The two goats and Jesus Christ’s role as our High Priest

What is the meaning to you and I of this day? As we heard in the sermon, we ought to be at one with God, and God is at one with us, but not only with us, but of the whole society. That is a wonderful meaning. And also because Satan, after this anniversary or this ceremony symbolized by today's date, Satan will not be there deceiving mankind. But today I want to focus on a little understood section of Leviticus 16, which is often read over but not paid too much attention to. And that relates to the role of the high priest. That is specifically of the high priest after he has made a tournament for himself and his house. So let's just look, as we heard in the sermonette, and I appreciate that was a good introduction into this sermon. But as we saw in the sermonette in Leviticus 16, we've got this ceremony of the two goats. And we know, as we read in verse 29, this ceremony was to be on the tenth day of the seventh month, which is today, which is the day of a tournament. So this ceremony was to be performed only once a year, specifically on this day. And we read in verse 2 of Leviticus 16 that it says that you were not to come— Aaron, you know, the priesthood—were not to come just at any time into that holy place or that holy of holy. And into the holy place inside the veil. In other words, which represents, as we heard earlier, represents God's throne. They were not to go there at any time except at that one time. And we read a little later in verse 6 that he was to offer a bull, a bull, a son offering of a bull, for himself. And that means—and for his house. And where was the priesthood, the physical priesthood that would follow after him as well. And that means that this offering, as we'll see in a moment, would put him in a position to actually represent Christ's role, because he would then be attuned or cleaned to be able to represent that true high priest role.

And so we read now in verse 7 and 8, and that is the—let's call it the guts of the ceremony, the very central point of the ceremony, which is these two goats. And as we see in verse 7, he shall take two goats and present them before the Lord. The other point is he could not make a decision. Man cannot make a decision to decide which goat is which, because we get to the point that Satan is very deceitful and mankind quite often can't make a decision. God has to open our minds and show us the correct way. So yeah, and they brought the two goats. And in verse 8, Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, and one is to be for the Lord. So one would represent Christ. And the other, a lot for the scapegoat. That's probably, I would say, a bad translation. The actual Hebrew word is azazel, and it's the name of a demonic being. We know it represents Satan, the name for Satan. So the word scapegoat is misleading. In Portuguese, it's even worse, because it translates as the emissary goat. In other words, the one that is an envoy or saint. So to me, it's even a worse translation. But anyway, so the first goat in verse 9, he says, he'll bring the goat for which the Lord's lot fell and offer it as a saint offering. And that's exactly what Christ did for us, as our possival lamb, Christ, died for us, and he became a saint offering for us.

And then in verse 10, he talks as, but the goat on which the lot fell for azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord. So he'll be kept alive and will be presented alive to make a tournament upon it. It's interesting the word upon, which I also think it is a more accurate translation. Some Bibles translate it to make a tournament for it or a tournament with it, and that is an incorrect translation of that proposition. And the reason is, if you look at verse 20, at verse 20, that live goat is only handled at verse 20 when he has made an end of atoning. So that live goat is only handled, let's call it that, only taken care of after the atoning is completed. So there's no atoning based on an action of this live goat. All that it is, is that at the end of this, he is given some responsibility. Upon him is, upon him is, on his account or over it, he's put some responsibility for the problems that have happened. But anyway, the main point here is that there has to be blood of a bull and of the sacrificial goat, in this case, for it to be an atoning. There has to be blood. In Hebrews 9, 22, we read there has to be blood. Through blood, we are atoned. It has to be blood. And so, the goat that the lots will cost for the Lord, which is killed, that is the atoning goat. That is the one that is the atoning sacrifice, that is Christ's sacrifice. And so, what we have is, let's just very quickly give you a little history, Yah, is after Adam and Eve's son, God drove them out of the garden. Mankind, from that moment onwards, no longer had access to the tree of life. At Sinai, even the Israelites were warned not to come to near the mountain. And so, we have here only the high priest now could only come to the Holy of Holies only once a year and only if he performed specific activities. So, we have that he, the high priest now, has to kill the bull for himself. You read that in Leviticus 16 verse 11.

