EXPLORE THE BIBLE:
With Christ it is never too late to begin again
___
Leviticus 16:1-34
___By Mark Bumpus
___First Baptist Church, Mineral Wells
___Do you need a new beginning? Do you need forgiveness from God for something you thought, said or did? The children of Israel certainly did. Once a year, they gathered on the Day of Atonement. It was a corporate gathering centered on the tabernacle, where forgiveness for the individual and the nation could be secured --if God accepted the 
sacrifice of Aaron for himself (v.11-14) and the nation (v.15-16).
___ Preparation and expectancy (Leviticus 16:1-10). Aaron went through an elaborate preparation of ceremonial cleansing (v. 4) and dress (v. 4) before he entered the Holy of Holies (v. 2). It was a time of great anticipation and expectancy for the individual and the nation. This was further accentuated by the belief of some that on the fringe of Aaron's robe were small bells which jingled as Aaron walked toward the Holy of Holies. The children of Israel could hear the jingling of the bells and thus their expectancy rose with every footstep that took Aaron closer to his meeting with God.
___ Reverence (Leviticus 16:11-16). Once inside, Aaron removed the robe with the bells. The children of Israel were awed by the silence. Would God accept Aaron's sacrifice for himself (v.11-14)? Would God accept Aaron's sacrifice for the nation (v.15-16)? It was a time of charged expectancy, reverence, awe and wonder because Aaron was making atonement for the sins of Israel while, outside, the children of Israel waited in abject silence!
___ Atonement (Leviticus 16:17-19). The sacrifice of Aaron in the Holy of Holies foreshadowed the awful, wondrous, indescribable hours Jesus spent on the cross on Good Friday (Mark 15:22-37) atoning for the sins of all men. When Jesus cried, "It is finished!" (John 19:30) a corporate sigh of relief exhaled from mankind, at least retrospectively after the resurrection. ... And when Aaron rerobed, with bells jingling, the children of Israel sighed a corporate sigh of relief, "For another year of sin, we have been forgiven! Aaron's sacrifice for us has been accepted! We can begin again!"
___ Forgiveness as an event (Leviticus 16:20-22). To visualize to the Israelites that forgiveness of sin was an accomplished event in their lives, the "scapegoat" (v.8,10,20-22), on which the cumulative sins of Israel symbolically had been placed, was driven into the wilderness ... driven so far away that the goat would never be able to find its way back into camp. Their sins, now forgiven, would never return to them. Likewise, Jesus, on the cross, carried our sins so far away they can never return to us (Psalm 103:12).
___The poet wistfully said, "I wish there were some wonderful place called the Land of Beginning Again, where all of our heartaches and all of our poor wretched grief could be dropped like a shabby old coat and never put on again."
___There is such a place. It is in the "Land of Your Heart." New beginnings are possible for you through the atoning work of Jesus Christ on Calvary!
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