Gods Plan of Salvation | Page 6

The High Priest was to take from the
(community) two male goats for sin offering and a ram for
burnt offering (v5) After offering the ram for his own sin,
he would draw lots over the goats. He would enter the
Holy Place with a bull's blood, which he would sprinkle, on
the Mercy Seat. Then, cleansed from sin, he would re-
enter with the goats. One he would slaughter and would
sprinkle the altar with its blood to obtain cleanness for the
people for another year. The second goat: firstly he would
lay his hands on it and confess the people's sin on it.
Having laid their sins on the goat, it would be driven off
into the wilderness, never to return, taking the sins away
with it: it was the 'scapegoat' If the priest then emerged
alive, they would sigh with relief: the sacrifice had been
accepted and their sin covered for another year!
But for a year only. The place of Torah has been a subject
of much scholarly debate. What was it for? W as it the
road-map for God's salvation-plan? Abraham's covenant
was for a blessing for all nations (Gen 12:3).
For example, if we read Deut 30:16, there is this promise:
“For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to
walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands,
decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the
LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering
23

to possess. “
But covenant blessing was contingent of strict obedience
to the words of Torah. And Wright considers a deeper
significance in the giving of Torah; basically given just to
the Jews, the sin resulting from the Fall would become
much more openly so and would be concentrated on to
the Jewish covenant-people.
God has deliberately given the Torah, to be the means of
concentrating the sin of humankind in one place, namely, in his
people Israel-in order that it might then be concentrated yet further,
drawn together on Israel's representative, the Messiah, in order that it
might dealt with once and for all6
The full implication of this runs ahead of where we are at.
It anticipates, amongst other matters, on whether the
Jews would remain faithful to the Abrahamic Covenant.
And this is the subject to which we shall turn after we take
note of one other factor.
The giving of the covenant to Abraham and its implication
gave the Jews a special place and a new beginning, in
the overturning of the effects of the Fall.
At Sinai, after the giving of the Mosaic Covenant, the was
an incident which has been likened to a mirror of Adam's
fall. Here we take notice of the incident of the Golden
Calf.
In Exodus 32:1-3 we read:
“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming
down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and
said, 'Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for
this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we
don’t know what has happened to him'”.
Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that
your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing,
and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their
24

earrings and brought them to Aaron. This theme is
developed in NT Wright's “The Climax of the Covenant”
COVENANT FAILURE
OT history is of repeated failures of God's people, who
were supposed to be for the blessing of the Gentile
nations (cf Isa 42:1-7) With them he had sworn eternal
covenant, and continually desired that they return to
faithful living as his people, He is father of the disobedient
nation (Isa 1:2-3); he is the shepherd who seeks out the
stray sheep (Ezek 34:12, cp Luke 15:3)
He constantly sent his prophets to warn of the
consequences of disobedience and of turning to other
gods. But eventually they brought curse upon
themselves to the point that they were sent into exile (i)
the kingdom of Israel was taken away by Tiglath-Pilesar
of Assyria (2 Kings 15:29) (ii) the southern kingdom of
Judah failed to learn that lesson and were taken captive in
586BC by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:12) Even in
captivity he promised a return, and eventually a spiritual
return (Jer 50:4,5)
The physical return came in 536BC under Cyrus, king of
Persia (2 Chron 26:22,23) Those who returned knew that
spiritually they were still in exile. Physically they may have
returned from Babylon, but even after the experience of
captivity they failed to learn. In exile they may have
poured their hearts out. For example Psalm 137, with the
poignant words of verses 4 to 6
How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a
foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my