Jesus Pictured by the Scapegoat

And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat

And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness

Leviticus 16: 7, 15 and 21

I absolutely love this Old Testament picture of my Saviour Jesus Christ.  The Israelites were told to sacrifice two goats.  One would be killed as a sacrifice on the altar, his blood shed for the sins of the people.  The other would be a living sacrifice, sent into the wilderness bearing the sins of the people away, never again to be seen or remembered.

Think of the picture this provides of the Saviour.  Both of these animals represent our Lord.  He died on the cross and His blood was shed for us.  He is the sacrifice Who was killed for our sins.  And, at the same time, He is a living sacrifice.  He rose from the dead, and He is seated at the right hand of God the Father, making intercession for us.  He helps us with our day to day struggles and He forgives us when we come to Him confessing our sins.  The Bible tells us in Hebrews that He makes intercession for us.  It says in I John that He is our advocate with God the Father.

He bled and died for our sins like the goat in Leviticus.  He then rose from the dead and took our sins into the wilderness, where they are “remembered no more forever.”  He has removed them, according to the Psalms, “as far as the east is from the west.”

What a marvelous picture of the Saviour these two goats provide.  I am reminded of the hymn that says “what a wonderful Saviour is Jesus my Lord.”  May we never cease to stand in awe of our Saviour and may we never become unthankful for all that He has done for us!

You Get Both

I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

Leviticus 25:38

In this verse, God tells us that He brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt for two reasons:
1. To give them the land of Canaan.
2. To be their God.

Notice that they didn’t get to pick and choose.  They didn’t get to say “thank you very much for this great land of Canaan, but we really don’t want you to be our God”.  They also didn’t get to say “we appreciate you being a powerful God and helping us and providing for us, but we would really rather go back and live in Egypt”.  He brought them out to give them the land and to be their God.

Sometimes we want to pick and choose what we want out of the Christian life.  We might want God to save us from going to Hell when we die, but we don’t really want anything else.  We might want God to bless us and answer all our prayers, but we don’t want to “go overboard” with obeying Him and doing what He says.  But the truth is, we don’t get to choose.  If we want the Lord, we have to want all of Him.

A Continually Burning Lamp

Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually.

Leviticus 24:2

The Lord says here that He wants the Israelites to bring olive oil because He wanted the “lamps to burn continually”.  He never wanted the lamps to go out.  Matthew 5:14 says “Ye are the light of the world.  A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.” Verse 16 says “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”.  The truth is that we are the light of the world.  Just as God didn’t want the lamp to go out in the Old Testament, He does not want our “lamp” to go out, either. 

When we have sin in our lives and when we are ashamed of Him and when we decide to live like the world, we are hiding our light.  We are not letting His light shine through us.  Just as the moon has no light of it’s own, but simply reflects the sun’s light, we have no light of our own, but are to simply reflect the Son’s light.  There are times when clouds obscure the light of the moon and there are times when we allow things to come between us and the Lord.  These things cause our light to be dimmed.  We should ask the Lord to help us make sure that our “lamps burn continuously”.  May His light shine brightly through us that we might glorify Him and point others to Him!

Old Way vs New Way

After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.  Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 18:3-4

Here in Leviticus, God is telling His chosen people, Israel, what He wants them to do and what He doesn’t want them to do.  He is very clear in this passage that He does not want them to be like the Egyptians and He does not want them to be like the Canaanites.  He brought them out of Egypt and He was bringing them through Canaan, but they were not Egyptians or Canaanites- they were His chosen people. 

Just like God did not bring the Israelites out of Egypt to live like the Egyptians, He did not save us and bring us out of the world only to let us live and act like the world.  Verse 4 says that “ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances… I am the Lord your God”.  If we belong to God, we need to do what He says, not what the world says.  It doesn’t matter what the world says- the world doesn’t own us and shouldn’t control us.  As Christians, God does own us and should control us. 

May we strive every day to “put off the old man and put on the new man”.  May we every day submit to the leadership of the Lord and follow Him.  May we daily be reminded that He brought us out of the world to serve Him.