May 17, 2025
Leviticus is the Chiastic Center of the Pentateuch. A Chiastic Structure, simply put, is a literary technique where themes or ideas are presented in a mirror-image pattern – emphasizing parallel ideas and highlighting the significance of the central point.
The Chiastic Center of Joshua 1:5-9
A - I will never leave you nor forsake you
B - Be strong and courageous … be strong and very courageous
C - Be careful to obey all the law … that you may be successful
D - Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth – meditate on it day and night
C' - Be careful to do everything written in it … you may be prosperous and successful
B' - Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged
A' - For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
The Chiastic Center of Leviticus is chapter 16.
A - Prohibition about entering into the sanctuary
B - Entering the sanctuary; clothing; offerings
C - The goat determined by lot for Azazel he shall make atonement by sending it off to Azazel in the desert
D - Purification of the altar
E - Atonement for the sanctuary and the people
D' - Purification of the altar
C' - The goat is to carry off their iniquities to an isolated region, it must be sent away into the desert
B' - Exiting the sanctuary; clothing; offerings
A' - This shall be an everlasting ordinance for you
The word, “Atonement” means “to cover / to ransom and remove at a price” and appears 20 times in Leviticus 16.
So, to ransom at a price is the central thought in the center chapter of the center book of the first 5 books of the Bible.
Throughout the year, the daily sacrifices brought forgiveness when the confessed sins of Israel were transferred from the guilty party to the sacrifice by the laying on of hands and then to the Sanctuary through the blood of the sacrifice.
By sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice on the curtain separating the Holy and Most Holy places, God was assuming temporary responsibility for the people sins.
2 Corinthians 5:21 - God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Essentially the sins were now held in storage – forgiven but not yet blotted out. A special work became necessary for their complete removal = the Day of Atonement.
The Day of Atonement was something like an Annual Spiritual Spring Cleaning and its sole purpose was to deal with the sins that had been transferred to the Sanctuary throughout the year.
The goal of the Day of Atonement was to restore the Sanctuary and the Camp of Israel to wholeness – free from impurity and sin – it had to do with cleansing not forgiveness.
The Day of Atonement occurred on a specific day – the 10th Day of the 7th Month (Yom Kippur – Sept-Oct on our calendar). It was to be carried out with great introspection and solemnity.
The Most Holy Place was a restricted area. It was only on the Day of Atonement that Aaron was allowed to enter behind the curtain and there were specific procedures he was to follow – He was to:
• Take a Bull – as a Sin Offering – and a Ram – as a Burnt Offering for himself and his family.
• Bathe and dress in simple white linen garments.
• Take 2 goats and cast lots for them.
o The 1st goat was for the Lord
o The 2nd goat was for Azazel (goat of departure)
• Slaughter the bull and take some of the blood into the Most Holy Place along with a firepan full of hot coals from the altar and finely ground incense (the cloud of incense would cover the mercy seat protecting Aaron). The blood was to be sprinkled 7 times on and before the Mercy Seat.
• Slaughter the 1st goat, take some of its blood and sprinkle it also on and before the Mercy Seat to make Atonement for the sins of the people.
When Aaron came out of the Tabernacle he placed some of the blood from the bull and goat #1 (sin offering) on the horns of the altar and sprinkled blood 7 times on all its sides.
Then he took the goat for Azazel and laid both hands on its head transferring all the stored sins onto the goat. The goat was then led into the wilderness, never to return. The sins of the people had now been completely removed from the camp and the sanctuary was clean.
After changing his clothes and bathing again, Aaron slaughtered the Burnt Offering (Ram) and burned the fat portions of the Sin Offerings. The remains were taken outside the camp and burned completely.
While Aaron was performing his duties the people were to come humbly before God with fasting, personal reflection and repentance. No one else was allowed into the Tabernacle during this ceremony and no work was to be done except for the redeeming work in the Most Holy Place.
The Day of Atonement ended with celebration and rejoicing.
“Okay,” we say, “but what does that have to do with us?
