit can find them there; no denizen of
those dreary regions can rediscover them. They are lost sight of by man; the
angels find them obliterated from their view; and God Himself has turned His
back upon them, and left them in the land of separation. (W. Hay Aitken, M.
A.)
“And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land
not inhabited
”:--When confessed sins are fairly laid upon Him who is appointed
to bear them, they will never come back to those who confessed them. He will
carry them “unto a land not inhabited”--a land where there are no talebearers
or gossips to keep the story of those sins alive. Forgiven sins will be also
forgotten sins: in the day of final account, not one of them will appear
against the transgressor. Sins which are not laid upon the Scapegoat must be
faced by the sinner in the presence of the universe. Sins which the Scapegoat
has borne away into the land not inhabited cannot then be found in all the
universe. God Himself will have forgotten them: for His promise is that those
sins and those iniquities He will remember no more for ever, (H. G.
Trurnbull.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》