16:6-10
Aaron is to offer a bull to make atonement for his own sin, and for his whole household. This meant all the priests, as the priesthood was of his family. Then he was to take two goats. One would be sacrificed to the Lord, this was the sin offering. The other was to be presented to the Lord alive, and then sent into the wilderness, thus making atonement. This was the scapegoat. So we see that there are two aspects for our sin being dealt with. One is the sacrifice, the other is sin being sent away. As has oft been said, we come to Christ just as we are, but we do not stay as we are. The gospel is not about our sin being overlooked, but about it being dealt with. The goat to be sent away was chosen by lot. This was God’s choice, not man’s choice.
We may think that there is an awful lot about sacrifices in Leviticus, and there is, but other contemporary religions had a much greater number of sacrifices (Hess). The Bible placed much more emphasis on the attitude of the person.
16:11-14
More details of the offering Aaron has to make are now given. His two sons had died because they offered unauthorised fire. The fire here is authorised because it is according to God’s instructions. “So that he will not die”. Aaron’s two sons did die, God is laying out the instructions so that Aaron will not die. We may think “why are you doing things this way?” We can be confident in God that He knows what He is doing and His intentions are good for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment