"The (Bloody) Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16-17) | 3/3/24
Leviticus 16-17 | 3/3/24 | Will DuVal
I have told you I’m a basketball fan. And like MOST basketball fans, I was excited last summer for the most highly anticipated NBA debut since Lebron James’ 20 years ago: 7’4” French phenom Victor Wembanyama. But as it turned out, the biggest “Wemby” news of the pre-season would actually happen OFF the court, when Britney Spears (apparently ALSO a hoops fan), recognized him at a Las Vegas restaurant and tried to APPROACH him for an autograph, only to be “slapped” by a member of Wemby’s security team detail. The takeaway is clear: when approaching IMPORTANT people, proceed with CAUTION.
Well, friends, there is NO ONE more important than GOD. And in many ways, answering this question of how we may APPROACH God is really the whole PURPOSE of the book of Leviticus. You may recall, I pointed this out all the way back in week 1 of this series: the previous book, Exodus, ENDED with Israel completing the construction of the tent of meeting where God promised to MEET with his people. And all Israel had gathered and watched the cloud of God’s manifest presence descend from heaven and FILL the tent, so ENTIRELY so, that Moses wasn’t even able to ENTER it. And that’s where Leviticus 1 OPENED: with God speaking to Moses “FROM the tent” - God inside; Moses outside. But then we flipped ahead to Numbers ch1, the NEXT book of the Bible, where the Lord now speaks to Moses “INSIDE the tent”; Moses GOT IN! God made a way for Moses to APPROACH Him, despite God’s holiness, despite Moses’ sinfulness, God made a way. And that WAY, IS LEVITICUS.
And specifically, we outlined the overarching structure of Leviticus which highlights the FOUR means that God provided for Israel, that they may approach him: the book opens (in chs1-7) and closes (in chs23-27) with the rituals Israel was called to practice (sacrifices, holidays…); the adjacent chapters (chs8-10 & 21-22) commission the priests as Israel’s mediators; and the chapters inside those (chs11-15 & 18-20) outline the purity laws that Israel was commanded to obey, to remain HOLY. But then at the center of it all - the centerpiece of God’s plan for bringing his sinful people back into his holy presence - was the Day of Atonement, “Yom Kippur”, found here in ch16. And in order to understand this all-important day in the Israelite (and still today, in the modern Jewish) calendar, we must ALSO understand the significance of BLOOD, explained here in ch17. Hence our title: “The BLOODY Day of Atonement”.
Now, if you’re newer this morning, that word “atonement” - kaphar - is found 17x here in these 2 chapters, but it first showed up back in chs1-7, 13x, with the 5 different sacrifices God provided for his people to… make ATONEMENT, to COVER OVER their sins, their imperfections that prevented them from approaching God; the Bible says our sins SEPARATE us from a holy God (Isa 59:2), UNTIL those sins are DEALT with, ATONED for. So all throughout the year, Israel would offer these sacrifices to atone for their sins. But like US, the Israelites were SO sinful that there would inevitably be sins that they had overlooked, FAILED to atone for. So God commanded that once a year, the entire NATION would come together on the Day of Atonement so the high priest could offer a sort-of CATCH-all sacrifice, to cover every overlooked SIN of every individual in all of ISRAEL for all of the past YEAR. See how IMPORTANT this day was?! Yom Kippur was and still IS considered the holiest of ALL days in the Jewish calendar. Think of it like a “spiritual spring CLEANING” (Kevin DeYoung, “Leviticus 16”). You try to keep your house, your garage, your GUTTERS pretty clean throughout the year. But once a year, hopefully before the first big spring rain comes, you get the ladder out, and get up there and you do a DEEP clean, get all the leaves and gunk that has accumulated over the past year. That’s what the Day of Atonement did, spiritually, with SIN. So that Israel could approach, draw near to God. And they COULD. But only, as we’ll see, with FIVE privisos. 5 stipulations.
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So let’s READ it together first… just ch16 of Leviticus (we’ll pick up ch17 when we get to point #3, but we won’t read it all):
“The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, 2 and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any (old) time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 3 But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. 5 And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.
6 “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. 7 Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 8 And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. 9 And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, 10 but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.
11 “Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself. 12 And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil 13 and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. 14 And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.
15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that 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, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. 16 Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 17 No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. 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 some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. 19 And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel.
20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21 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. 22 The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.
