I've decided that in 2023 I am going to read through the Bible chronologically, which means instead of reading it from cover to cover in the way its put together in our current Bible I am going to read it in the order that the events actually happened. So I flew through Genesis then Job, then Exodus, and now I find myself in everyone's favorite book of the Bible, Leviticus.  If you have struggled to read this book in the past to courage, even myself as a pastor finds navigating through this book to be a chore.  It gets a bit monotonous hearing about the different offerings and sacrifices and they all seem to blend toegether. However something stood out to me today and I wanted to share it with you all who are reading.

    I came across Lev16 and it started to talk about the Day of the Atonement.  What happens on this day is the purification of sins from both the priests and the people of Israel.  There are some strategic steps involved and I wont bog you down with the details but I will share the crescendo of the ceremony.  Two goats are brought before their priests and after lots are cast one goat is slaughtered and its blood is shed as a sign of forgiveness of sins, and the other goat life is spared but the priest puts his hands on the goat and transfers the sins of the people to this goat and this goat is sent off into the wilderness as a sign of the sins of the people are gone from the camp. This is where we get the term scapegoat, this goat now bears the sins of the people.  

    Something though stood out to me.  I understand that this is all a symbol of what is happenening, the sins aren't literally transferred to the goat, but there is power in the symbology.  I wondered though what if that goat wandered back into he Israelites camp?  Would the sins be back on the people?  At the very least the people would be reminded of their sins.  So what good would that ceremony have been?  Let's fast forward 1500 years or so and here we have Jesus who is presented as the spotless lamb in which the sins of the world would be laid upon.  He dies as the ultimate sacrifice, once and for all no need for any more sacrifices.  That's not even the best part in my mind.  This is a sacrifice that has no chance of wandering back to the camp, meaning that when Jesus forgives you of your sins, they are forgiven for good.  No more wandering goats or lambs.  Now Satan will always try to remind you of your sins but that it's where we go back to the cross, go back to where Jesus cried " Paid in Full" and we remind the devil that Jesus no longer remembers our sins.  

    So if you are struggling with condemnation over sins that Jesus hard already paid the price for, let me encourage you by pointing you to Scripture where it says as far as the East is from the West, He has removed our sins from us and no longer judges us based upon them.  You are forgiven, cleansed and are a child of God.