Judah's return to Jehovah, whom they had forsaken, was the
presentation of a 'sin offering.' The king and the congregation laid
their hands on the heads of the goats, thereby, as it were,
transferring their own sinful personality to them. Thus laden with the
nation's sins, they were slain, and in their death the nation, as it
were, bore the penalty of its sin. Representation and substitution
were dramatised in the sacrifice. The blood sprinkled on the altar
(which had previously been 'sanctified' by sprinkling of blood, and so
made capable of presenting what touched it to Jehovah), made
'atonement for all Israel.' We note in passing the emphasis of
'Israel' here, extending the benefit of the sacrifice to the separated
tribes of the Northern Kingdom, in a gush of yearning love and desire
that they, too, might be reconciled to Jehovah. And is not this the
first step towards any man's reconciliation with God? Is not

'My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of Thine,'

the true expression of the first requisite for us all? Jesus is the
sin-offering for the world. In His death He bears the world's sin. His
blood is presented to God, and if we have associated ourselves with
Him by faith, that blood sprinkled on the altar covers all our sins.

Then followed in this parabolic ceremonial the burnt offering. And
that is the second stage of our return to God, for it expresses the
consecration of our forgiven selves, as being consumed by the holy and
blessed fire of a self-devotion, kindled by the 'unspeakable gift,'
which fire, burning away all foulness, will make us tenfold ourselves.
That fire will burn up only our bonds, and we shall walk at liberty in
it. And that burnt-offering will always be accompanied with 'the song