23 “Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and shall take off the linen garments that he put on when he went into the Holy Place and shall leave them there. 24 And he shall bathe his body in water in a holy place and put on his garments and come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. 25 And the fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. 26 And he who lets the goat go to Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. 27 And the bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp. Their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned up with fire. 28 And he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp.
29 “And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. 30 For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. 31 It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever. 32 And the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father's place shall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments. 33 He shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. 34 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.” And Aaron did as the Lord commanded Moses.
Proviso #1: If you wanted to approach God and live to tell about it, you had to come: 1) On HIS TERMS. (16:1-2, 7-8)
V1 opens by reminding us of the deaths of Aaron’s two sons, Nadab & Abihu, back in ch10, who tried to approach God on THEIR OWN terms. Now God reminds AARON, their father, of this same principle - that we must come to God on HIS terms:
“Tell Aaron… not to come at any (old) time (he feels like it…) into the Holy Place inside the veil”, the HOLY of Holies, where GOD resided, “lest he DIE!”
“But”, v3, “in this way Aaron shall come in…” - and then God goes on for 31 verses to lay out this very specific protocol that HAD to be followed TO THE LETTER… on God’s terms.
Likewise, God has told us TODAY, friends, how we may - how we MUST - approach him, on his terms: Jesus, God’s SON, declared, “I am THE WAY - not “A way”; I am THE way - the truth and the LIFE; NO ONE comes to the FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME! ”
Not through Buddha or Mohammed…
Not by living at harmony with Mother Nature, or with your own inner CHI…
Not through trying your very HARDEST to be a good person, or making sure that your good deeds outweigh your BAD ones…
Not through your BAPTISM or your church MEMBERSHIP or your PROFESSION of faith – NONE of those things can save you and get you to God; the ONLY way that you and I have access to God today is through JESUS CHRIST, His SON.
If you want a relationship with GOD - not a *“god” of your own making; a lot of people these days will say, “I like to think of God THIS way… or THAT way…”; you can THINK of God however you WANT. But God has TOLD us who He is, and if you want a relationship with THAT God, the God who actually EXISTS, then you MUST come to Him through JESUS. “There is salvation in no one else… for there is no other name… by which we must be saved” than the name of JESUS (Acts 4:12),.
#2 - To approach God, we must come Through A PRIEST. (16:2-3, 17, 32-33)
Only ONE man was allowed inside the Holy of Holies, into God’s holy presence: the HIGH PRIEST. And v17: while he was IN there, none of the other PRIESTS could even step foot inside the TENT. V32: the high priest had to be specially ANOINTED and CONSECRATED for this job. We covered it in DEPTH two, three weeks ago, in chs8-10, where God ordained and commissioned Aaron to the role. MILLIONS of Israelites; only ONE of them was allowed to enter God’s presence, and even HE, only ONCE per year.
Nadab & Abihu served as a STARK warning to anyone ELSE who would presume to approach God DIRECTLY. It wasn’t just that they had circumvented God’s appointed PROTOCOL; they also ignored God’s anointed PERSON - his MEDIATOR; the GO-between God had instituted to represent the people BEFORE Him. The high priest.
God is simply too HOLY for sinners like US to approach him directly. Remember when MOSES tried? He asked to see God’s glory, directly, unmediated - “God: no more CLOUDS, no more SMOKE; won’t you just REVEAL yourself to me!” Remember God’s reply? “Moses: man shall not see me and live.” I’m too HOLY; you’re too SINFUL. There has GOT to be something between us, to PROTECT you - the cleft of a rock… I’ll cover your eyes with my hand… but you cannot approach me directly and LIVE.
Actually, let’s go ahead and look at vv12 & 13 here, where Aaron is instructed to take a censer with him into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement and burn some INCENSE, “that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat”; what’s all that about?
Jay Sklar explains (431): “The focus on ‘covering the mercy seat’ suggests that the goal [of the cloud the incense] was to conceal [the ark of the covenant] from Aaron’s sight, since it is here, above the lid, that the Lord manifests his presence, and full exposure to such glory would be LETHAL (Exod 33:20).”
And friends: what was true of Moses, of Aaron, is still true of US today. Hebrews 7:25 says we can only “draw near to God through [JESUS]”; that “he lives [now in HEAVEN] to make intercession for [us]”, as our great high PRIEST.