Leviticus 16 verse 11 says, And Aaron shall bring the bull for the son of him, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself, and for his house. So, he was supposed to make atonement for himself first. In other words, that bull would now put him in a position that he would be at one with God, and that he could represent, could be agent, as to do the following functions or roles that he would have to perform. And he says, you know, you will see also in verse 14, he says, He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on a mercy seat, and towards the end he says, sprinkle it with his finger seven times, which means complete.

So, you had to kill the bull, and then, you know, atonement is going to be done by blood being shed, so blood was shed, and then on top of it, he had to sprinkle it completely for him to be completely atoned for seven times. So, so he, the physical high priest now, after he had performed this, he could now represent Jesus Christ as the Melchizedek high priest. You see, because now he's going to play a role as the Melchizedek high priest. Before that, he couldn't. And so, as part of that role, we can see that first, the Lord's guilt is killed, and that is in verse 15.

Leviticus 16 verse 15. Now, I'm going to split verse 16 into three sections. All right, the first section in verse 15 is that he shall kill the goat of the sin offering for the people, and bring that blood inside the veil is the second part. So, the first part cries there to be killed.

Right. That symbolically represented the Passover, the Passover, which had already happened, but this was a ceremony now pointing to various things as a summary. So, that goat, which was for the Lord, had to be killed, which is a symbol of Christ having died as the Passover lamb, which represents Passover. Then, still in verse 15, the next part is bring its blood inside the veil. Now, who would be able to bring Christ's blood, spiritually speaking, inside the true veil, which is God's throne in heaven?

It's Christ. So, he was now acting as the high priest, Christ, going beyond the veil and presenting his sacrifice to the Father. That could very well mean the high priest symbolically representing Christ, that's what I believe it is, ascending to heaven in our behalf. And whose high priest is Christ ascending to heaven in our behalf. So, when did Christ ascend to heaven in our behalf? Well, when we read at Leviticus 23 verse 11, just a few chapters ahead, Leviticus 23 verse 11, we see the wave sheaf offering. And the wave sheaf offering, it says, it shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on our behalf.

So, Christ is now, through the wave sheaf offering, being accepted as our high priest in our behalf in God's throne, accepted because of the blood sacrifice he did for us.

So, he is accepted in our behalf. So, the physical high priest is therefore quite restricted in what he can do, as we can see. He could only do this once a year in this ceremony, and a possible symbol, yeah, why he could only do it once a year is because Jesus Christ's sacrifice is only offered once. And so, he could only do it once. So, that could be an interesting significance. As we know, Christ, after he died, you know, he did ascend to heaven. We know, we read that he was told, look, don't touch me because I've not ascended to heaven yet. And that, we know, was tied to the wave sheaf offering. So, he was now being accepted to heaven as our high priest after the order of Melchizedek. But we know that he still appeared on earth for quite a few days, about 40 days, if I remember correctly. So, for 40 days, he appeared because he needed to prove to the physical apostles and disciples that he, indeed, had to be resurrected. Now, if he only appeared once, like, yeah, I have resurrected goodbye, and then they hadn't seen him, people would have thought, well, maybe he did, maybe I was just, maybe I had the wrong thought, or maybe I had a vision, maybe it happened. Now, he appeared, and then he appeared, and he appeared to more people, and at the time he appeared to 3,000, and people talked about it, and they got really convinced and convicted that Christ had resurrected. So, they could now witness that action that Christ had resurrected. At the end of those 40 days, then he stays in heaven, and at the end of those seven weeks, starting from the the wave shift, at the end of the seven weeks, 49 weeks are completed, then we have the day of Pentecost, where he sends the Holy Spirit.

We now are accepted as the two wave loves, representing that we, Leviticus 23, 17, we are accepted as the two wave loves, biked, that means our fiery trials, we are biked, we have leaven, we have sinned, and we, as we read in Romans 8, 23, are now the first fruits, the first few that have received God's Holy Spirit. The rest of mankind will receive the Holy Spirit in the millennium and in the second resurrection. And so, Christ now has a role as our high priest to do what?

To sprinkle us as we receive God's Holy Spirit, you and I, with God's Holy Spirit, still sin.

We now and again have to go on our knees and say, God, I said it again. I've done it wrong again.

