"This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year" (v.34)
This chapter contains the instructions given concerning the observance of the Day of Atonement. This was in many ways the greatest day in the religious year of the Hebrew people, for this was the most important religious rite in the whole economy.
On that day, the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies and made atonement (blood of a bullock) for himself and his family before that of the people. Once he was cleansed, the Sin offering for the people was made consisting of two goats. The goat on which the lot of the Lord fell was slain as a Sin offering, and the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies, sprinkling its blood on the Mercy-Seat and before the Mercy-Seat seven times, as he had done with the blood of the bullock. The other goat was the scapegoat, and over its head Aaron confessed the sins of all the people, putting them upon the head of the goat, and sent it away by the hand of a ''fit man'' into the wilderness.
Jesus Christ became our sacrificial lamb that we (the scapegoat) might be set free from our sin. His death is the new covenant's answer to the Day of Atonement under the old covenant.
The Truth: “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)
