Leviticus 16 - The Day of Atonement

Nick Lotter

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Leviticus 16 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. 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. “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. 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. “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. 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 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. 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. “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. 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. 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. 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. 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. “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. “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. And the fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. 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. 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. And he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. “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. And the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments. 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. 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.

Introduction

Leviticus - where new years resolutions go to die

Because when Christians make New Years Resolutions, often one of those would be to read the Bible through again in a year

And thats a good resolution to have - no matter how many times you have read the Bible, every time you open it, God speaks.

It is the bread of life. We need this bread to live.

What was it that Jesus said… man cannot live by bread alone…

And he was quoting “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”

So Christians hunger for the Word of God - we need the Bible to keep growing

When New Year comes around we usually start thinking about how we want to be productive in the new year… and we think about all that we want to achieve… and one of those things is we want to read through the Bible

We start in Genesis and that goes well… there are quite a few interesting stories there

Then we get to Exodus… and that goes OK because there’s a fascinating story of God redeeming Israel from slavery to Egypt and there’s all the powerful miracles that God performs

But then we get to Leviticus...

And there are all these rituals and laws...

Laws for burnt offerings

Laws for grain offerings

Laws for peace offerings

Laws for sin offerings

Laws for guilt offerings

Then there’s the priests and the priesthood and all their offerings

and clean and unclean animals

and purification ceremonies

Before you get to chapter 16, if you even get that far… you are by now reading Leviticus to help fall asleep… if you’re honest

But if you do make it your New Years Resolution for 2019 to read the whole Bible again - and I hope you do…

… then not only do I want you to get to Leviticus ch 16 and beyond…

… but I want you to enjoy it, to understand it… and to see how actually, Leviticus is very relevant to us today

… to see how reading Leviticus can actually deepen our understanding of the gospel and our understanding of God, of His holiness and of His grace…

… and in turn deepen our gratitude and worship of God.

We are going to take a look this evening at - a theologically pivotal point in the book of Leviticus

Its the Day of Atonement… Yom Kippur as the Jews still call it and remember it today - the Day of Atonements

The Need for Atonement

Leviticus 16:1–2 ESV

Leviticus 16:1 ESV

The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died,

Leviticus 16:1–3 ESV

The first verse tells us the context - The two sons of Aaron had just died

Lev 16:1-3

So let’s look at that incident, which will set the context and give us the background to what is being spoken about in chapter 16

The first verse tells us the context - The two sons of Aaron had just died

So let’s look at that incident, which will set the context and give us the background to what is being spoken about in chapter 16

Leviticus 10:1–2 ESV

Lev 10

Leviticus 10:1–3 ESV

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.

Lev 10:1-

Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons, have just died.

In chapter 9, we see Aaron the priest, and Moses, carrying out God’s very specific instructions for making a peace offering

… and in the end, when Moses and Aaron come out of the tent of meeting, fire came from God and burned the offering

But now Nadab and Abihu try to make an offering to the Lord, and instead of fire coming from God to burn the offering… fire comes from God and kills both of Aaron’s sons

What had they done?

The text doesn’t say specifically what they had done, but it says they offered “unauthorized” fire, “which the Lord had not commanded them.”

They had become complacent in the worship of God, and attempted to treat the worship of God as something they could do any old how they pleased.

And then Moses’ words to his brother Aaron are not exactly comforting…

Leviticus 10:3 ESV

Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.

He says,

He goes on to say to Aaron and his two other sons Eleazar and Ithamar in verse 6: “Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the congregation; but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning that the LORD has kindled. 7 And do not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

When in mourning, the people of Israel would outwardly display their grief by tearing their clothes and letting their hair hang in a mess

But God is telling Aaron and his family… The rest of Israel can mourn the deaths of your sons and brothers. You may not.

The people of Israel

Coming back to chapter 16 then, God now says 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…

This gives us a hint as to the reason Aaron’s sons died…

The Holy Place inside the veil of the tabernacle was where God would appear to His people…the presence of God was there

And God is saying that nobody - not even Aaron, who as the high priest of Israel you’d assume to be one of the most holy people - not even Aaron, can come in at any time or in any way they feel like it - like Aaron’s sons did

God is holy, and we are not

When we think of God’s holiness, we think of His goodness… the fact that He is perfect and without sin… He is righteous and good in all His ways…

But because there isn’t a lot of preaching on God’s holiness these days, we don’t often think of God’s holiness in the sense that it means God hates sin

That God’s wrath burns with ferocity against all sin and wickedness and evil - precisely because He is good and perfect.

