Don’t Bring Back the Goat

Right, and that is a lesson in itself.

Check this out, brothers and sisters.

We're going to think firstly about the centrality of the Day of Atonement.

Remember, we have said on earlier occasions that the high point in Hebrew thought is often found in the center.

So think back to those five main Levitical offerings that we found in chapters 1 to 5 of the book.

Burnt offering, grain offering, peace or fellowship offering, sin offering, and then the guilt or the trespass offering.

Well, the high point in those five offerings is the middle one, the one right in the center, which is the fellowship offering.

Go back to episode 242 for more on that.

But again, the central issue is found in the center.

Now, when we come to Leviticus, we are in the center of the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses that open Scripture.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

And not only are we in the center book, but chapter 16 of Leviticus is the middle of the teaching of Leviticus.

There are 37 divine speeches in the book of Leviticus.

And Leviticus 16 is the center one, 18 on either side of it.

Leviticus teaching is structured like a chiasm.

You start with sacrifices.

Then you have priestly laws.

Then you have rituals for purity in the camp.

That brings you to the end of chapter 15.

Then chapter 17 works backwards.

You start with purity in the camp.

Then you've got priestly laws.

Then you've got sacrifices.

Then a couple of concluding chapters.

But in the middle of that chiasm is chapter 16, the Day of Atonement.