1 Tim 2:5 declares “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”.
Jesus is not only the PATH - our WAY TO God - he is also our PRIEST - the one who had to actually WALK the path FOR us.
Think of God like a NUCLEAR REACTOR. He’s GOOD… but he’s also DANGEROUS. So God put up these FENCES, to PROTECT us… from HIMSELF, from his holiness. And it’s not enough for Jesus to come to us, saying, “I’ve made a way; here’s the key to the fence”. You’d say, “That’s GREAT, Jesus, but do you ALSO have, like a HAZMAT suit I can put on?”
But as our PRIEST, Jesus says: “I will go BEFORE you, I’ll go BETWEEN you and God, and SHIELD you from the radiation, because I too am HOLY; I too am GOD!” So God the Father - his holiness - poses no THREAT to Jesus. He alone can get us IN; Hebrews 10 says: “since we [now] have confidence to enter the holy places [God’s very own PRESENCE; HOW??] by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living WAY that he opened for us… through his flesh, and since we have a great [high] priest… let us draw near… with our hearts sprinkled clean” (vv19-22).
Which brings us to Proviso #3: to approach God, we must come With BLOOD. (16:3, 5-6, 9, 11, 14-19; 17:1-16)
Blood is the very first requirement God lists in v3: “in this way Aaron shall come [into my presence] with a bull… for [his own] sin offering and a ram for [his] burnt offering.”
v5: And “two goats for ISRAEL’S sin offering, and [another] ram for [their] burnt offering.” LOTS of animals. Lots of BLOOD.
And we won’t rehash God’s detailed instructions for what Aaron was supposed to DO with all that blood - we not only read it already together this morning; we spent our first 4 WEEKS in Leviticus unpacking all the “how-tos” of these sacrifices. So let me just point out THREE big picture principles here regarding the BLOOD:
What the blood DID…
For WHOM the blood DID it…
And HOW the blood did it.
WHAT… FOR WHOM… and HOW.
First: what was the PURPOSE of the blood? V19 tells us: “[Aaron] shall sprinkle some of the blood on [the ALTAR]... and cleanse it and consecrate it”. So blood not only cleansed - took something that was UNCLEAN and made it CLEAN - but it could ALSO CONSECRATE - take something that was CLEAN but COMMON, and make it HOLY unto the Lord.
Blood cleansed and it consecrated… WHO?
Well, for starters, vv11-14: the high PRIEST HIMSELF! Before Aaron could clean out anyone ELSE’S gutters, he had to take care of his OWN spiritual CRUD - “Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, to make atonement for himself”.
Only THEN, v15, could Aaron cleanse and consecrate… THE PEOPLE: “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil”.
But notice, thirdly, vv16-19 speak of the need for the blood to cleanse and consecrate not just the PRIEST and the PEOPLE, but the PLACE and the PARAPHERNALIA as well. The Holy Place ITSELF, and everything IN and AROUND it - the ALTAR, the entire tent of MEETING, all the EQUIPMENT used - ALL of it had to be PURIFIED, this was like a spiritual STERILIZATION process.
Why? V16: “because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel… their transgressions, all their sins.”
Sin DEFILES. It POLLUTES.
But we all GET that. You don’t even have to be a BELIEVER to get THAT; even non-Christians understand the feeling of GUILT that accompanies SIN.
What is NOT self-evident is how BLOOD can do anything ABOUT it?!
For a GREASE stain, you’re supposed to use CORN STARCH followed by liquid dish soap.
For a GRASS stain: white vinegar, and then a water & hydrogen peroxide solution.
For an INK stain: use rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover.
Or NOWADAYS, you can just use OXICLEAN for ANY stain, right?
And I suppose if I were a CHEMIST, I could explain WHY each of those solvents is effective at removing each particular stain.
But I am NOT a chemist; I’m a theologian. So while I can’t explain how Oxiclean gets the BLOOD out of your SHIRT, I CAN explain how BLOOD gets the SIN out of your SOUL.
Flip ahead with me to ch17, v11; probably the single most important verse in the whole book of Leviticus: “the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I [GOD] have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”
Simply put: blood IS LIFE. As long as it’s IN you, flowing, you’re okay. When enough of it LEAVES you, or it STOPS pumping, you’re NOT okay.
