The Day of Atonement
(Forgiving and Removing Sin)
Leviticus 16
You know, over the past few weeks, our Sunday School lessons have focused on becoming a kingdom of priests and a holy nation; the building of the tabernacle and how it became a place for God to dwell among His people; the creation and ordination of the priesthood who would act as mediators between God and man; and the various offerings and sacrifices that would be offered up to God as a sweet smelling aroma.
But one might wonder why the Sunday School lessons would focus on things like this in the weeks before Easter. I mean, shouldn't we have been focusing on topics that lead up to Lent, Palm Sunday, and Easter rather than all these Old Testament things concerning the tabernacle, priesthood, and sacrifices?
Now, on the surface, it might appear that these things don't seem to line up with the season we're currently in, but in fact, they line up quite well when you consider that everything, we've been studying these last few weeks in the OT are a picture of what's to come. Friends, simply put, the OT points us to Christ as the ultimate, perfect, and final sacrifice for sin. The deliverance from Egypt, the tabernacle, the priesthood, the whole sacrificial system of worship that we've been studying these last few weeks--it all points us to Jesus as the fulfillment.
Our previous studies have provided the necessary background for what is to come. Our comprehension of these things, these interactions between God and the Hebrews, serve as the foundation of our faith. Today's study, along with next week's study in Hebrews, clearly illustrates this. God's desire to dwell among humanity is hindered by our sinfulness, creating a barrier between us. To bridge this gap, He established a way for us to return to fellowship with Him through the Day of Atonement, where our sins are forgiven and removed.
Leviticus 16 describes the Day of Atonement, a significant event in Israel where the high priest would seek atonement for the sins of the people. This chapter gives instructions on how Aaron, the high priest, was to enter the Most Holy Place, stressing the importance of purification and the offering of sacrifices. The rituals involved the presentation of two goats - one for sacrifice and the other as the scapegoat, symbolizing the removal of sin from the community.
This annual event highlighted the holiness of God and the need for cleansing to maintain fellowship with Him. However, as we will see, the ultimate fulfillment of this day is seen in the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, providing atonement for the sins of humanity once and for all. No longer do we need to kill animals and sprinkle their blood on an altar day in and day out, because Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, gave His body and blood as our perfect and complete sacrifice for sin. And He did this because of...
I. The Reality of Sin
God saved His people from slavery in Egypt and led them into the wilderness and covenanted with them at Mount Sinai and gave them His law. The law was to show them the level of perfection needed for them to have fellowship with Him. However, the perfect law given to imperfect people led to their failure to live by that law. So, when they sinned, would God give up on them? Would He lower His standard of holiness and expect less from them?
No. He graciously gave them a system of sacrifices that would atone for their sins and be reconciled to Him and continue in a relationship with Him. He also ordered that on one day each year, the high priest would offer special sacrifices for himself, for the people, and for the tabernacle and its furniture.
Leviticus 16:3-6 "Aaron shall enter the holy place with this: with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body, and he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen turban (these are holy garments). Then he shall bathe his body in water and put them on. He shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household."
Lev 16:11-16 "Then Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering which is for himself and make atonement for himself and for his household, and he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering which is for himself. [12] "He shall take a firepan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the LORD and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense, and bring it inside the veil. [13] "He shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, otherwise he will die. [14] "Moreover, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; also in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. [15] "Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. [16] "He shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities.
Lev 16:18 "Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar on all sides.
You know, we can understand that human sin needs to be removed and cleansed, but inanimate objects like the Holy Place, the tent of meeting, and the altar? Why is this necessary? Well, I'd say that God was communicating the message that sin defiles not only us, but our environment as well.
God told Adam in Gen 3:17 …cursed is the ground because of you, and then Paul, in the book of Romans, tells us Rom 8:19-21 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. [20] For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope [21] that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
You see, day in and day out, man sins and then man makes sacrifice for those sins. So, everything encountering the accumulated blood of those sacrifices eventually needed to be cleansed as well. The things that cleansed throughout the year needed to be cleansed because of the accumulated guilt of the nation. Sure, it seems kind of foreign to us today, but in the minds of the people, these places associated with sin, needed periodic cleansing as well.
Even today, we still feel the need to rid certain areas of negative associations. I'm sure you remember 9-11 and the horror of thousands murdered when the Twin Towers collapsed after planes controlled by Muslim terrorists flew into them. A great evil was perpetrated on the USA, and afterward, we had this great impulse to build something there, on that spot that would, in a sense, redeem the site for good. The place didn't do anything wrong; people did wrong at that place.
Or think about this: When we revisit or think about a place where we made a mistake, sinned, or did something evil in our personal lives, the memories of what happened there can bring back feelings of guilt. Well in a similar way, these areas of the tabernacle that dealt specifically with sins needed to be purified again.
Though these were sacred objects and places, they were located among a sinful people. As the people sinned and brought offerings, their uncleanness metaphorically contaminated the holy places. The annual rituals of atonement served not only to forgive the people but also to purify the sanctuary itself, maintaining its holiness and the presence of God among His people. This cleansing emphasized God's holiness and the serious separation that sin creates between God and humanity.
It highlights the Reality of Sin, but because God loves us even when we sin, He also gave us...
II. The Assurance of Atonement
Lev 16:7-10 "He shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the doorway of the tent of meeting. [8] "Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat. [9] "Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the LORD fell, and make it a sin offering. [10] "But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat.
