Hey everybody, welcome back to what hopefully is the last solo episode of the daily Bible podcast for a little while I assume and hope and pray pastor Rob will be back tomorrow. I know he wants to be back I know you guys miss him. I miss him. I want him back here it's hard to just sit here and talk to a computer screen and Be left to my own conclusions, my own thoughts. It's good to have somebody to bounce back and forth with. So, uh, yeah, I miss having him in the office and hopefully he'll be back with us tomorrow for Wednesday's edition. It is Tuesday, February 18th, through 18. Uh, this is the day that is supposed to be the polar vortex descending upon the Metroplex here. So hopefully you are ready and prepped up for that. And, uh, I'm excited to get into Leviticus 16. Leviticus 16, probably one of my favorite chapters in the book of Leviticus. If I can have a favorite chapter in a book, I would say in Leviticus, this is my favorite chapter because, uh, the gospel is. If you squeeze Leviticus 16, like a sponge, the gospel would drip out. Um, this is about the day of atonement in the day of atonement. Yom Kippur, as it's known today, is a day that takes place in our current calendar sometime in the September, October timeframe here. And this was a day when the high priest was supposed to make atonement, not just for the, the individual sin of one person or the sin of a family, but for the whole nation of Israel. And so we're going to get into that a little bit. Uh, notice verse two, it says, tell Aaron, your brother, not to come into the most Holy place at any time before the mercy seat that's on the arcs that he may not die for. I will appear in the cloud of the mercy seat. Now, right before that. He said, um, he, Moses had been referencing the death of, of Nadab and Abihu, the death of the two sons, verse one. And then he talks to Aaron and the Lord says, tell Aaron not to just walk into my presence anytime he wants to. That has led some. To conclude that the sin of offering unauthorized fire, a strange fire involved the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, walking into the Holy of Holies, beyond the veil into the presence where the Ark was, and that that was part of what led to their death. I think there's some ground to that. I see the connection there in verse one. The Lord speaks to Moses after the death of them and the first thing he says is, Hey, tell Aaron, don't do this. Don't come into the holy place anytime you want to, because if you do, you're going to die. And so I could see the connection there, that part of them offering the strange fire, the unauthorized. Unauthorized fire was that they waltzed into the Holy of Holies, uh, when they were not allowed to be in there. In fact, the only one allowed to go into the veil behind the veil, into the Holy of Holies before the Ark, uh, where the mercy seat was and the glory of God resided, the only one allowed to do that was the high priest. And that was only once a year here on the day of atonement. And so this day was significant in so many ways. This was the time. The high priest would go in before the Lord to offer a sin offering and to offer a blood offering before the Lord and atone for the sins of the nation. And so, but it was done in such a picturesque way that points to the cross and what takes place place at the cross. Let's talk about the animals. So Leviticus 16. three, we find that there's going to be a bull offered for a sin offering. And then there's also going to be a Ram offered for a burnt offering. And so the bull was going to be offered for a sin offering and the Ram for the burnt offering. But then there were also going to be in verse five, two goats. And another ram. And so the two goats are the ones that kind of take center stage here. The bull Aaron's going to offer that for himself and for his house as a sin offering before going any anywhere further. Now I've referenced Hebrews a couple of times as we've been talking through Leviticus. This is another point where it comes into play, uh, that. It says in Hebrews chapter nine, verses six and seven, these preparations having thus been made, the priest go regularly into the first section, performing the ritual duties. That's the outer part of the tabernacle, but into the second one, only the high priest goes, that's what we're talking about. Day of atonement. So writer of Hebrews is ref referring back to that. And he goes, but once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. So. Aaron here is instituting the day of atonement. This is the first time this is going to happen. So Aaron's going to offer a bowl for himself and for his family in the, in the, the burnt offering as well. But then we get to the goats and here's what's fascinating. One of the goats is selected by lot to be the sin offering. So that goat is going to die. That goat is going to shed its blood. It's going to give it to life for the sins of the people. The other goat. Is chosen to be what we now know as the scapegoat. That's where this concept comes from, of a scapegoat. And this goat, it says, is going to be for Azalel. And we're not exactly sure what Azalel is. There's a lot of speculation out there. But we don't, we do know this. That that goat, the goat reserved for Azalel, was sent out into the wilderness. But something happened before that goat was sent away. And there was a reason why the goat was sent away. After the first goat was sacrificed, the second goat is presented before the people, and in verses 20 through 22, Aaron's gonna confess all the sins of the people over the goat before he sends it away into the wilderness