The Bible OverBrew - Bible in a Yearಮಾದರಿ

Week 5. Day 4. Leviticus 16-20.

Lev 16 The Day of Atonement

This is the central and most important chapter of Leviticus, and the structural centre of the whole of Genesis-Deuteronomy. It’s worth taking more time on this, even if you then skim ch 17-20 more briefly. There are a number of sacrifices in this chapter, but the most important are the two goats introduced in v7-10.

First goat - the sin offering (v15-19)

What happens to it? Where does it go?

Second goat - the scapegoat (v20-22)

What happens to it? Where does it go?

As a result of the goat going out, the high priest (representing the people) goes in! For the first time since Genesis 3, humanity is back in the paradise presence of God. This is a picture of the work of Christ:

Christ goes out (bearing sin, forsaken by God)

so humanity can be welcomed in!

Ch 17-20 are the beginning of the ‘holiness code’ which continues to the end of the book. You may wish to skim these chapters more briefly. See tomorrow’s notes for guidance on this.

NOTE: Days 1-5 of each week contain the scripture reading for that week. Day 6 has just the 'key chapters'. If you want a briefer version of this plan that still takes you through the whole Bible, you could just read the key chapters featured on day 6. Day 7 has the podcast video where we discuss the week's reading.