Now, you and I owe God our LIVES. Our WHOLE lives - whole heart, mind, soul and strength - God desires it all, and as our Creator, Sustainer and Sovereign KING, God DESERVES it all.
But we actually OFFER God far LESS than that. That’s what “sin” IS - not just the “bad stuff” we do, but our failure to give God the very “best” of ALL that we are and have.
So we have EACH incurred a “life DEBT” - the GAP between what we OWE God and what we actually OFFER him; between what he DESERVES and what we DELIVER.
But - God says - “I have GIVEN it for you to make ATONEMENT - to make PAYMENT, to COVER your soul’s debt - to make spiritual PAYMENTS by means of BLOOD. You OWE me life, so you must GIVE me life; if not your OWN, then the life of ANOTHER, in your PLACE. A substitutionary sacrifice.
And while we’re AT it, let me just go ahead and SUMMARIZE the REST of ch17 for you: it’s really just extrapolation FROM v11 - the power and preciousness of BLOOD; the sanctity of LIFE - BECAUSE of it, God has 3 special RULES regarding blood:
Vv1-9: you don’t offer it to ANYONE ELSE. I, Yahweh, am the ONLY one you sacrifice to; you bring that blood to ME.
vv10-14: you don’t EAT any blood. If it’s a SACRIFICE, bring the blood to the PRIEST. For any OTHER animal, maybe you went HUNTING, v13, then you need to drain and BURY the blood. Do you see the respect for the dignity of LIFE God wants us to have? ALL life! When we get to ch25 we’ll see how much God cares even for the LAND - for crops and trees. I remember learning as a boy about how Native Americans would pause to PRAY over each kill of their hunt, out of respect for the LIFE of this ANIMAL they had just taken. That’s the idea here.
And then THIRDLY, in vv15&16, if they just FOUND a dead animal and they couldn’t drain all its blood out, then God still allowed them to EAT it, but they’d be UNCLEAN until evening. Do your best to avoid eating any blood, but just in case, you’ll be ritually impure.
That’s ch17: the sanctity of LIFE. For it is by the animal’s LIFE, that they made ATONEMENT, by its BLOOD.
This is why, by the way, JUDAISM just hasn’t really made SENSE for the last 1,954 years. If you’re trying to EVANGELIZE your Jewish friends, before you even mention JESUS, just ask them: “Why did your ancestors kill so many ANIMALS for thousands of years, until AD70?” Because a good Jew, who knows her Torah, will point you HERE, to Leviticus 17 - THAT’s why: “it is the blood [it WAS the blood, she’ll say] that made atonement by the [animal’s] life.”
But then you can ask her: so what makes atonement TODAY?
And she’ll answer: obedience to the LAW. Because after God sent the Romans to DESTROY the Jewish Temple in 70 AD, to try and help his people understand that God HIMSELF had made a once-for-ALL-time sacrifice for their sins when he sent his Son JESUS to the CROSS - “You no longer NEED a Temple, cuz you no longer need any further SACRIFICES; JESUS paid it ALL!” - But they MISSED his memo, and INSTEAD, the 1st c. Jewish rabbis got “creative” in re-interpreting - MIS-interpreting! - all those OT passages that emphasize the importance of OBEDIENCE over SACRIFICE - 1 Samuel 15 says “to obey is BETTER than sacrifice”; in Hosea 6:6, God says “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice”. So the 1st c. rabbis argued, “Hey, let’s just all OBEY God, OBEY the Torah, the 613 mitzvot, and we won’t NEED any sacrifices anymore.”
And apparently NO ONE dared to challenge them - well, I guess the Jewish CHRISTIANS did; that’s why they LEFT Judaism for CHRIST! - but no one left on the INSIDE was asking: “Wait a minute, didn’t God give us this whole sacrificial system BECAUSE we were so BAD at obeying him?” I mean, SURE, it’d be BETTER not to spill any grease, or grass, or wine on your shirt in the first place, but aren’t we like CHRONIC SPILLERS, who manage to find a way to spill things like ALL THE TIME, spiritually speaking - we’re chronic SINNERS?!
So the QUESTION is: did God never REALLY require blood in the FIRST place, in which case, why did he SAY so, in Leviticus 17? And why did he ASK our ancestors to kill hundreds of thousands of poor, innocent animals - their deaths were MEANINGLESS. Perfectly AVOIDABLE.