And we come to on our knees, we pray through Christ, our intermediary, and He forgives our sins by sprinkling completely our sins and we are forgiven, atoned. And so, we've got to continue doing and going through this continuing, ongoing act of being justified and being sanctified through the God's Holy Spirit until the end. You know, it was until we proven faithful. And so, that's why it says in Leviticus 16, at the end of verse 15, He says, He shall sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. And that is act of mercy that we need. You and I need a lot of mercy and He's sprinkling and forgiving us. And so, we have here a symbolic but very important change of the Levitical priesthood to the Melchizedek priesthood. And Christ being the priest according to the order of Melchizedek, He is atoning us, atoning us, making us at one through our Christian life after baptism, after we've received God's Holy Spirit. And until the end, until we die, or until Christ comes, whichever comes first, we need to be repenting and changing and be atoned. And so, Christ fulfills this role as our High Priest with God. Let us therefore now tie this in with the New Testament from Hebrews.

Let's tie this in. The first one I want to start is in Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 4. In Hebrews chapter 10 verse 4, we see, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

See, so those who are merely pictures or shadows of the reality, which is Christ's sacrifice, which is the only one that can really take sins away. Now, we also just go back a little bit to Hebrews chapter 9 verse 8. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 8, it says, the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. So, this first tabernacle, the High Priest could do it only once a year, but the way for us to get to God's throne was not yet manifest while this first tabernacle was standing. Yes, it stood for a few more years after Christ died, but we know about 40 years later or so, the temple was destroyed. So, as it says in verse 9, this is symbolic. It's symbolic, verse 9.

For the present time, in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him, who performed the service, perfect in regard to the conscience. When the book of Hebrews was written, the temple was still in there, and they were still doing the sacrifices. So, you're saying that these sacrifices that are being performed now in this temple cannot make him, who is doing the sacrifices, clean regarding to conscience. In other words, it does not clean their conscience. It does not really forgive them. Verse 10, concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of Reformation. The time of Reformation is what it's talking about, the Reformation of this priesthood from the old Levitical priesthood to the Melchizedek priesthood. And that's what is opening up. Look at Hebrews chapter 7 verse 11.

In Hebrews chapter 7 verse 11, it says, therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be called according to the order of Aaron.

You see, so there has to be a different priest. And then he goes, for the priesthood being changed. Yes, it was changed from the Levitical priesthood to the Melchizedek priesthood. In other words, from the priests according to Aaron to Christ being our high priest. So if the priesthood was changed, of necessity, there also has to be a change of the law. Of course, but which law? The law of priests. Who is a priest? The law says that only the priests that were of the tribe of Levi, of the descendants of Aaron, could serve in the temple.

Now Christ was not of the tribe of Levi, he was a tribe of Judah. So that law had to be changed. And that's what it says very clearly. It says that in verse 13, for he of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. So that law of the priesthood had to be changed to allow Christ to be the priest.

Then it goes on in verse 18. Verse 18, for on the one hand, there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weaknesses and unprofitableness. The former commandment was that the priest stood according to the Levitical priesthood, according to the sons of Aaron, they were weak, they sinned, they needed continuously to be atoned even for the priests, and unprofitableness. Why? Because in the end, cannot forgive sin. Only Christ's sacrifice can forgive sin. So there's an annullment of that former commandment. And then we continue in verse 22. In verse 22, it says, for by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant, of a better contract based on what He has done.

He is now the high priest and is a new covenant. It's a better covenant. So we also read now in Hebrews chapter 8, Hebrews chapter 8 verse 6. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 6. But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry in as much as He is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. So Christ now is the priest mediating. He's got a better excellent ministry. He's been accepted on our behalf and is a better covenant.

And it's established on better promises. And now we continue reading in verse 7. For if the first covenant had been faultless, there no place would have been for a second covenant, because finding fault with them, that is the people, not of the covenant. The agreement was faulty, not because the agreement was bad, but it's because one of the groups of the people that agreed in that agreement, they were weak and they were not fulfilling their part of the agreement.

You see, because the days are coming, says the Lord, when I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and others regarded them, says the Lord. So they didn't obey. And therefore, the covenant became annulled because they broke the covenant. So we need to make a new contract, but now with people that are willing to obey God.

And this in verse 10, he says, This is the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws, see still the same laws, the laws don't change, but I'll put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts. You see, so the law of God is no more written on tablets of stone, but it's written inside us, in our hearts and in our minds.

