The Story Through the Bible Lev 16

The Day of Atonement

The second in our Leviticus stories takes place in Lev 16. Between last week in chapter 10 and this week we’ve skipped over the laws given about cleaning your house, lepers, childbirth, clean and unclean animals, and other bodily discharges…

We’re going to look at this not in the sets of rules and methods of procedure that this sometimes comes off as. We’re going to walk through this seeing the three parts of the story of the day of atonement.

Leviticus 16:1–4 ESV

The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother 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. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 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. 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.

We start off with a reminder of something 6 chapters ago, the death of Aaron’s sons. God is so Holy and our sin is so lethal they cannot be flippantly put in the same place without consequences. The high priest needs to bring a bull and a ram for sin and burnt offerings. It’s going to be time for Aaron to go inside but he has to do it the right way to not die. Now I want you to picture what Aaron would normally look like in his high priest garments. We haven’t really looked into this but we know from some of those passages in Exodus we skipped over, 28 and 39. First we have the breastplate that holds 12 stones for the twelve tribes of israel these are all precious stones lots of great colors. Gold, blue, purple, scarlet yarn, and fine linen are what it’s made out of and the Urim and Thummim are also placed inside. Under that we have the Ephod which is like a full apron. It is also made of gold, blue, purple, scarlet yarn, and fine linen. Two onyx stones set in gold engraved with Israel’s sons are on the shoulders. A tunic of fine linen underneath. A turbin affixed with a gold plate engraved with “Holy to the LORD” by a blue cord. A needlework embroidered sash. It is intentionally glorious and beautiful.

Then here he puts on the same undergarment but the whole rest of the outfit is different. The outfit is entirely white from the turbin to the sash and tunic. This is stripped of the beauty and glory of his normal garments. This is a position of humility and simplicity before the LORD.

Then we get to the tale of two goats.

Leviticus 16:7–10 ESV

Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, 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.

There is a rabbit trail i’m going to mostly avoid but I want to acknowledge it. Azazel is weird. If you’ve got an older translation it likely says scapegoat there instead. It could be Hebrew for goat that escapes or it could be a proper name. Most of history, including before the time of Jesus translated this word in that way. In more modern times lots of people want to acknowledge a little more clearly that we don’t know exactly what the term means and the grammar and structure indicate it’s more likely a name because of the parallel way that verse 8 phrases one lot for YHWH one lot for Azazel. The honest truth is that no one knows for any certainty but what is clear is that the purpose of this goat is to show the sins of the people leaving and not coming back. One goat dies for the sins of the people the other caries those sins away. Here we see the propitiation - absorbing God’s wrath, and expiation - the removal of guilt. The two together work for the whole atonement.

Leviticus 16:20–22 ESV

“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. 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.

Imagine you see your sin removed and it goes off farther than you can see, it won’t come up again.

After all of this is done Aaron comes back out.

Leviticus 16:23–24 ESV

“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. 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.

We shift back to the beauty and glory of his regularly high priest attire, the sin of the people are handled for another year, the presence of the Lord will remain.

Leviticus 16:29–31 ESV

“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. For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever.

Afflicting themselves for this special day means fast and reflect.

Israel couldn’t try harder to fulfil the call of our theme ‘Be Holy for God is Holy’ Sin must be paid for The goat that dies, and it needs to be removed the goat that escapes.

Jesus fulfills both goats He shed his blood for us to satisfy justice, and he was taken outside the camp.

Hebrews 13:12 ESV

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

Philippians 2:7 ESV

but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.