Bible Commentaries

Leviticus 16:22

The solitude of the sin-bearer is something altogether distinct from the solitude of the Holy One. The solitude of holiness separated Him from sinners; but that separation, which made Him lead in His humanity a strange, lonesome life, yet brought Him into such full contact with all the glorious beings and the realities of the spirit-world, that such a solitude could hardly be looked upon with any considerable regret, or be the source of actual pain. The solitude of the sin-bearer is different from that of the Representative of holiness and purity.

Consider the causes of this solitude. (1) Wherever sin exists, it is an isolating principle. Its tendency is to induce seclusion and separation, to shut the person who is possessed of it from all connection with that which is outside itself. (2) The scapegoat was to bear upon its head all the confessed iniquity of the children of Israel, and to bear it into a land of separation. Christ was the Scapegoat of the human family. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read that He, by the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself to God. The scapegoat finds the land of separation at last, all alone in the darkness. He bore our sins into the land not inhabited. No witnessing spirit can find them there; no denizen of those dreary regions can rediscover them. They are lost sight of by man; the angels find them obliterated from their view; and God Himself has turned His back upon them, and left them in the land of separation.

W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons, 3rd series, p. 267

References: Leviticus 16:30.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1923. Leviticus 16:34.—H. Melvill, Golden Lectures, 1856 (Penny Pulpit, No. 254S); J. Fleming, The Gospel in Leviticus, p. 7; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii., No. 95. Lev 16.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 530, and vol. v., p. 8; Preacher's Monthly, vol. ii., p. 371. Leviticus 17:8, Leviticus 17:9.—J. Fleming, The Gospel in Leviticus, p. 30. Leviticus 17:11.—A. Lindesie, The Gospel of Grace, p. 20. Leviticus 19:9, Leviticus 19:10.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 134. Leviticus 19:16, Leviticus 19:17.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 334.