The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 294

hath borne onr griefs, and carried our sorrows; . . . he was wounded for our trans- gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities," etc. (Isa. !iii. 4, 6; 1 Pet. ii. 24). JI, THAT THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST AVAILS TO REMOVE COMPLETELY ALL CONDEMNA• TION. When the children of Israel saw the live goat, over whose head their sins had been confessed, being led a.way into the waste wilderness where it would never more be seen (ver. 22), they had a very vivid assurance made through their senses to their soul that "their transgressions were forgiven, and their sins covered." No such dramatic assurance have we now, but we may have the utmost confidence that our sins are forgiven us "for his Name's sake;" that" there is no condemnation to us who are in Christ Jesus," to us" who have redemption through his blood, even the for!rive- ness of sins" (Acts xiii. 39; Rom. v. 9). Trusting in the slain Lamb of God we ~a.y see, by the eye of faith, all our guilt and all our condemnation borne away' into the land of forgetfulness, where God will remember it no more for ever. Ill THAT NO SACRIFICE WILL AVAIL A1'"YTHING WITHOUT ACTIVE PARTICIPATION ON OUR PART. Useless and unavailing altogether the slaying of the one goat and the sending a.way of the other without the a.et of confession and the imposition of hands by the high priest (ver. 21); this pa.rt of the solemn ceremonial was essential• a.pa.rt from that everything would have been vain. And without our personal spiritual partici- pation the sacrifice of the Lamb of God will be all in vain. 1. There must be the con- fession of our sin; a confession of sin which springs from contrition for sin, and is attended by a determination to put all sin away (repentance). 2. Faith in the Divine Redeemer. "Our faith must lay its hand on that dear head of his." 3. .And this must be the action of our own individual soul. Whatever guidance and encoura.aement we may gain from the ministers of Christ, we ourselves must repent and believe.~. Vers. 29-31.-The great anniversary-sacred seasons. The Jews had other special days beside the Day of .Atonement. 'l'hey ha.d their weekly sa.bba.th, the new moon sacrifices, their festivals or "holy convocations" (eh, xxiii.), etc. But this was the " grand climacteric; " there were "high days " during the year, but this wa.s the da.y of the year to every devout Israelite. No other was comparable to it in solemnity and sacred importance. Severa.I features of peculiar interest combined to raise it above a.II other ocCIISions. 1. It wa.s the one annual solemnity prescribed by the Law. 2. It was a day of perfect rest from labour (vers. 29, 31). S. It was the one day of universal fasting enjoined or encoura.gec. in the Law (vers. 29, 31). 4. It was a day of self- examination and spiritual humiliation (ver, 29). 5. On that day the high priest went perilously near to the manifested presence of God-then, and then only, entering within the vail, and standing in presence of the mercy-seat and the mysterious, awful Shechina.h (ver. 12). 6. On that day unusual sacrifices were offered unto the Lord, and a striking spectacle witnessed by the whole camp, the live goat being led away into the wilderness (ver. 21). 7. Then, also, the people felt themselves in an unusually blessed relation to Jehovah-free, as at no other time, from all their sin; they were "clean from all their sins before the Lord" (ver. 30). We may, therefore, well pro- nounce this the great anniversary of the Hebrew Church. It must have had hallowing influences in both directions of time: it must have been anticipated with interest and awe; it must have left behind it sacred shadows of holy feeling--of unity, reverence, joy in God. The holding of this anniversary "by statute for ever" suggests to us- L THAT IN CHBIBT JESUS THE OBSERVANCE OF DAYS 18 AN OPTIONAL THING. There a.re valid grounds for believing that it is the will of Christ we should observe the Lord's day as the disciples of him who is "the Resurrection and the Life." But the enforcement of the observance of sacred days by statute binding on the Christian conscience is expressly disallowed (Ga.I. iv. 10, 11 ; Rom. xiv. 5, 6; Col. ii. 16). I!. THAT IT 18 WISE, AB A MATTER OF CHRISTIAN LIBERTY, TO OnSERVE SOME A1'"'NTVEBSARIES. God has, in his providential arrangements, made certain points to be regularly recurring. Time is so measured that we must be periodically reminded of interesting events. God put the lights in the firmament in order that they might not only "give light upon the earth," but that they might be "for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years" (Gen. i. 14). 1. .A Church should observe: (1) the daJ: ofits institution, or (2) the day on which it was conscious of revival, or (3) any particular day which is, to itself, fruitful of sacred suggestions. 2. Individual Christian men may CH, XVI, 1-34,] THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. 259