Leviticus 16
"The Day of Atonement"
Chapters 11-15 have been talking about how Israel must be ceremonial clean
if they are to enter the worship of God.
That is why I titled the last three sermons, "Lessons in Purity."
God had told the priests to teach Israel to distinguish between holy and unholy,
unclean and clean.
The priests were to teach Israel about how God demands
that those who worship him must be pure and clean.
As 15:31 says,
"Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness,
lest they die in their uncleanness
by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst."
God is holy.
That which is unclean-that which is impure-may not enter his holy worship.
After all, remember the context:
16:1
This is just after Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord.
If God is going to dwell in the midst of his people,
then his people must be holy.
And as chapter 16 makes clear,
it is a dangerous thing to live close to God.
The Day of Atonement is the most important day in the Israelite year.
It is only on this day-once a year-that the high priest may enter the most Holy Place.
Hebrews 9:6-9a
Hebrews sees the Day of Atonement as the sign
that the way into the heavenly holy of holies is not yet open.
The fact that the high priest must perform this same ritual every year
indicates that the age to come has not yet really come.
It is symbolic of the age to come,
but so long as the earthly holy place remains standing,
it is a sign that the reality has not yet arrived.
Let us look in more detail at what the high priest does,
and how it points us to the dawning of the age to come in Jesus Christ.
First, we must understand the reason why Aaron may only enter once a year.
God says that he will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat (16:2).
God is promising that he will dwell with his people.
But the presence of God is a perilous thing.
Aaron has already learned this the hard way.
He lost two sons to the holiness of God!
So now God warns the high priest not to enter the Most Holy Place,
except for once a year,
and he prescribes a detailed ritual to perform
in order to avoid being consumed by the holiness of God.
There are four parts to the chapter:
1) the preparation of the high priest
2) the offerings presented in the Most Holy Place
3) the concluding rites back in the tent of meeting
4) the statutes regulating the Day of Atonment
1) Preparation (verses 3-5)
first he must bring a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering;
then he must bathe his body in water
then he must put on the holy linen coat and the linen undergarment and the linen turban.
He is the holy priest, therefore he must wear the holy garments.
Finally he must take from the congregation of the people
two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.
Now he is ready to begin.
2) Offerings (6-22)
verses 6-10 explain the preliminary actions.
As usual, the priest must make atonement for himself before he is able to atone for others.
So he offers the bull as a sin offering for himself and the whole priesthood.
Then he must take the two goats for the people's sin offerin,
and set them before the LORD at the tent of meeting.
Then he must cast lots-one for Yahweh and one for Azazel.
(we'll come back to this one, but let's just follow the action for now).
Verses 11-14 start the actual sacrifices.
The high priest kills the bull,
then he takes a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the LORD,
and two handfuls of sweet incense.
The incense is designed to keep a cloud over the mercy seat,
so as to protect Aaron from the glory of the LORD.
There is some debate as to whether the glory-cloud
remained in the tabernacle at all times.
Whether it did or not, the incense (which symbolizes the prayers of the saints)
was designed to protect the High Priest.
Then he would take the blood of the bull and sprinkle it seven times
on the front of the mercy seat on the east side.
Now that his own sin is atoned for,
he kills the goat of the sin offering for the people,
and sprinkles its blood in the same way that he did with the bull.
Verses 16-19 explains the importance of this ritual.
The sprinkling of the blood is to make atonement for the Holy Place,
for the tent of meeting, and for the altar.
But at the consecration of the tabernacle,
all of these things were already consecrated and made holy for God's use.
Why does God say that the Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar
need to be atoned for?
"Because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel
and because of their transgressions, all their sins."
Both the uncleanness of the people AND their sins contaminate even the Holy Place.
After all, what is the Holy Place?
Is it not where God dwells with his people?
Is it not the place where earth and heaven meet?
And every time this sinful people comes to the sanctuary,
it is contaminated by their sins and their uncleanness.
Therefore, in order for God to continue dwelling in such a pigsty,
it must be cleansed-it must be atoned for-every year.
Now that the Tabernacle has been cleansed,
the problem of sin must be dealt with.
Verses 20-22 tells us of the scapegoat who must be sent to Azazel (verses 8-10)
What-or who-is Azazel?
The word "azazel" may be related to the word "to loose",
and so some translations render it "entire removal."
But the parallel construction, "one lot for Yahweh, and the other lot for Azazel"
seems to suggest a more personal reference.
The apocryphal book of Enoch (8:1) refers to Azazel as one of the fallen angels,
so it seems likely that the "scapegoat"
is being sent outside of the covenant community to this demonic figure.
If you look carefully at the symbolism of the ceremony of the scapegoat,
this interpretation makes the most sense.
What is the purpose of the sin offering?
The sin offering is designed to remove the unintentional sins of the people.
Wilful sins are not included.
Wilful sins are dealt with by cutting the person off from the covenant community,
either through execution or banishment.
Remember the law of the sin offering?
If the sin offering is brought for a priest or for the whole congregation,
then the carcase of the sin offering is burnt outside the camp.
