LEVITICUS 16:7-10 : He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the
tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other
lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin
offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the
Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.
The star nearest to our solar system is the triple star Proxima Centauri, located about 25 trillion miles
from earth. Even though it is our nearest neighbor, it’s still so far away that it takes the light from
Proxima Centauri more than four years to reach us traveling at the speed of 186,282 miles per
second. That’s an incredible distance, but it’s nothing when compared to the distance which God
separates us from our sins.
God instructed Moses on the protocol for making a sin offering. He must take two goats. One would
be sacrificed as a sin offering.
The other, called the scapegoat, was sent away into the wilderness, symbolically carrying the sins of
the people with it. Physically the wilderness was not that far away, but spiritually those sins were
carried so far that they would never be found again.
The psalmist declares, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions
from us” (Ps 103:12). No distance on earth can be farther than the distance that east is from west. No
greater gulf can exist than the gulf between ourselves and our sin when we are forgiven by our Holy
God.
If you have placed your sins under the blood of Christ, rest assured that they will never be found
again. They have been carried beyond the farthest stars and they will never return.
THE ONLY THING FARTHER AWAY THAN FAR-OFF STARS ARE FORGIVEN SINS.