Day of Atonement
We're a couple of months into Leviticus now, and I know it has started to feel like the same thing every week. Another animal, another altar, more blood, more rules for how to come near, and then next week the same thing again. If that's how it has felt to you, you aren't reading it wrong. Israel felt the same way, and Leviticus 16 is where all that repetition starts to point somewhere.
Leviticus 16 describes the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. Our Jewish neighbors observed it just a couple of weeks ago, beginning at sundown on September 20. It is still the most solemn day of the Jewish year, a day of fasting and rest, and the only fast the Law of Moses commands (Leviticus 16:29-31). Since the temple was destroyed in AD 70, it has been kept without a priest, an altar, or a sacrifice. Christians don't observe Yom Kippur, but there is still a lot for us to learn from it.
The chapter opens at a funeral. It begins "after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the LORD and died" (16:1). Nadab and Abihu had offered unauthorized fire, and fire came out from the Lord and consumed them (10:1-2). Now God speaks to their grieving father about how to walk into the room where his sons died. Aaron is told "not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die" (16:2). So once a year, one man goes in. First he takes off the garments of the high priest and puts on plain linen (16:4). He offers a bull for his own sin before anyone else's (16:6, 11), because the man who makes atonement for everyone needs atonement himself. Then he carries burning coals and incense behind the curtain, so that a cloud of smoke covers the mercy seat, "so that he does not die" (16:13). The mercy seat was the gold lid on the ark of the covenant, the place where God said He would appear (16:2). It was the most hidden object in all of Israel. One man saw it for a few minutes a year, through smoke, while everyone else waited outside (16:17).
Blood, smoke, and mercy (the title of the series).
God says the tent of meeting "dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses" (16:16). He doesn't leave His people because they are unclean. But He doesn't ignore their uncleanness either. He cleans His own house. The high priest sprinkles blood on and in front of the mercy seat seven times (16:14-15), cleansing the sanctuary of everything Israel's sin had defiled over the past year.
The blood cleans the house, but the guilt is still in the camp. That's where the second goat comes in. Aaron takes two male goats from the people as one sin offering (16:5), and lots are cast over them. The first goat is killed, and its blood is carried behind the curtain. The second goat is not killed at all. "And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness." (Leviticus 16:21-22) This is where we get the word "scapegoat." The text says the goat is "for Azazel" (16:8, 10), and nobody knows for sure what that name means. But anyone can see what happens. The goat walks away carrying every sin of the people, and it doesn't come back.
So the two goats deal with sin in two ways. The first deals with its penalty. Sin requires blood, a life given, and the first goat pays it. The second deals with its presence. The guilt is placed on its head and carried out of the camp, and Israel could stand at the edge and watch it go. Both goats point to Christ.
We know about the goat that dies. We know Jesus shed His blood on the cross, and that "the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). But the goat that keeps pulling me back is the one that lives. It carried the guilt away and kept on living. That points to the importance of Christ being risen and at the right hand of the Father, where "he always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). Our guilt is no longer our own, and we have a High Priest who advocates and mediates for us continuously (1 John 2:1).
The goat went away from God, into the wilderness. Christ went the other way. He entered "into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf" (Hebrews 9:24).
The chapter ends with this: "And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins" (16:34). Once in the year. Then the next year, again, and the year after that. Every autumn the same day, the same blood, the same goat led out into the wilderness. Hebrews says, "But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Hebrews 10:3-4).
The fatigue you might feel reading Leviticus, Israel felt every year. The repetition was telling them that this was never meant to be the end.
Leviticus is the blueprint. It is perfect, God explaining to a very specific people how He is to be approached. Thankfully, God never said their uncleanness or commonness disqualified them from His presence. Their commonness just required specific steps for them to approach Him. The problem was never the blueprint. Humanity constantly failed the blueprint it was given.
Jesus isn't another blueprint. He is the completed building. "He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:12). He is the Priest who needed no sacrifice for Himself (7:27), the goat that died, and the goat that carried our sin away, all at once. Christ has fulfilled every specific step for humanity to enter the presence of a holy God.
"Every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God" (10:11-12). The priests in the tabernacle never sat down, because their work was never done. Jesus sat down. A seated High Priest means the work is finished. And like Israel standing outside the tent, we are waiting for our High Priest to come out again. He "will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him" (9:28).
So this is not a call to want more sacrifice, and it isn't a call to start keeping Yom Kippur. It's a reason to be thankful. Look at what the people did on that day. They fasted, and they did no work at all (16:29-31). One man did everything, and they were told, "For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the LORD from all your sins" (16:30). Atonement was made for them. They couldn't add to it. They could only rest.
