PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Leviticus 16-18
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“Lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all their sins.” (Leviticus 16:21)
These chapters do not really fit together as one unit.
The Day of Atonement (16), sacrifice and blood laws (17) and laws about sexual purity (18).
Our course the big debate going on today has to do with human sexuality (18).
Whatever our interpretation on this issue, we shouldn’t miss the underlying concern.
Our world IS twisted and distorted by violence (bloodshed) and sexual immorality.
Satan is having a field day, and many people are enjoying the sport of it.
There are many variations on violence and sexual sin, but the problem is the same.
The world of sin is unraveling, and we are crashing with it.
However we land on specific issues, may we not lose sight of the problem of sin.
And we shouldn’t assume that we are not affected, and that sin isn’t infecting us.
Killing a scapegoat won’t help – shifting the sin problem somewhere else.
We need to banish (cut off) the eye or hand that causes us to sin (Matthew 5:30).
Sincere repentance, bringing our hearts and sins to Jesus, is how we do this today.
Jesus banishes our sins for us; He is our scapegoat, He will take care of our sin.
PRAYER
Lord, help me not to make others my scapegoat, to keep me from dealing with my own sin. Show me where I am slipping in regards to violence or sexual sin, and help me to deal with it!
Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty! That, to me is the picture I see – the details of all the regulations that pre-Messiah people had to follow affirm that. The introduction of the ‘scapegoat’ is a practical and visible precursor of what the Messiah will come to do – take the sin away from those who confess their sins before the Lord. Do I take confession too lightly! Often I do – just praying ‘forgive my sins’ without some reflection on the ‘sins-of-the-day’ – is too casual. Confessed sin is sin carried off by the scapegoat: Jesus! Thank you Lord!