We have established that the Earthly Tabernacle was a copy of the Heavenly Tabernacle:
Exodus 25:8-9 - Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
Hebrews 8:5 - They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
And that everything associated with the Daily Service pointed to Christ’s work of Atonement:
Leviticus 9:7 - Moses said to Aaron, "Come to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and the people; sacrifice the offering that is for the people and make atonement for them, as the LORD has commanded."
Hebrews 7:27 - Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
However, Christ’s work did not stop with the cross. It includes both sacrifice and priestly ministry:
Romans 5:10 - For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Hebrews 9:26b-28 - … But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (see the entire chapter)
SO…..
The daily sacrifices symbolized the Cross and Christ’s heavenly work in the Holy Place. Through the blood of Jesus, confessed sins, beginning with Adam, were transferred to and “stored” in the Heavenly Sanctuary.
The Day Atonement symbolized Christ’s work in the Most Holy Place and the eternal removal of the sins of God’s faithful people from the Heavenly Sanctuary.
Seventh-day Adventists believe that Christ’s ministry in the Most Holy Place began in 1844 (ending the 2300 day/year prophecy of Daniel) and that we are now living in the Great Day of Atonement, where all the confessed sins of God’s people are under review.
This “Investigative Judgment” is ONLY for those who have claimed to be followers of Jesus and have sought forgiveness and accepted His substitutionary sacrifice on their behalf.
1 Peter 4:17 - For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
And it must take place prior to the 2nd Coming:
• The universe must be satisfied that those Jesus brings back with him are okay to be there.
• Reward always comes after judgment – The medals are handed out after all the gymnasts have been judged, not before.
Revelation 22:12 - Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.
Those who have rejected Jesus and His offer of forgiveness are not a part of this judgment. The judgment of the wicked will occur after the 2nd Coming, during the 1000 years when the saved are given the opportunity to understand why the lost are lost (see Revelation 20).
At Christ’s 2nd Coming the stored sins will be placed on “The goat for Azazel” or they will go back to the individual sinner who sought forgiveness, but who ultimately rejected Jesus. They will face the same fate as those who always rejected Jesus.
Ezekiel 18:24 - But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness he is guilty of and because of the sins he has committed, he will die.
Matthew 7:21-23 - "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
Who is “The goat for Azazel”? Early Jewish interpreters identified Azazel as the original angelic sinner and primary author of evil – the leader of evil angels who is responsible for human sin as well: “all the earth has been corrupted by the deeds of the teaching of Azazel; and upon him write all the sins.” (1 Enoch 10:8)
Goat for Azazel = Satan
What is the purpose of this goat in the work of cleansing the Heavenly Sanctuary and the elimination of the sins of God’s people?
Satan DOES NOT play a role in our salvation. The symbolism of the stored sins being transferred to the “goat for Azazel” conveys the idea that the sins of God’s people will be returned to the source of evil who is ultimately responsible for those sins.
• Ellen White (GC 658.1): Now the event takes place foreshadowed in the last solemn service of the Day of Atonement. When the ministration in the holy of holies had been completed, and the sins of Israel had been removed from the sanctuary by virtue of the blood of the sin offering, then the scapegoat was presented alive before the Lord; and in the presence of the congregation the high priest confessed over him "all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat." Leviticus 16:21. In like manner, when the work of atonement in the heavenly sanctuary has been completed, then in the presence of God and heavenly angels and the hosts of the redeemed the sins of God's people will be placed upon Satan; he will be declared guilty of all the evil which he has caused them to commit. And as the scapegoat was sent away into a land not inhabited, so Satan will be banished to the desolate earth, an uninhabited and dreary wilderness.
After the 1000 years is over, Satan, the source of sin, and all those who sided with him, will be destroyed and there will be a true and eternal restoration.
Revelation 21:1-7 - Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
As Sacrifice, Jesus took upon himself the sins of humanity.
As High Priest, he applies the benefits of his sacrifice to all those who have accepted, by faith, his work on their behalf.
It’s all heaven all the time.
Until Next Time……………
