READ THE BIBLE IN 2022: This past week, February 6 through 12, we read Leviticus 16 through Numbers 4. As our reading opened we saw another major theme in Leviticus, atonement, not for an individual sin sacrifice for a known sin, but for the community—all sins known and unknown—on the Day of Atonement. The word atonement appears in Leviticus 45 times, more than any other book in the Old Testament. The word atonement is not found in the New Testament (ESV), although words like forgiven, reconciliation, redemption, and propitiation carry the meaning of sins being atoned for. On the Day of Atonement, and only on that day, the Hebrew high priest entered the Holy of Holies behind the Veil in the Tabernacle with incense to cover the Mercy Seat and blood to atone for sin. In the New Testament, Jesus, the Lamb of God gave His own Blood as “the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1Jn 2:2). As our great High Priest Jesus was glorified at the moment of death and tore the Veil in two in the Temple giving the redeemed in Christ access to God without the requirements of the Levitical Law—truly a Day of Atonement! This week, ending February 19, read Numbers 5 through Numbers 20.