It is precisely because God is holy, that all that is sinful and not holy - like us - cannot be in His presence without being burned up in an instant

As Uzzah found out in … when the oxen were pulling the ark of the covenant and Uzzah thought the ark was about to fall, so he reached out to catch it… and in the instant that he touched the ark - which was forbidden for him to touch, he died

The defiled may not enter the presence of the perfect and Holy God

God takes this very seriously.

As Uzzah also found out in … when the oxen were pulling the ark of the covenant and Uzzah thought the ark was about to fall, so he reached out to catch it… and in the instant that he touched the ark - which was forbidden for him to touch, he died

We don’t like stories like this in the Bible

Because it scares us.

The truth is that God is holy and he commands therefore that we also need to be holy if we are to have communion with Him

If we are to meet with God and have fellowship with God, then we must be holy as He is holy

And to not be holy and to be in the presence of God is death

So the question then… in light of what happened to Aaron’s sons, is how can Aaron Himself - even as high priest of Israel and the mediator for Israel in terms of the sacrifices - enter beyond the veil in the tabernacle and into the Holy of Holies - the Most Holy Place - into the very presence of God Himself… and not die?

Indeed the question is, how can anybody, including ourselves, enjoy fellowship with God, or be reconciled to God and have communion with God?

Since all of us alike are born in sin and by sin have been defiled?

We were created by God, for God, in order that we would enjoy God and glorify God…

But since the Fall we have all fallen and lie open to His Judgment

We cannot enter into His presence… We cannot dare to presume upon His kindness when we have lived lives of open rebellion against him…

… broken every Law He has given us.. and refused to do the good He has commanded from us

Well did Paul speak of us all, when he says in ...

“as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Romans 3:10–18 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Rom 3:10-

John Flavel posed the question so well in his written piece called “The Father’s Bargain”

He writes of a conversation between God the Father and God the Son…

And the first verse has the Father speaking first, and he says:

“‘My son, here is a company of poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone themselves, and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them: What shall be done for these souls?’

What shall be done?

The answer is, there must be a satisfaction for them… there must be an atonement!

God’s justice will with absolute certainty punish the sinner with death

God will not sweep our sin under the carpet and pretend it didn’t happen

Our sin needs to be dealt with...

Someone needs to die in our place

It needs to be atoned for...

We need...

A Substitutionary Atonement

Our sin must be atoned for!

God now gives Aaron very specific instructions for how he can enter the Most Holy Place and be in the presence of God

Leviticus 16:3 ESV

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 must take a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

That’s for Aaron.

Lev 16:3-28

He must put on the robes and garments that are called the holy garments - only to be worn on this special occasion

And then he must also bring two male goats for the people of Israel - 1 for a sin offering, 1 for a burnt offering

First Aaron has to kill the bull as a sin offering for himself and his family. Before he can make an offering for the people of Israel, his own sin must be dealt with.

And so, instead of Aaron, the bull dies. His blood for Aaron’s. That’s the picture God is showing Aaron.

Then Aaron is to take coals of fire from the altar and two handfuls of incense, and bring them inside the veil and throw the incense onto the coals - which will then fill the whole place with a cloud of smoke

And its inside this cloud that God will make Himself present

and again look at the language in verse 13 - Aaron must do this, or he will die

Can you imagine the seriousness, and the fear with which Aaron would have carried out his task...

He is entering the very presence of God - the Holy God, who just recently took the lives of his sons who worshiped God irreverently

People need to understand that God and the worship of God is not to be taken lightly…

we have so many people in churches today worshiping - if you can even call it worship - without any respect towards our Creator

I can assure you Aaron would have been taking this very seriously with immense humility, reverence, respect and even fear in the presence of God’s holiness

How can he not… I mean imagine the scene...

Aaron has a container full of the blood of a bull

With his hand covered in the still warm blood of the bull that has just had its throat cut…

And with it he is smearing and sprinkling blood on the front of the mercy seat… 7 times

And he has to do this every year… meaning he could probably still see the dried blood from the year before… and the year before that

And then he must do the same with the blood of the goat killed on behalf of the people of Israel...

and that blood too is sprinkled 7 times on the mercy seat

And then he must take the blood and sprinkle it also all around the horns of the altar, 7 times

All this he has to do, not only to make atonement to God for his own sin and the sin of his family and the people of Israel…

but even to cleanse and purify the furniture of the tabernacle and the tent of meeting where God meets with His people… because, verse 16 says, of the uncleanness of the people because of their sin

Try if you can to picture what Aaron and the whole place must have looked like, with the dead or dying bodies of the bull and goats,and the blood all over Aaron and everything inside the veil…

Its a picture that tells a story of God’s holiness and the seriousness of sinning against the Holy God

Its a picture that shows that the penalty of sin is death, and without the shedding of blood, their cannot be any forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God

But that’s not all

From verse 20 we see that Aaron must now take the second goat - the live goat

And he is to lay both his hands on the goat , and confess over it all the sins of the people of Israel, symbolically transferring those sins onto the goat

And then the goat is to be led out of the camp of Israel and sent out of the camp and into the wilderness - symbolically taking away the sin of the people.