to bear away, to carry away the sins of Israel. Israel removing them from their midst. And so this is the gospel. This is why the gospel is dripping from Leviticus chapter 16, because you have the one goat, give it to life for the sins of the people, you have the other goat, take the sins of the people away, remove them as far as the East is from the West, so to speak. And so in this picture that we see here, we see the sacrificial death and the removal of sin. That is the cross. At the cross, the Day of Atonement is fulfilled in Christ. The Day of Atonement was the type pointing to Jesus. What Jesus would do on the cross when he would die on the cross for our sins. He would give his life for our sins and at the same time the one sacrifice in Jesus also was the one that propitiated. He satisfied God's wrath. He removed our sins. He expiated. That's the word I'm looking for. expiated, which is a word that means to remove, to cleanse, to purge. He removed our sins from us, just like we see this other goat being sent away metaphorically from the people. They would watch that goat walk away, and it was as though this was a picture of God removing their sins from them as a people, atoning for their sins, cleansing them. And so that's why Leviticus 16 is so rich with gospel imagery here, that we have in these two goats a representation of what took place at the cross. When Jesus Christ died for us, he gave his life for our sins. He's the sin offering and he's the offering of expiation. He's the offering that removes our sins from us as far as, as the East is from the West. What a cool picture of the gospel we get here in Leviticus chapter 16. Chapter 17, then we get into some laws on sacrificing animals. Uh, rules for where the sacrifices were to be offered rules about abstaining from eating any of the blood of the animal since the life of the animal was in its blood. So again, God's kind of having to shape Israel up here and provide parameters and rules and regulations for them saying, Hey, don't be like the nations. Don't sacrifice just anywhere you want to sacrifice. Now you've got a place to bring your offerings, to bring your sacrifices here to the tabernacle. Don't just go do it wherever you want to do it. And also don't eat the blood of the animal. The other nations may eat the blood, but the blood is the life of the animal and the life represents the cost. The blood represents the cost of the life and the life is the payment for your sins. And so God did not want the people. Eating the blood. He also didn't want the people treating sack the sacrificial system like the other nations treated the sacrificial system to their gods. In chapter 18, then we get some rules about, uh, sexual relations, what is and what is not acceptable. Uh, God wanted again, Israel to be different from the nations. That he was driving out from before them, they, the text even says that they had done these things and that's why they were being driven out. They, they had committed these sins and God was going to punish them. And so he wanted to look at Israel and say, don't be like them. Don't be like them. These things that I'm prohibiting you from doing in chapter 18, these were things that the nations were doing. And so you be different. Don't do these things. They're an abomination to me. They're not to be practiced. We're not going to do this. Don't do it. And if you do it, you're going to end up just like they did. And so there's these warnings here that God takes this area very, very seriously. Why? Because he designed it, he created it, he declared it to be a good thing. And it's a thing that then was taken by fallen man and perverted. And it still is today, but it's important to note here in verse 22 and parents, I'll kind of let you visit verse 22 and decide if you want to broach that, but. That issue some people today will say well, you know, does does Jesus ever condemn it? And I think he does even as he says, you know for this reason a man shall leave his Husband his father and mother and hold fast to his wife Paul certainly condemns it Christ does through his teaching on marriage and what marriage is condemns it and in here in the Old Testament Leviticus 18 22 God certainly does condemn it as something that he calls an abomination. And there's nothing that changes between that and between the new Testament. And the reason being is this is not in accordance with his design. This is not as, as Paul terms it, what is natural. And so this is what he says is an abomination. It's wrong. It's wicked. It's detestable to him and it should not be done. And so just note there in Leviticus 18 22, we see where God condemns that particular act. All right. 18 again, 16. So good. So much gospel richness in Leviticus 16. Awesome, awesome chapter for us. Well, let me pray for us. And then we will be done with this episode of the daily Bible podcast. God, thanks for Leviticus 16. Thank you that, uh, that we're not looking to goats, but to Jesus. That we don't have to gather together for a human high priest to represent us before you once a year, But we have our great high priest and thank you that we have his blood that cleanses us That we have his sin offering that of his own life for us That that cleanses us from our sins and that he is able to then save us to the uttermost and we can draw near To you through him. So thank you. Thank you for jesus. Leviticus just keeps driving that home more and more. Thank you Thank you. Thank you for Jesus. And we pray that in his name. Amen. We'll keep reading your Bibles y'all and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Bye y'all.