AP

Revelation 5:9 – “For with your blood you purchased men for God, from every tribe and nation.”

Blow the ram’s horn! Bring in the goats.

For the sin must be expiated and God propitiated.

Come offer your prayers of repentance!

Abstain from your pleasures!

See the first goat sacrificed — its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat, the Ark’s atonement cover. All to satisfy your holy wrath against our sin. Turn aside from your righteous judgement, from your anger and remain present with your people.

Let the second tethered goat now be let loose in the wilderness. To run free. Cancel our offences. Run, goat, run! Carry the sins of your people far away. Run far — as the east is from the west.

Two goats. A ‘Goat for the Lord’ and our scapegoat. Chosen by lots, but our Lamb is two goats in one.

For worthy is the Lamb who was slain.

One whose blood was shed outside the city gates.

Remember Him who was disgraced.

Consider His singular work — final and unchangeable.

For there is one way,

a way soaked in His blood alone.

By His blood only, His wrath against us is averted.

There now remains only one day of awe,

of covering, of guilt wiped away;

our Yom Kippur, no more in shadow.

For once it was said: “On Rosh Hashanah it is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed.” Now that blood seal of Christ is final — no more provisional, no more a yearly sacrifice.

Only Him who died, our once for all.

– Michelle Chapman

Hebrews 13:12–14; Psalm 51; Isaiah 53:6; John 1:29