The purification of the Tabernacle completed, he came forth and laid both his hands upon the goat, on which the lot _for Azazel_ had fallen, solemnly confessed over it the sins of the people, and then gave it to a man chosen for the purpose to be led away into the wilderness, _into a place not inhabited_, and there let loose. This done, he once more entered the Tabernacle, bathed, and having arrayed himself in his gorgeous robes, offered the two rams as a burnt-offering, one for himself, the other for the people, and at the same time placed upon the altar the fat of the two sin-offerings[99]. While these were consuming, the remains of the victims were conveyed outside the camp, nor could they who were deputed for this office, or the man who had led away the scape-goat, return into the camp till they had purified themselves and their clothes with water.
The distinction between this solemnity and others is very striking. It took place but once a year, five days before the joyous Feast of Tabernacles, which testified to the nation’s gratitude for the preservation of _the seasonable fruits of the earth_. In it the High-priest alone officiated. Clad not in his gorgeous robes, but in the simple, pure white robes common to him and the rest of the priesthood, he made expiation for himself, his order, and the people,――an atonement for the sins of the whole year. On this day, and this day only, he entered within the Veil, and sprinkled the blood before the Mercy-Seat seven times. On this day, and this day only, the idea of the remission of sin found its highest expression in the sacrifice of one goat as a sin-offering to Jehovah, and the solemn confession of the sins of the whole people over another, and its dismissal laden with its awful typical burden into a far distant and separated land, _a land not inhabited_, lying, as it were, under the curse of Jehovah. This solemnity contained the exact antidote to the sombre and often cruel rites of heathenism. The lots were cast over both the goats, both were presented to Jehovah at the Door of the Tabernacle, at _His_ command the Scape-Goat carried away the burden of the people’s sins into an unknown desert land, _He_ sanctified the people, and accepted the atonement for the High-priest, the priestly order, and the entire nation, and the purification of the Place where He had condescended to meet the Israelites. In the Epistle to the Hebrews (ix., x.) we have the key to the expressive imagery of this Great Day in the Jewish year. The fact that once in the year the High-priest could enter within the Veil, intimated that under a system of provisional and typical ordinances the way _into the Holiest of all was not as yet made manifest_. But when the true High-priest, even Jesus Christ, offered Himself unto death on the Altar of His Cross for the sins of the whole world, the Veil of the Temple _was rent in twain from the top to the bottom_ (Matt. xxvii. 51; Mark xv. 38). He died, He rose again, and, clad not in the resplendent robes of that Divine Nature He had before the world, but in the garb of our human nature, He ascended into the Heavenly Sanctuary, the antitype of the Jewish Sanctuary on earth, and there pleads, and will for ever plead, the merits of His blood before the throne of God.