OR… did God just conveniently CHANGE HIS MIND about no longer requiring blood, in 70AD? God just lowered his standards, moved the GOALPOST a little closer for us. But do you really like THAT interpretive option, if you’re a Jew: “Ehh, maybe God’s not quite as HOLY as we originally thought; but HEY, on the PLUS side: we’re not as SINFUL either. Sin doesn’t REALLY lead to death, like God FORMERLY said. Oh by the way: apparently God CHANGES sometimes…” - he’s a fickle, shifty God. No thanks.
A THIRD option is to say “Well our ancestors were just primitive people. They thought a relationship with God required bloodshed, but we modern people KNOW better. God has NEVER needed BLOOD; just try your best, and I’m sure God will forgive the rest.” Well NOW you’ve just undermined the authority of your entire canon of Scripture! Which is what MOST Jews today have done; their Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament, is just not really all that important to them; it’s certainly not God’s inspired, inerrant WORD.
Are you seeing the PROBLEM that Leviticus 17 poses for Jews today, who no longer offer SACRIFICES??
But friends, there is a FOURTH option: what if the Bible IS God’s word, and he really MEANT it in Hebrews 9:22 when God said, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins”. But what if he ALSO meant it when, just a few verses later, he said that “[Christ] has [now] appeared once for all [time]... to put away sin [not just to COVER OVER it, kaphar… not just to make the minimum annual PAYMENT for sin, like those old LEVITICAL priests at Yom Kippur, just keeping the creditor at bay; NO! What if JESUS actually PUT AWAY SIN - atheh-TEY-sis - he paid the entire BALANCE off] by the sacrifice of HIMSELF”! (9:26)
So YES, God DOES require blood - because sin really DOES lead to DEATH…
But NO, you DON’T need to offer sacrifices, because “by a single offering [by HIS blood, JESUS] has now perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” - being cleansed and consecrated… FOR GOOD, FOREVER!
Friends: that is GOOD NEWS. That is THE good news, the GOSPEL - that on the cross, Jesus bore all of our guilt and shame and sin and he DIED the death that you and I deserved, sacrificially, in our place, in order to cleanse and consecrate us - to make us a HOLY people for God’s own possession, to bring us back into relationship with our perfect, heavenly Father. That is SUCH good news!
But not for EVERYONE. How do you make sure it’s good news… FOR YOU? That Jesus’s death, his blood, covers YOUR sins?
God gives us his ANSWER in the symbolic PICTURE of the high priest here: #4 - how do we approach God? We must come…
4) In HUMILITY & REPENTANCE. (16:4, 12-13, 20-21a, 29, 31)
Did you notice what God told Aaron to wear, in v4? Was it the ornate priestly garb described back in ch8 - the fancy robe and the decked out ephod, with the 12 precious jewels? Remember: HERE is a picture of the high priest every OTHER day of the year.
But HERE is what he wore on the Day of Atonement: LINENS.
Kevin DeYoung explains: “This isn’t a prom dress… a 3-piece suit. You put linens on your BED… he is a walking bedsheet. The point is not so much purity as HUMILITY. These are the clothes of a SERVANT. The high priest has NO RANK before God [Almighty]. He must be stripped of ALL HONOR before he can stand before God’s presence. He does not enter the Holy of Holies as the high priest… he goes in as a humble sinner before a holy God… Some of us are desperate to meet God… but we refuse to be stripped of our honor. We want to stand before God as a PhD”, as a SIX- or SEVEN-figure salary-earner; as a SUPER mom, who can juggle all 5 kids’ busy schedules like NOBODY else; we want to stand before God as an ELDER, as a PASTOR, a LEADER in the church. But “God says: You lay aside your achievements, your degrees and your position, and you come to me like a CHILD, like a SERVANT.”
DeYoung adds: “I think that’s why so many people do not come to Christ… We do not want to surrender, to be stripped of all honor. It’s not because you haven’t FAILED that you can’t come to God; it’s that you haven’t failed ENOUGH!”
This is what the Day of Atonement was all ABOUT - it was a day of HUMILITY and REPENTANCE! A day for Israel to CONFESS - both personally as well as collectively, as an entire nation: “God, we have FAILED! My degrees, my salary, my status, my church participation - NONE of it changes the fact that I am a SINNER. And NONE of it can ATONE for my sin. What can?
