"Important truths concerning the atonement
were taught the people by this yearly service.
---but the blood of the victim had not made full atonement
for the sin. It had only provided a means by which the sin was transferred to the sanctuary.
---By the offering of blood, the sinner
acknowledged the authority of the law,
confessed the guilt of his transgression,
and expressed his faith in Him who was to take away the sin of the world;
---but he was not entirely released from the condemnation of the law.
On the Day of atonement
the high priest, having taken an offering for the congregation, went
into the most holy place with the blood and sprinkled it upon the mercy
seat, above the tables of the law. Thus the claims of the law, which demanded the life of the sinner, were satisfied.
*Then in his character of mediator the priest took the sins upon himself, and, leaving the sanctuary, he bore with him the burden of Israel's guilt.
*At the door of the tabernacle he laid his hands upon the head of the scapegoat and confessed over him “all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat.”
*And
as the goat bearing these sins was sent away, they were, with him,
regarded as forever separated from the people. Such was the service
performed “unto the example and shadow of heavenly things.”
Hebrews 8:5."
E.G.W.
