PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Leviticus 15-16
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“She will be unclean as long as she has the discharge…” (Leviticus 15:25)
Chapter 15 is hard to be inspired by, dealing with disease, mold and discharges.
Some of this may have good hygiene reasons, but what an impact on the ‘unclean’ person.
I think of the woman who had been “subject to bleeding for twelve years” (Luke 8:43).
This poor woman was untouchable, unclean, out in a wilderness FOR TWELVE YEARS!
This is the curse of sin, how it leaves us in our misery, and cannot release us.
“Lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all their sins.” (Leviticus 16:21)
This is how God ‘atones’ (literally ‘covers’) for our sin and uncleanness.
God provides this lamb as an annual reminder that we are covered, forgiven, accepted.
For our part, we confess our need – our sin, our uncleanness, our weaknesses and flaws.
Jesus is the lamb that touches us in our uncleanness, and takes it upon himself.
Jesus is the scapegoat that takes our sins away, driven into the wilderness!
Everyone is covered, no one is driven away, all are ‘cleansed by the blood of the lamb’.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
PRAYER
Lord, thank you for being the lamb, for embracing me in my uncleanness. Thank you for stepping in for me, for taking away my guilt and shame, that I might be restored and welcome as God’s child.
“The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.” There is so much ritual about cleanliness – God’s people needed to know that God is Holy and his chosen people also must be conscious of their cleanliness. Sin contaminates and the annual procedure of atonement with the ‘scapegoat’ again was a lesson in how sin needs to be cleansed: “The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.” It points, for me, to Jesus and how he carried my sin to the grave – to hell – to the ultimate wilderness! Thank you Jesus for making me clean!
The scapegoat.
Then the sins of the people were placed on the goat that was set free in the wilderness for the sins of the people. The were made clean. Christ Jesus is our/my scapegoat for all my sins were placed upon Him so that I can be free, free to serve and live for Jesus. I am made right by His sacrifice. I am made whole by His death, once and for all.
Jesus, my great High Priest,
Offered His blood and died;
My guilty conscience seeks
No sacrifice beside.
His powerful blood did once atone,
And now it pleads before the throne.
2. To this dear Surety’s hand
Will I commit my cause;
He answers and fulfils
His Father’s broken laws.
Behold my soul at freedom set;
My Surety paid the dreadful debt.
3. My Advocate appears
For my defense on high;
The Father bows His ears
And lays His thunder by.
Not all that hell or sin can say
Shall turn His heart, His love, away.
4. Should all the hosts of death
And powers of hell unknown
Put their most dreadful forms
Of rage and mischief on,
I shall be safe, for Christ displays
Superior power and guardian grace