“Nothing but the BLOOD.” But to RECEIVE the blood, you have to come humbly, penitently. Yom Kippur was a day to “AFFLICT yourself”, vv29 & 31 say; a day devoted to FASTING and the confession of sins in prayer.
And CONFESSION in particular was the CLIMAX of the day’s rituals; look back with me at vv20&21. Remember, there were TWO goats. One got SACRIFICED, because without the shedding of blood, there is NO forgiveness of sins. But what about the SECOND goat? “When [Aaron] has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, [and HIS sins and the PEOPLE’S sins, then] he shall present the live goat. 21 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 [symbolically, he shall TRANSFER their sin] onto the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness.” It ESCAPES. That’s what that word azazel means, in vv8-10: azazel is just a compound Hebrew word made up of the words ez for “goat” and azal meaning “to leave” or “be led away”. Thus, azazel is the goat that ESCAPES, or SCAPE-goat.
But WHY? To what END did they send it out? v22 explains: “The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area”.
One goat for the FORGIVING of sins; the other for the FORGETTING of sins.
“As far as the east is from the west,” the psalmist assures us, “so far does God remove our transgressions from us.” (103:12)
You know how far the EAST is from the WEST? I don’t either!
God says, “You take that goat TEN MILES outside of Jerusalem, where the WILDERNESS starts, and then set it LOOSE. And if you can’t see that GOAT anymore, then neither do I see your SINS anymore.”
“Who is a God like you,” Micah 7 asks, “pardoning iniquity…
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” (7:18-19)
The Mariana Trench is about 7 miles deep. God says, “If you can’t see the bottom from your boat up here on top, then neither do I see your SINS anymore.”
God promises in Jeremiah 31: “I will forgive [your] wickedness and will remember [your] sins no more.” (v34)
Not just FORGIVEN, friends - FORGOTTEN!
You ever heard THIS one, or maybe YOU’VE used it on someone recently: “I FORGIVE you, but I still haven’t FORGOTTEN what you did.” Does that make you FEEL very forgiven?
Guess what: GOD’S forgiveness isn’t LIKE that! When HE forgives - perfectly forgives! - he FORGETS!
How? Because God doesn’t just kaphar (COVER OVER) sins - you don’t FORGET about the mess you sweep under the rug; I mean, maybe you do… for a WHILE. But you sweep ENOUGH dust and dirt and garbage under that rug and eventually it starts to PILE UP, and STINK, and you can see a visible LUMP in the rug! You can see the gutters OVERFLOWING due to the gunk build-up.
But friends: God doesn’t just COVER OVER our sins; he REMOVES them. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes AWAY the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29) Behold the SCAPEGOAT of God, who made a way for God to forgive AND FORGET our sins… FOREVER!
This is what God DOES, friends, when we COME to him in humility and repentance, through the blood of an atoning sacrifice: he FORGIVES us and he CLEANSES us. We come, #5 - FOR… FORGIVENESS & CLEANSING. (16:10, 21b-28, 30, 34)
That’s why the priest took a BATH and washed his CLOTHES in vv23-28, to CONCLUDE the ceremony: to symbolize Israel having been WASHED of ALL her sins.
But it wasn’t just a symbol; v30 declares: “On this day atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins!”
Today could be someone’s Day of Atonement. The day when God makes atonement for YOU, declares YOU “CLEAN from ALL your sins”, IF you will come on his terms, through his anointed priest, Jesus, by his perfect, precious, purifying BLOOD…
Listen to how God describes what Jesus would DO for us on the cross, in Isaiah 53; the language is IDENTICAL: In Leviticus 16, God told Aaron to “confess over [the goat] all the iniquities of Israel, all their transgressions…” (Lev 16:21a); Isaiah 53 says Jesus “was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities…”” (53:5a). Leviticus 16 says, “The goat shall bear their iniquities on itself to a remote place”; LITERALLY, in the Hebrew: to a “LAND CUT OFF.” (v22) Isaiah 53 says Jesus “was cut OFF from the land of the living… for he shall bear [our] iniquities…” (vv8b,11)
Friends: Jesus is the lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. He is the humble PRIEST, who stripped off all his glory and stepped off his throne in heaven to climb a CROSS in humiliation instead, that God might lay on HIM the iniquity of us all.
Won’t you COME to him this morning, in HUMILITY and REPENTANCE, for the forgiveness and CLEANSING of your sin?