Lev 16:20-22 "When he finishes atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. [21] "Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. [22] "The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
These instructions from God to Aaron through Moses, came after the death of Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu. They violated God's protocol and all we really know is that they brought "strange fire" into the tabernacle and were struck down for their violation. So, I would imagine that Aaron and his other two sons, Eleazar, and Ithamar, who would take their place paid special attention so they would get this right. And though to our sinful way of looking at things, God's punishment may have seemed hard, it does highlight something that we need to pay attention to is that God is holy and we cannot come to Him however we want. He requires proper attention to His praise as God and bowing our hearts in reverence and fear of His holiness.
In this 16th chapter of Leviticus God used the word "atonement" 15 times. When Moses wrote this book, as our SS lesson this morning mentioned, He spent 4% of his time in this book on this one topic, this one day out of the whole year. This chapter 16 of Leviticus stands out as the central chapter of the book. In chapters 1-15 we have the description of the laws and sacrifices. In chapters 17-27 we have a description of holy living that God required of His people. Here in chapter 16 is the middle that stands between those two divisions where God describes the holiest day of the year for God's people under the old covenant.
So, why is atonement so important? Well, it's important because we sin. If we want to be in God's presence... if we want to be reconciled with God... if we wish to have our relationship with Him restored and renewed... then atonement for sin is necessary. It's necessary because of God's justice. His holiness and His justice require that sin be punished. Sure, He's God and He can do whatever he wants, but the truth is that He will never violate attributes. His attributes are just as immutable as He himself is.
So, as the only true and righteous judge of men, He cannot simply let the guilty go free. Look at it like this: If you had a friend or loved one who was harmed in some way by someone else, if that person were brought before a judge and the judge gave that guilty person no fine, no time in prison, no punishment whatsoever, would that judge be a just judge? No. Of course not. True justice cannot let the guilty go free without restitution, reparation, or redress.
However, if God truly wants to dwell with His people and save people like you and me, then He's going to have to let the guilty go free. So, how can the justice of God and the mercy of God be reconciled? Through atonement for sin. The tension between His justice and mercy is satisfied through substitutionary atonement where He will allow an innocent to pay the debt for the guilty. The innocent animal will pay the wages of sin for the man, and the man will go free.
The sacrifice of the bull was for the purification of the priests. The goat was sacrificed for the non-priestly community. The blood of both the bull and the goat were also used in the purification of the Mercy Seat, the Tent of Meeting, and altar. The two goats were offered as sacrifices where one was killed as the sacrifice for sin, and the other remained alive. Aaron laid both of his hands upon the head of the living sacrifice, confessing all the sins of the nation. Then when he finished the confession, the living sacrifice was given over to a man who was waiting nearby and he would take the scapegoat away from the camp and release it into the wilderness, never to return.
It's interesting that the high priest would use both hands when transferring the sins of the people to the scapegoat. It wasn't like this for any other sacrifice, and my thinking is that it probably has to do with the enormity of sins being transferred. This wasn't for one person's sins like in other daily sacrifices. This was the transference of the sins of a nation for the whole year.
The picture we see in the scapegoat is beautifully illustrated in Psalm 103 where the Psalmist wrote: Psa 103:10-12 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. [11] For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. [12] As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Just as the goat would never return with the sins of the people, so also our sins will never return to any of those who have trusted in Jesus Christ, who is God's perfect Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Through our faith in Christ, our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west. God removed our sins, and He never sees them again.
These OT sacrifices not only provided atonement for man's sin, but they also taught us about substitutionary atonement and prepared the world for Jesus. When He died on the cross for our sins, He provided the full, final, perfect, once-for-all substitutionary atonement for sin for all who believe in Him. God offers us atonement for sin, reconciliation and renewed relationship through faith in His Son. The innocent paid our debt, and now, we are in...
III. The Pursuit of Holiness
Lev 16:29-34 "This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; [30] for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the LORD. [31] "It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute. [32] "So the priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as priest in his father's place shall make atonement: he shall thus put on the linen garments, the holy garments, [33] and make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar. He shall also make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. [34] "Now you shall have this as a permanent statute, to make atonement for the sons of Israel for all their sins once every year." And just as the LORD had commanded Moses, so he did.
God gave the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement to atone for the sins of His people who lived under the old covenant. The beauty of these sacrifices is that they provided an avenue for the people to pursue a life of holiness. The fact that these occurred only once a year, year after year, tells us that under the old covenant, holiness was a daily pursuit. It was a goal that God's people strived toward day in and day out. Throughout the year, day after day, if a person sinned, and animal would die and its blood applied, but the person who pursued a life of holiness might not have to make those sacrifices as often as the next guy.
So, the sacrificial system encouraged holiness, but the fact that those sacrifices had to be done over and over also shows us the weakness of the system. Heb 10:1-4 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. [2] Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? [3] But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. [4] For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Beloved, Jesus is God's offer of permanent, eternal atonement and removal of sin. This is what the New Testament teaches us, and it is the gospel that the Church has always preached. It's not the blood of bulls and goats that cleanses--it's the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ that cleanses us, once and for all time.
There are some who call themselves "Christians" who would remove the blood from consideration. The blood offends their sensibilities, so they preach a bloodless salvation. But friend, there is no getting around God's plan of salvation, and His salvation involves the blood of Jesus Christ. Beloved, without the blood, there is no salvation. Without the blood, there is no hope. Without the blood, we are still lost and dead in our sins.
Hebrews 9:22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Jesus fulfilled the law for us by shedding His own blood, so if the gospel you hear has no mention of blood it is a gospel without Jesus.
Friend, Jesus died on the cross for your sins. If you will believe in and follow Him you will be saved, forgiven, and His righteousness will cover you from head to toe. You will be made holy in the eyes of God, and you will be able to pursue a life of holiness because He will send His Holy Spirit to reside within you and empower you to live unto His glory.
