the Third Week after Easter
Click here to learn more!
Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Leviticus 16:15-22
The priest entered within the veil, surrounded by a cloud of incense, whilst the people waited in fear outside. Would the LORD accept the sacrifice? If something was not in order, would not Aaron perish like his two elder sons? What relief at the moment when he reappeared, his service accomplished! Prophetically this scene will be fulfilled when, coming in glory for Israel, Christ will appear to them that look for Him "the second time without sin unto salvation." (Hebrews 9:28).
The live goat had still to be dealt with. The first, the one on which the LORD’S lot had fallen (v. 9) had been offered for a sin-offering before God. The second, the scapegoat, carried away the sin which was on the people’s conscience. This is why all the sins were confessed over its head and it carried them away for ever into a land not inhabited (read Psalms 103:12 and Hebrews 8:12 quoted from Jeremiah 31:34). The first goat served to make propitiation; it was for all. The second speaks to us of substitution: of a victim bearing the sins of many (Hebrews 9:28) that is to say of only those who, confessing their sins (v. 21) appropriate by faith the worth of the victim. Christ’s sacrifice has this double character.
