“Aaron will present his own bull as a sin offering to purify himself and his family, making them right with the LORD. Then he must take the two male goats and present them to the LORD at the entrance of the Tabernacle. He is to cast sacred lots to determine which goat will be reserved as an offering to the LORD and which will carry the sins of the people to the wilderness of Azazel.  Aaron will then present as a sin offering the goat chosen by lot for the LORD. The other goat, the scapegoat chosen by lot to be sent away, will be kept alive, standing before the LORD. When it is sent away to Azazel in the wilderness, the people will be purified and made right with the LORD. – Leviticus 16:6-10 NLT

Warrior;

I don’t know if we can ever truly understand what Jesus did for us, nor the weight of what He did.  Not just by becoming the sin of the world, but also by taking our sins and putting them outside the camp, to never again be seen.  It is written; For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103:12) The entire Bible is a redemptive arc. A redemptive arc is the Bible’s unified storyline in which God moves humanity from creation, through the fall, toward restoration through the Messiah. The Old Testament reveals the shadows of this redemption, and the New Testament unveils the substance in Jesus Christ. Every movement of Scripture bends toward one center: God redeeming His people through His Son. The Old Testament gives us the shadow, and the New Testament reveals the substance. Every law, every feast, every sacrifice whispers the same name: Messiah… Redeemer… Jesus. Leviticus 16 gives us one of the clearest shadows. Two goats. One sacrificed. One sent away into the wilderness, carrying the sins of the people “never to be seen again” (Lev. 16:21–22). Atonement: this one act, this one time a year, points to the ONE who PAID IT ALL. Jesus is dealing with 2 questions, that is why the 2 goats. One answers the question, “How is sin paid for?” The other answers, “Where do my sins go?” At the Cross, Jesus fulfilled both. He is the sacrifice whose blood atones. Atonement means to make wrong things right, to cover sin, and to reconcile two parties who have been separated. In Scripture, atonement is the act by which God deals with human sin so that relationship can be restored

Leader, this one act, this one time a year, points to the ONE who PAID IT ALL. One answers the question, “How is sin paid for?” The other answers, “Where do my sins go?” At the Cross, Jesus fulfilled both. He is the sacrifice whose blood atones. It is written: So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. (Hebrews 9:11-12) He is the scapegoat who carries our sins away forever. This is what John the Baptizer meant when he spoke: The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29). Shadow meets substance. Ritual meets reality. The Redeemer steps into the story. And when Jesus and sin was nailed to the CROSS OF CALVARY, the curtain tore from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51). Heaven opened the way. The barrier fell. Access was granted. Think of the astronauts on Artemis II. They are entering an environment they were not made for, so they must put on a suit that allows them to survive in a realm beyond their nature. We are flesh. God is holy. We cannot enter His presence on our own.

Conduit, The High Priest had to prepare himself with nearly forty steps just to enter the Holy of Holies once a year, it is all listed in Leviticus 16.  He had to be “clothed” properly- or He would die. Before one man could step into the Holy of Holies- the PRESENCE OF GOD- once a year, an entire day of exhausting, meticulous, bloody preparation had to take place: multiple bathings, changing of clothing, multiple sacrifices, sprinkling, confessing, cleansing, and repeating each step with absolute precision. The high priest carried out layer upon layer of ritual, not because God delights in complexity, but because sinful humanity cannot casually enter the presence of a holy God. Every sacrifice, every wash basin, every garment, every drop of blood shouted the same truth: access to God is costly, dangerous, and impossible without a mediator. JESUS did the heavy lifting on RESURRECTION DAY! The veil was removed, the barrier to the Ancient of Days- is no longer there for those covered by the BLOOD! All of that weight, all that work, all of that blood… was a shadow pointing to the moment when Jesus, our perfect High Priest, would do in one act what took Israel’s priesthood a lifetime to attempt. Jesus, PAID IN FULL He is our better sacrifice, our better covenant, our better High Priest. We don’t need a space suit like our astronauts to survive in a foreign climate.  For He clothes us in His righteousness. As we celebrate our RISEN KING, because of what Jesus did: Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) Jesus bought us peace with God: Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. This is why we celebrate Resurrection day, what the world calls Easter.  We live in a warring world!  War in the Middle East, war in Ukraine, war in our culture, war in our families, war in our heart, war in our heads!  We need Peace! Peace with God, peace with our brothers and sisters, peace in our heads and hearts!  This Resurrection Sunday, I pray for PEACE! I can guarantee you two things: 1-No Jesus, no peace! 2- Know Jesus, know peace. Jesus is both goats; He fulfills both parts of the Atonement and forgiveness! Have a loving day: We can have PEACE when we remember how God demonstrated His love for us! God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The Cross is not only payment, it is erasure! Now that is PEACE!