The Day of Atonement is now a day in which we rest in the work of Christ alone.
Leviticus 16 describes the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. Our Jewish neighbors observed it just a couple of weeks ago, beginning at sundown on September 20. It is still the most solemn day of the Jewish year, a day of fasting and rest, and the only fast the Law of Moses commands (Leviticus 16:29-31). Since the temple was destroyed in AD 70, it has been kept without a priest, an altar, or a sacrifice. Christians don't observe Yom Kippur, but there is still a lot for us to learn from it.
The chapter opens at a funeral. It begins "after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the LORD and died" (16:1). Nadab and Abihu had offered unauthorized fire, and fire came out from the Lord and consumed them (10:1-2). Now God speaks to their grieving father about how to walk into the room where his sons died. Aaron is told "not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die" (16:2). So once a year, one man goes in. First he takes off the garments of the high priest and puts on plain linen (16:4). He offers a bull for his own sin before anyone else's (16:6, 11), because the man who makes atonement for everyone needs atonement himself. Then he carries burning coals and incense behind the curtain, so that a cloud of smoke covers the mercy seat, "so that he does not die" (16:13). The mercy seat was the gold lid on the ark of the covenant, the place where God said He would appear (16:2). It was the most hidden object in all of Israel. One man saw it for a few minutes a year, through smoke, while everyone else waited outside (16:17).
Blood, smoke, and mercy (the title of the series).
God says the tent of meeting "dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses" (16:16). He doesn't leave His people because they are unclean. But He doesn't ignore their uncleanness either. He cleans His own house. The high priest sprinkles blood on and in front of the mercy seat seven times (16:14-15), cleansing the sanctuary of everything Israel's sin had defiled over the past year.
The blood cleans the house, but the guilt is still in the camp. That's where the second goat comes in. Aaron takes two male goats from the people as one sin offering (16:5), and lots are cast over them. The first goat is killed, and its blood is carried behind the curtain. The second goat is not killed at all. "And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness." (Leviticus 16:21-22) This is where we get the word "scapegoat." The text says the goat is "for Azazel" (16:8, 10), and nobody knows for sure what that name means. But anyone can see what happens. The goat walks away carrying every sin of the people, and it doesn't come back.
So the two goats deal with sin in two ways. The first deals with its penalty. Sin requires blood, a life given, and the first goat pays it. The second deals with its presence. The guilt is placed on its head and carried out of the camp, and Israel could stand at the edge and watch it go. Both goats point to Christ.
We know about the goat that dies. We know Jesus shed His blood on the cross, and that "the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). But the goat that keeps pulling me back is the one that lives. It carried the guilt away and kept on living. That points to the importance of Christ being risen and at the right hand of the Father, where "he always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). Our guilt is no longer our own, and we have a High Priest who advocates and mediates for us continuously (1 John 2:1).
The goat went away from God, into the wilderness. Christ went the other way. He entered "into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf" (Hebrews 9:24).
The chapter ends with this: "And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins" (16:34). Once in the year. Then the next year, again, and the year after that. Every autumn the same day, the same blood, the same goat led out into the wilderness. Hebrews says, "But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Hebrews 10:3-4).
The fatigue you might feel reading Leviticus, Israel felt every year. The repetition was telling them that this was never meant to be the end.
Leviticus is the blueprint. It is perfect, God explaining to a very specific people how He is to be approached. Thankfully, God never said their uncleanness or commonness disqualified them from His presence. Their commonness just required specific steps for them to approach Him. The problem was never the blueprint. Humanity constantly failed the blueprint it was given.
Jesus isn't another blueprint. He is the completed building. "He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:12). He is the Priest who needed no sacrifice for Himself (7:27), the goat that died, and the goat that carried our sin away, all at once. Christ has fulfilled every specific step for humanity to enter the presence of a holy God.
"Every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God" (10:11-12). The priests in the tabernacle never sat down, because their work was never done. Jesus sat down. A seated High Priest means the work is finished. And like Israel standing outside the tent, we are waiting for our High Priest to come out again. He "will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him" (9:28).
So this is not a call to want more sacrifice, and it isn't a call to start keeping Yom Kippur. It's a reason to be thankful. Look at what the people did on that day. They fasted, and they did no work at all (16:29-31). One man did everything, and they were told, "For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the LORD from all your sins" (16:30). Atonement was made for them. They couldn't add to it. They could only rest.
The Day of Atonement is now a day in which we rest in the work of Christ alone.
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