And then we read in verse 12, For I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins, and their Lord's deeds, I will remember no more. So there is a lot of mercy being executed by God, yeah, in this act. So Jesus Christ died, died for us. And with that effectively destroyed the value of that old covenant. And now we have a new covenant. The temple was also destroyed a few years after that.

And as it was mentioned in the sermon, when he died, that veil was torn from the top down, which means from God down. I'm not from human beings up. From God down, that veil was destroyed and giving the high priest and us through that high priest, according to the order of Melchizedek, giving us access. So let us read also in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 15. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 15. And for this reason he, that's Christ, is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgression under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

So we have, Christ is now the mediator of this new covenant. He is the high priest. He is the one that intercedes for us on our behalf before God. So why is it a better covenant? Well, for one, it's got better promises.

We're looking at not just a physical promised land, but we're looking at a spiritual promise, which is not just the world tomorrow, but to new heaven and new earth. It is eternity ahead for us, for us to be part of the kingdom of God, for us to be part of the family of God, for us to have a relationship with God. Also part of this covenant, we can now develop and become partakers of divine nature. You read that in 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, and we start in verse 3 and we read through verse 4. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 and 4. As is divine power, as is divine power, that God's Holy Spirit has given to us all things. God's Holy Spirit gives us all things that we need that pertain to life, that is eternal life, and God in us, and that is for us to be like God.

Through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which things God's Holy Spirit gives us have given us exceeding great and promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. So we have the opportunity now of working on ourselves day by day, slowly day by day, and change with the help of God's Holy Spirit through the help of intervention through our high priest as we ask for forgiveness and he forgives us and as we try we go on day by day putting a little bit more and a little bit more of God's divine nature, changing the old man to the new man, put off the old man and put on the new man. And we have also this good promise, better promise, we also see it in 1 John chapter 1, 1 John chapter 1 verse 9. It says, if we confess our sins is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So when we as Christians, we fail, and we all fail, I fail, we all fail, and we go on our knees and we ask God for mercy.

Christ our mediator sprinkles with his blood and forgives us. Yes, our shared blood is forgiven us at baptism, but now in addition to that, as we fail now and again, we go to God's throne, we pray, ask for mercy, and if we confess, he says, he is faithful and just to forgive. In other words, there is the mercy seat, the mercy seat right there before the mercy seat, we've forgiven it. That is such a beautiful meaning that is happening. And therefore, this covenant, this new covenant is wonderful because it puts God's laws in our hearts and our minds. We are writing them with the help of God's Holy Spirit, and we are approaching the Father through Christ, and we're overcoming. And remember, we read in Hebrews chapter 8, verse 10, a little earlier that it's a new covenant of the whole out of Israel and Judah.

That means that is a subtle hint about a second resurrection because those people failed, they'll be resurrected, and they'll have an opportunity to this new covenant as well.

But there is a second reason also why it's a better covenant, because it's a better tabernacle.

You see, in Hebrews chapter 9, verse 11, we see that Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands. That is, not of this creation. You see, the physical tabernacle was made according to the instructions Moses received, and they wrote down, says, doing exactly according to the instructions I'm giving you, but that was only an image of the true tabernacle, which is God's throne, which is in heaven.

And this, it says, yeah, Christ came as our priest because he gives a success to the true tabernacle, which is to the true throne of God, not just to a physical tabernacle. Look in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 5 and 6. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 5 and 6.

And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for the testimony of those things which would be spoken afterwards. But Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we all fast the confidence of the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. In other words, we are a spiritual house. We are, in a sense, God's tabernacle, God's house, God's Holy Spirit in us.

And so it is a better tabernacle when you think about it, when we're going to be part at one with God. It really is, it's got an amazing significance. And it probably reminds you of John 14, when it says, I go and prepare a place for you. In my father's house, there are many mansions.

So there is a lot of layers of significant meaning which is so encouraging, yeah, with this change in the priesthood and with Christ's role. And obviously, we talked, it is a better priesthood. Look at in Hebrews chapter 5, Hebrews chapter 5, verse 5 and 6.

Hebrews chapter 5, verse 5 and 6.

