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when he was put to death (Deut. 13: 5), and the idolators knew when they were
stoned (Deut. 17: 6, 7). To put away the evil is interpreted in Deut. 19: 21 as "life
shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot". Is this
"covering up" sin? Is it not "covering" in the sense of canceling by an equivalent? This
is the way in which the word is used in Isa. 28: 18: "Your covenant with death shall
be disannulled." Does this mean "covered up" or does it not mean "cancelled"?
Amplifications of atonement.
Did not the Psalmist have the meaning of the atonement in mind when he said:--
"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity" (Psa. 32: 1, 2)?
Sin covered is sin forgiven and not imputed. Then again, is not atonement in view in
the passages which speak of "blotting out" sin? Upon the occasion of the golden calf
Moses said: "Peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin . . . . . if not, blot me, I
pray Thee, out of Thy book . . . . ." (Exod. 32: 30-32). Again, when David prayed:
"Blot out my transgressions", and "Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out mine
iniquities" (Psa. 51: 1, 9), there is a twofold reference to the "covering" by atonement,
viz., "blot out" as to sins, and "hide" as to God's face.
Moreover verse 14 shows that David had traveled beyond the type, and was looking
forward to Christ, for the law provided no atonement for the murderer. In Isa. 43: 25
"blotting out" is explained by "not remembering". In Isa. 44: 22 a little revision is
necessary:--
"I have dissipated thy transgressions like a cloud, and thine iniquities like a vapour"
(Spurrell's Trans.).
So complete is this "blotting out" that it is used of the utter destruction caused by the
flood (Gen. 7: 4). Another parallel is found in Isa. 38: 17: "Thou hast cast all my
sins behind Thy back." If the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and
the good, where can "behind His back" be but annihilation? No mere "covering up" can
hide from His presence. Micah 7: 19 says: "Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths
of the sea." Now no sea is so deep that He cannot see its bottom. The context speaks of
"pardoning iniquity", and "passing by transgressions" as synonymous expressions. One
more example will suffice:--
"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from
us" (Psa. 103: 12).
Sin therefore if atoned for is said to be covered, not imputed, forgiven, blotted out,
cast behind God's back, and removed as far as east is from west. These passages do not
occur in the N.T., but in the O.T. They were uttered by men who knew the true meaning
of atonement, and from them we learn and not from modern speculators. The subject is