Atonement

I’ve been reading through the book of Leviticus recently in reaction to my own jokes about this book not being particularly exciting or much of a mine of information for spiritual transformation. Recently, I was challenged in my views by the following.

In Leviticus 16, YHWH God outlines the regulations for the Day of Atonement. Aaron – and other high priests in the future – are to do as follows:
– offer a young bull for their own sins
– offer two goats:
+ one as a sin offering for the people; its blood is sprinkled on the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting, and the altar
+ a second goat is the recipient of the peoples’ sins and is sent into the wilderness

I immediately think of words from the Epistle to the Hebrews:

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:13-14)