So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but it was he who said to him, you are my son, today I've begotten you. And as he also says in another place, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. So yeah, we have God's own son, right? And he's now made a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Remember that Abraham, the great-great father of Aaron and Levi and them, Abraham tithed to Melchizedek. You read that in Genesis 14, 18 through 19. So Christ is now a priest according to this higher order of priesthood, this eternal priesthood. And Christ as a priest, we read, for instance, in Luke 22, Luke 22, what he did, look as a human being, Luke 22, verse 41. Luke 22, verse 41.

And it was Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before he was betrayed, after the Passover ceremony, on the night he was betrayed, before he was betrayed, as I said. And in verse 41, he was withdrawn from them about the stones throw away, and he knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

Christ said, it's not my will. You know, Christ did not want to suffer and go through that pain. That was not his will, but not my will, but the Father's will. And he came to fulfill the Father's will. He was not, he was not supernaturally protected. He was not given exemption from hardship and pain. And so, he had to go through it. And we read then in Hebrews, chapter 5, verse 8. Hebrews chapter 5, verse 8. And he says, Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. He learned obedience by the things he suffered.

Well, he was always obedient. So, what do you mean he learned obedience?

You see, God did answer his prayer. And he said, God said to Christ, No, not now. That was the answer.

You have to go through it. God did answer his prayer. And basically, between the lines, it's as if God says, There are things that you will learn through this.

Going through pain and be able to have compassion for human beings. Going through pain is something that we as God beings have not experienced. But you'll experience, and you'll have the compassion and the mercy for the brethren because you've gone through it. What a blessing that is for us. What a blessing there is. So, Christ became more complete, more perfect through the suffering he went through. Now, we look at Hebrews 7, verse 28. Hebrews 7, verse 28.

For the law appoints his eye priests men who have weaknesses. Yes, the Levitical priesthoods, according to the ceremonial law, they fail. They sin. They were human beings.

But the Word of the earth, it was the promise from God, I now vow that you will be a priest after the order of Melchizedek. That Word of the earth, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever. Appoints the Son as a high priest, and he is perfected forever.

So, he is always our high priest. There are not priests that die next year or next five years. There is another priest. No, it is the same priest.

And in Hebrews 9, verse 14, Hebrews 9, verse 14, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Remember, the other sacrifices didn't clean our conscience, but Christ's sacrifice cleans our conscience. That is so beautiful. It's a better priesthood.

It's a better priesthood. Look at verse 24, verse 24 of Hebrews 9, For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, that physical holy place made with hands, which are copies of the true, but he entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. Christ appeared in the presence of God for us the true tabernacle, and he therefore is a better priest for us.

And so he is now in the Holy of Holies, acting on our behalf, intervening for us.

Yes, we have received God's Holy Spirit, but we still, through our trials, our difficulties, we still have sins, and we still need to overcome. We're not incorruptible yet. We are corruptible.

At the resurrection, yes, we'll be incorruptible, but today we are corruptible.

So we have two important stages here that I spent a bit of time delineating.

One is the shedding of blood, and the other one is the ongoing sprinkling through our Christian lives that happens.

And you see, there's two stages. Look at Hebrews 10 verse 10. Hebrews 10 verse 10. Hebrews 10 verse 10 says, By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the blood of Jesus once for all. We have been sanctified. That's past tense.

We have been sanctified. At baptism, our sins are forgiven. We are clean. We are reconciled with God.

But, you know, we still got a little bit of human nature. We still got to be overcoming.

And that is very similar to a statement by Paul in Romans 3 verse 28 that says, We are justified by faith alone. Yes, we are. That's by faith. We repent. We trust. We're baptized.

We've done nothing to be justified. We, as it says, yeah, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all. But look at verse 14. Look at verse 14. He says, By one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. You see, so it's a process. We have been sanctified, made right with God, accepted by God. At baptism, we receive God's Holy Spirit. But we still are in the process of sanctification till the time of the end. We need to overcome till the end. We need to be overcome to the end.

As I mentioned, I gave you the parallel a moment ago about Romans 3.28, that we are justified by faith. But you know, just in Romans 2 verse 13, says the doers will be justified. You see, both are true. We have been justified by faith.

But now that we are just, we must continue in the right way by doing it until the end.

