| LEVITICUS |
| Explanatory Footnotes |
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| 4:3 The One for the Many For his sin, a priest had to sacrifice one bull - the same sacrifice required for a sin by the whole community (verses 13-14). The two sins were, in a sense, equal, for the high priest represented the whole community before God. The belief that a single purified individual can stand up for a nation prepared the way for Jesus, whose sinless obedience stands before God in our place. 9:23 The Glory of the Lord Israelites were familiar with the brilliant glory of the Lord, but they had seen it only from a distance, on Mount Sinai. Even from that distance it had frightened them (Exodus 19:16-20). Now this glory had come to the Tent of Meeting itself, in the camp's center. They were indeed "close to God." 12:8 For Poor People This alternate offering enabled poor women to live up to their duty to God. Mary offered such a sacrifice after Jesus' birth (see Luke 2:24) - an indication that Jesus' family was not well off. 14:7 A Bird Set Free It is difficult to assign definite symbolic meaning to all the details in this ceremony for cleansing skin diseases. Many scholars suggest that the bird that was killed represented purification by sacrifice, while the bird set free represented new liberty after a long quarantine. When Jesus healed a man with leprosy (Matthew 8:4), he told him to follow these instructions. 16:20 Scapegoat The English word scapegoat (escape goat) was formed to capture the essence of this crucial ceremony, in which a goat symbolically carried all the sins of Israel into the wilderness. Today the word is applied to anyone who takes the blame for something other people did. |