Daily Devotion | Leviticus 16:1–19 | 2026 February 20

Dear brothers and sisters, peace. We thank God for his grace as he brings us to a new day to study the Daily Devotion. Today our passage is Leviticus 16:1–19. Let us pray. Dear Lord, we thank and praise you for your grace. Lord, thank you for leading us today to understand the ordinances of the Day of Atonement. What a holy and glorious day this is—a day that points to you, the day when you offered yourself as a sacrifice for us on the cross. Lord, have mercy on us, that at the foot of the cross we would cleanse ourselves, follow you, and live a life that glorifies you. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Now we come to chapter 16. Previously, we have discussed various regulations of cleanness. They taught the people to live a clean life in daily living, to be set apart, and not to be defiled by uncleanness. Then we arrive at chapter 16, which is the climax of Leviticus. In this chapter, God teaches—through Moses—how Aaron is to make atonement, how this nation is to be cleansed. Everything done on this day serves as the fundamental source by which the entire nation is cleansed.

The Day of Atonement was a great day among Israel. Israel had several major days—Passover, the Feast of Booths, and the Day of Atonement. Like Passover and Booths, the Day of Atonement is central in Israel’s religious life. Each feast reflects the work of Christ from a different angle. The Day of Atonement declares that God’s intention is to dwell among Israel. But Israel has been defiled; Israel has become corrupt. How can God dwell among a defiled people? The answer is that each year there must be a great day—a day when the whole nation must be cleansed, when sin must be removed, so that the Lord may come and dwell among them again.

A holy God cannot dwell among an unclean people. We have said before: there is a tabernacle, and there is the Most Holy Place. And yet, through the course of a year, even the tabernacle and the Most Holy Place are defiled in various ways, so that God cannot dwell there unless atonement is made. Therefore, once a year, the high priest represents himself and represents the whole people of Israel, and he must offer sacrifices, removing the iniquity of the sanctuary and of the tent of meeting, so that the holy God may dwell among Israel again.

In theory, Israel should bring sacrifices whenever they sin—each instance of uncleanness should be dealt with. But even after all those repeated offerings and all those detailed procedures, there is still a need for the annual, national atonement. This shows us something: sin seems never to be fully removed. It is almost like bacteria in daily life—no matter how you try to disinfect and remove it, it remains present. I use this only as an analogy: Israel could perform many complicated and detailed rituals, and still they could not remain clean. So every year there must be a “great day” of atonement to cleanse the nation, so that God may dwell among them again.

And Hebrews explains all of this very clearly. Hebrews says these things were shadows. In themselves they had no power to bring final cleansing. They all pointed to Christ, to his once-for-all sacrifice, by which God can dwell with his people forever. In the one person of Christ—true God and true man—God has taken humanity to himself in a permanent way, so that God may dwell with sinners. In fact, the background of Hebrews is the Day of Atonement: entering the sanctuary, the incense, the priesthood—Hebrews is explaining what the true Day of Atonement is. It tells us Christ is greater than angels, greater than Moses, greater than Aaron; he is the high priest after the order of Melchizedek; and then it declares that the true Day of Atonement has come and has been completed.

Now let us look at the passage itself. Chapter 16 begins by referencing the death of Aaron’s two sons when they came near before the LORD. The LORD then speaks to Moses: Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, lest he die, for the LORD appears in the cloud over the mercy seat. This may also hint at what happened with Aaron’s sons: they offered unauthorized fire; they sought to worship according to their own way; perhaps they intended to enter in their own manner. Scripture does not spell every detail out, but it is clear they approached God by their own will rather than by God’s command.

So God tells Aaron: you cannot come whenever you want; you cannot come casually. How, then, may you come before me? You must bring a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. You must put on the holy linen coat, the linen undergarments, the linen sash, the linen turban—you must wash your body in water and then put on these garments. Then you must take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.

So remember the twofold procedure: first, the high priest must make atonement for himself and for his house—a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. Second, he must make atonement for all the people of Israel—two goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. The high priest deals with his own sin, and then he deals with the people’s sin.

Aaron presents the bull of the sin offering, to make atonement for himself and for his house. Then he takes the two goats and sets them before the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and he casts lots over the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for Azazel.

Here we need to explain something briefly: what is “Azazel”? Some interpret it as “given to demons”—as if one goat is for God and the other goat is for demons. That is not a sound interpretation when you read the whole Bible. God never sets himself and demons on the same level, as if sin belongs to demons in a way that requires an offering to them. That is not the biblical pattern.