But if the sin offering is brought for an individual,
then the priest may eat the meat.
The sin offering on the Day of Atonement,
however, must cover all of the unintentional sins
that were "missed" throughout the year.
You will note that in verses 27-28,
the sin offerings for the priest and the people are indeed burned with fire
outside the camp.
But there is another aspect to the sin offering-the scapegoat.
Aaron must lay both hands on the head of the live goat,
and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel.
And then the goat, bearing the sins of the people,
must be sent out into the wilderness by some Israelite man.
The goat then bears the iniquities of the people out of the camp to a remote area.
The man who released the goat is to wash his clothes and bathe his body,
and then he may return to the camp.
Why wasn't the first goat enough?
Think about it.
Every morning and every evening the priests offering burnt offerings to the Lord.
Every day the priests offer various sin offerings and guilt offerings for individuals,
priests, or the whole community, as needed.
And now once a year there is a special sin offering to cover the whole year.
But the death of these thousands of animals isn't enough.
The sin offering on the Day of Atonement was designed to cleanse the tabernacle,
so that it would not be defiled by the uncleanness and sins of the people.
The transferral of the sin of the people to the scapegoat
removes the sins of the people from the camp.
As the goat is driven out into the wilderness-to Azazel the demon-
so also the sins of the people are removed to the wilderness.
Leviticus 17:7 supports this:
"So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons,
after whom they whore."
Apparently one of the false gods whom the Israelites worshiped was a goat demon,
probably by the name of Azazel.
To sacrifice a goat to a god was an act of worship.
To send a live goat to Azazel was an act of defiance and mockery.
So you want a goat, Azazel?
Kill it yourself!
The high priest confessed the sins of Israel,
transferred them to the goat,
and sent them off to Azazel-let him bear the guilt!
Having completed the ritual in the Holy Place,
Aaron would take off the linen garments,
bathe in water in a holy place,
and then put on his garments and finish the burnt offerings,
offering the whole burnt offerings and the fat of the sin offerings,
making atonement for himself and the people.
Then the carcasses of the sin offerings would be burnt outside the camp.
Only at the end of the chapter do we hear about the statutes relating to the Day of Atonement.
It was to be held on the tenth day of the seventh month.
All Israelites were to humble themselves on that day.
It was to be a Sabbath-no one was to work-not even the stranger among you.
"It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you,
and you shall afflict yourselves." (verse 31)
As we will hear in Leviticus 23,
the seventh month was a busy month in the liturgical calendar of Israel.
The first day of the month was the Feast of Trumpets,
a day of solemn rest.
The tenth day was the Day of Atonement,
and then from the 15th to the 23rd was the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles).
The Day of Atonement was to be a day of fasting (that is the import of "afflict yourselves,"
see Psalm 35:13; Isaiah 58:3, 5).
In fact it was the only required fast in the Jewish calendar.
If God was going to dwell in the midst of an unclean, sinful people,
then there would need to be a regular cleansing of the people
and of God's dwelling place.
The Day of Atonement was a day not only for the rituals in the tabernacle,
but also for every Israelite to humble himself before the LORD.
Are you amazed yet at what Jesus has done?
Hebrews 9:11-28.
9:11-14
Jesus has not merely entered the earthly tent,
he has entered the heavenlies with his own blood as the final sacrifice.
Therefore 9:15-22
The Old Covenant required the slaughter of millions of animals
in order to purify Israel.
Why? 9:23
The monotonous character of the OT sacrifices was pointing to its own futility.
The OT sanctuary was merely a copy of the heavenly sanctuary.
The OT priests were pictures of Christ, the heavenly priest.
And 9:24-28
This concludes with a stinging indictment of the law:
10:1-4
We have now been sanctified though the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (10:10)
You might have expected it to say that we are justified through the offering of Jesus,
but remember what all these sacrifices were designed to do.
Yes, they were designed to deal with sin,
but WHY?
So that the people of God might be sanctified,
set apart for the service of God.
And by that one offering,
Jesus "has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified" (10:14)
Every Sunday we celebrate the new Day of Atonement.
Yes, we afflict ourselves.
When we come to worship God, we come confessing our sins,
but unlike Israel of old,
we do not need to wait for a new sacrifice to cleanse us.
We confess our sins with full confidence in that sacrifice which has already cleansed us.
But Hebrews also gives us a warning.
10:26-27
In the light of the OT teaching on the sin offerings,
this takes on a clear meaning.
If we return to our wilful rebellion,
there is no sacrifice for that.
This is not talking about our petty day-to-day sins.
This is talking about the basic character of our lives.
Unintentional sins are those "ordinary" sins that afflict us all.
Intentional sins-deliberate sins-stem from a fundamental rejection of the gospel.
This is talking about the one "who has spurned the Son of God,
and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified,
and has outraged the Spirit of grace." (10:29)
The one who clings to Christ and turns away from sin is not in view.
This is one who prefers idols to Christ.
Therefore (10:35-39)
You have need of endurance.
The endurance to live faithfully day by day,
to do the will of God,
and to believe the promises of God-even in the midst of trial and temptation.