And the same thing, Yah, in Hebrews 10, verse 10, we have been sanctified, but we have to now continue in the road, overcoming till the end. We are being sanctified till the end. It's not a contradiction. The two work together. It's a process. We've got to go through this process.

And therefore, then, we read, still in Hebrews 10, but now from verse 19, therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. The high priest could not go into the holiest unless he had to be, quote-unquote, untown as through the killing of the bull to represent Christ to be able to go to the holiest once a year, only once a year. We, you and I, with God's Holy Spirit, we can enter the holiest today, at any moment. In our prayers, symbolical, of course, spiritually speaking, we're not physically entering there, but in our prayers, our prayers, like beaten incense, reach God's throne, and we go through the mediator, which is our high priest, Christ, and when we say something, I've slipped up again, and we're accused because the accuser is accusing us, our defense advocate, which is Christ, is our mediator, is defending us and sprinkling the blood for us on a mercy seat, and God's mercy is given to us. I think it's so beautiful, Brethren. It's so beautiful. And then he continues, and this is verse 20, by a new and living way. Of course, in the old covenant, they didn't have this way. This is a new way, and it's living, it's alive, which he consecrated for us, Christ consecrated for us, through the veil that is his flesh. That veil that was torn, that he was symbolized as flesh, we can go through that veil, spiritually speaking, today. Today. That is symbolic of those two-wave loaves being accepted by God. Yes, we still have sin, we still have leaven.

We have to overcome till the end. Let's continue reading in verse 21. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart of, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. What a blessing, brethren! And what is holding us back? Maybe it's us not believing in that, not trusting that God will forgive us if we confess through our high priest. He's done it for us. And so, this is an amazing work he's doing. Now, I want to draw your attention to something, now that I've shown this meaning from Leviticus 16. I want to go back to Leviticus 16 to close, and look at Leviticus 16, verse 16. Leviticus 16, verse 16.

So we shall make atonement that representing Christ make atonement for the holy.

Why do I only read holy? Because the word place is in italics, which means is not in the original. So you'll make atonement for the holy. Who are the holy? Could it be the holy people, which is you and I? Is making atonement for you and I? Because the word place is not there. That was added by the translators. In good intent, they say, well, it must be the holy place. But with our understanding of the new covenant, meaning, could that be the holy people? And look at it in verse 17. In verse 17, there shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting. When Christ is doing that, now, He's in heaven, there's no man in heaven. There's no man in heaven. He's doing it for us. Yes, we there, we can enter, spiritually speaking, through our prayers, but there's no man in there. And look, and then continue in verse 17. No man in the tabernacle of the meet when he goes into make atonement for the holy until he comes out. Oh, until he comes out.

When does Christ come out of heaven and come to earth?

When the bride is ready, and then there's the marriage of the bride, and then, and then, He can deal with the life goat, which is Satan. That is so meaningful as we dig deep into these scriptures and get the deeper understanding that is there. And look at it in verse 20, at the beginning of verse 20, and when He has made an end of atoning the holy, then He shall bring the life goat. And we read there that He will then take the life goat and will send it by a suitable man, which is an angel as we read that in Revelation.

He sends him to the bottom of the split for a thousand years.

So, today, brethren, is a shadow, a memorial, of the wife having become ready for one and being at one with God, because He's finished that. It's a memorial that is completed atoning the holy for a greater purpose, and now He can deal with the deceiver. It's a very important aspect of rejoicing this day, brethren. We'll be at one with God and Christ, and yes, the greater purpose is that now He will be atoning the whole mankind, the whole world, the whole tabernacle, everything. That is a wonderful meaning. So, this Day of Atonement has very important significance to us.

The story, the ceremony of the two goats explains a lot, but one very important point that it's kind of hidden, but with God's Spirit and comparing it to Hebrews, we can see the deeper meaning of this. It shows the important role of the high priest to atone us and prepare us and help us to be ready to be the bride of Christ, and when that is completed, He will then come and deal with Satan. Brethren, I want to conclude with Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 14 and 15. For Yah we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore, by Him, that's Christ, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Brethren, we can really thank God for the wonderful meaning of these holy days, of His plan of salvation, and may God's grace be with you all, and please have a lovely spiritual feast.