A better understanding is this: the two goats together display two aspects of atonement. Both are connected to sin-bearing. One goat is killed—blood is shed. That speaks of atonement through death and blood, the removal of guilt by sacrifice. The other goat is sent into the wilderness. That speaks of sin being carried away—God casting our sins away and no longer remembering them, as it were. So the two goats are not “God versus demons,” but two dimensions of the one work of atonement.

Now the high priest kills the bull for his own sin, and then he takes a censer full of coals from the altar before the LORD and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he brings them inside the veil. He puts the incense on the fire before the LORD, so that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat, lest he die.

Notice this: when Aaron enters the Most Holy Place, he does bring blood—but there is also something that protects him from death: the cloud, the smoke. From a physical perspective, the Most Holy Place is dark, and the smoke fills it so that he cannot gaze directly. But more importantly, this incense and its cloud points to something beyond mere visibility. It points to mediation—intercession. The cloud covers the mercy seat so that the sinful priest is not consumed. In my understanding, it points to the intercession of Christ, without which no sinner can stand before the holy God.

Then Aaron takes some of the bull’s blood and sprinkles it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he sprinkles some of the blood seven times. Then he kills the goat of the sin offering for the people and brings its blood inside the veil, doing with it as he did with the bull’s blood, sprinkling it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. In this way, he makes atonement for the Holy Place because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins.

And he also makes atonement for the tent of meeting. While he is in the Most Holy Place making atonement, no one may be in the tent of meeting, until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. Then he goes out to the altar before the LORD and makes atonement for it, taking some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and putting it on the horns of the altar all around. He sprinkles some blood on it with his finger seven times and cleanses it and consecrates it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel. So the sanctuary, the tent, and the altar are cleansed.

Now, everything we have said is explained very clearly in Hebrews, especially Hebrews 9. We do not need to invent a meaning; Hebrews interprets this day for us. Hebrews speaks of the Most Holy Place, the mercy seat, the incense, and the blood, and it then declares: Christ has entered the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, not of this creation. He entered, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls can sanctify outwardly, but the blood of Christ cleanses the conscience and enables us to serve the living God.

So brothers and sisters, we should truly thank the Lord. Israel had many complex, detailed, and demanding regulations—purity laws, cleansing laws, atonement laws—and yet they still could not keep the entire camp clean, the tabernacle clean, the sanctuary clean. Cleansing came only by this annual act of atonement. How burdensome and sorrowful it was: the entire life of Israel was weighed down by these rituals, constantly mindful of defilement.

Where, then, is the true hope? It is in Jesus Christ. Only Jesus Christ offered the true sin offering once for all. He is the eternal high priest, and he is also the true sacrifice. He offered himself, and he made holiness complete, so that God and sinners can truly be reconciled. Those sacrifices in themselves could not finally cleanse. The sanctuary and the altar could not be finally purified by shadows. Unless the true high priest offered the true sacrifice, reconciliation would never be accomplished.

Therefore, all of the moral demands of Scripture—every call to obedience, every call to keep God’s commandments—stands on the foundation that we have already been reconciled to God in Christ. It is not that we obey first and then God accepts us. That is the wrong order; that is legalism. Rather, Christ has already done it. If we trust in Christ, if we receive him as our Savior, then in Christ we have already been reconciled to God. That is the source of all cleansing, and it is also the source of our obedience. This is absolutely crucial. Without this foundation, trying to draw near to God by our own deeds is a dead end. That is precisely what Leviticus is pointing to.

So why were there so many regulations? Even these ceremonial regulations—before we even come to the moral law—already brought Israel great difficulty, and therefore they functioned as a signpost. They pointed Israel to long for the Messiah. Through these shadows, Israel was taught: our hope is not in rituals as rituals, but in the Messiah who will truly reconcile us to God. And then, after reconciliation, as God’s people, we walk in his statutes and rules. That is the pattern.

So chapter 16 is the climax: God draws near to sinners by his own initiative. The Father gives the Son, and in the Son we are reconciled. That is the true direction of the Day of Atonement. Man cannot cleanse himself. Man cannot approach God. Only by the blood of Christ can we draw near. From this angle, our gratitude for the blood of Christ grows deeper.

And Christ fulfills what is pictured in the two goats. One is slain—he bears our guilt and dies for us. The other is sent away—our sins are carried away and no longer remembered. And not only are our sins removed; Christ also fulfills perfect obedience. Redemption has two aspects: our guilt is taken away, and perfect righteousness is established before God. In that sense, the two goats point us to the fullness of what Christ has done.

When we see atonement clearly like this, our affection for Christ will deepen, and our love for God will grow, so that in this life we may live a holy life. That is all for today. Thank you, everyone.