Atonement

Atonement.

I do like the word.

To me it shouts completeness.

Starting anew.

Clean as a whistle.

The word pops up over 80 times in the Old Testament,

more than half of them here in Leviticus.

But back then, they were having to work atonement

over and over and over again.

So, it was not as complete as it sounds…

(until we get to Jesus.)

But here is what I am trying to figure out today.

For atonement, usually someone would put his hand on the head

of the animal to be sacrificed,

symbolizing a transferring of sin.

But some of the various flavors of peace offerings mention hand-on-head

but do not specify that it resulted in atonement (Lev 3.3, 3.8, 3.13)

Is it something we are supposed to conclude on our own?

Or is there more to it?

I don’t know. But either way, I will stick to Jesus.

And to the single appearance of “atonement” in the New Testament:

Romans 5.11 [KJV]

We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

It’s complete!

It’s starting anew!

It’s clean as a whistle!