- For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. Leviticus 16:30 – The laws given within this chapter would have been laws that were held in great esteem by the Israelites for they were the laws describing the Day of Atonement. This was one day out of the year where all the temple business was silenced and only one man, the high priest, was active at work. He alone, only on this one day out of the year, went past the veil into the Most Holy Place to make atonement for himself and the people. As a result of the sacrifices and work done within this chapter, at the end of it all the priest, the people, the tent, and the altar were all now clean before the Lord. Yet, what if after all that the high priest as he was coming out of the tent said something wrong, or had a lustful thought, or committed any sin no matter how minor it may have seemed. He would have no longer been clean before the Lord. After all that day’s work of sacrificing and offering he would have been right back to where he was before, all because of that one sin. There we see the breakdown of the whole Jewish sacrificial system, it can never make one forever clean before the Lord. It’s like taking a shower and stepping immediately out into mud pit. This is why we as Christians ought to be overjoyed when thinking about the sacrifice Jesus made for us. The Day of Atonement for us was the day on which Jesus died on Calvary. He alone, acting as our High Priest, did the work of our atonement before the Lord. What He did no other priest could do, He cleansed all our sins included the ones to be made in the future. How precious is the flow that makes us white as snow, and not just for today, but for all days. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3218
- Leviticus 16 Daily DEVO And the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. Leviticus 16:2-3 – So there was only one way for Aaron to come before the Lord to find forgiveness of sins. Sure sound like scripture here is foreshadowing our life with Jesus. We must remember that for us there is only one way for us to find forgiveness of our sin and that’s through Jesus. If we try some other path like just living well or just helping people as our way to find forgiveness that path will end in death just like if Aaron took any other path in this sacrifice we read about today. Some may say that only one path isn’t fair, what we all must remember is that God never had to even give us this one path. He was totally in His right to keep us isolated from Him, but that’s not what He did because He loves us. Be grateful we have a way and remember there is only one way to the Father. That way is through Jesus alone. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 898
- The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. Leviticus 16:22 – On the Day of Atonement, the day where sacrifices were made to cover all the sins of the whole nation, a goat would be brought to the priest. Unlike all the other animals being brought, this goat would remain living. The priest would lay his hands in the head of the goat, lay all the sins of the nation in it, and then it would be released. Commentators say that the goat would be led out ten miles from the city then let go. The one who walked the goat out would watch until the goat had walked so far off that it was no longer visible to him, then the day of atonement was complete. This was a divine example of how God takes our sin far, far from us. His forgiveness is everlasting and His love is deep. There is no chance our sin is coming back into our story to ruin once again what we have with God, that sin is forgiven and gone. We can have confidence in this because our sin wasn’t just carried by a goat into the horizon but by Jesus into the tomb. Our sin is dead and gone and we’re free in Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1939
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