This is the scapegoat - the innocent one upon whom all the blame, guilt and punishment falls

Now there are two goats in this picture - one that is slaughtered and its blood given as an offering for sin, and another upon which all the sin of the people is transferred and taken away

They are both carrying out the same task - atoning for the sin of God’s people, and cleansing them so that they can again meet with their God, and worship Him and enjoy Him, having had their sin taken away.

And so in the last few verses of the chapter God tells Moses and Aaron that this Day of Atonement is to be kept as a special Sabbath day once every year

A day of solemn rest and also - according to verse 29 - a day of afflicting themselves - literally to humble themselves, to fast and to pray and to consider the seriousness of their sin and all that was required to take it away.

Now what do you suppose might have gone through the minds of Aaron and the people every year when they repeated this Day of Atonement and all the bloody sacrifices?

For sure, they would remember that

God is holy and is to be worshiped with with fear and reverance

That sin is serious and has serious consequences

But I believe they must have also considered everything they were doing and thought to themselves… this must be pointing to something else

God must be pointing us to something bigger

Because after all, they would do these sacrifices every year and they would meet with God and worship him with great joy knowing that they had been ceremonially made clean...

And yet they would still sin again… and again… and again…

And they would have to repeat these rituals every year…

Meaning that these rituals and the blood of bulls and goats were not the substance that actually delivers once and for all from the power and penalty of sin,

while it served to temporarily deliver them from the immediate consequence of sin, it didn’t deliver them from the power of sin so that they would no longer sin,

And they would have to repeat the

but they must be the sign that points to the substance

The Application of Atonement

or deal with the conse

And that would of course be the correct conclusion

Because all of this is pointing forward to One who would be the ultimate scapegoat

God is revealing His master plan of redemption

He gave Adam the first clue of His plan in when He promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head

He showed that there would be both Judgment against sin by sending a flood, and redemption by saving Noah and his family to bring a new start and a new life and restoration of God’s creation

He gave us a glimpse of atonement for sin by giving Abraham a ram to sacrifice instead of his son, his only son, Isaac

Here in Leviticus, the sacrifice of the rams is shown to be an atonement for the sin of God’s people

In Isaiah, the identity of the lamb that is to be sacrificed to make atonement for our sin is attached to a person

And in , that person is revealed as the Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ.

When John saw Jesus coming and declared, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Jesus

Jesus came as the Lamb to the slaughter

Jesus didn’t have to offer up any animal sacrifices to God for Himself like Aaron did, because He was already pure and righteous in every way

Neither did he offer up any animal sacrifices on behalf of the people…

Because Jesus was the Lamb

Jesus came as the Lamb to the slaughter

He died on a wooden cross, a bloody sacrifice.

His blood was poured out in atonement for our sin to satisfy the justice of the Holy God

to satisfy the justice of the Holy God and to take away the sin of the world

He took upon himself our guilt, the wrath of God that we deserved was poured out on Him instead, and he took away the sin of the world

And he rose again, declaring his victory and delivering us once and for all from the penalty of sin.

But I can’t conclude or apply this better than Scripture so I will conclude by quoting the writer of Hebrews

Hebrews 9:11–14 ESV

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 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. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Heb

Hebrews 9:23–28 ESV

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews 9:23–24 ESV

Heb 9

Hebrews 10:19–22 ESV

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Heb 10:19-

Heb 9:

Jesus did it all… Jesus paid it all, once and for all.

That is why the veil in the tabernacle was ripped in two from top to bottom at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ -

There is now no need for the sacrifices to cleanse us

There is no need for other mediators

There is no need for the shadows … because the real has come…

and he has taken away our sin and opened up the way for EVERY believer to enter into the most Holy Place and enjoy sweet communion and fellowship with God

We can now draw near to God in confidence

All through

God gave us Leviticus, to point us to Jesus.

Yes, we have all sinned.

And yes, there is a Judgment coming on which every sinner must face the eternal consequences of sin.

But God has also made atonement for us by giving His own Son as our scapegoat, to shed His blood for our forgiveness and to die to take away our sin.

He has done it.

But don’t be fooled…

Because whose sin was transferred to the scapegoat?

And whose sin did the scapegoat carry away out into the wilderness?

Was it the sin of the whole world… the Greeks… the Romans… The Chaldeans… The Philistines…?

No, but it was the sins of God’s people

The sins of those whose sins had been confessed and transferred to the goat

It is only those who by faith reach out to the Lamb…

And who humble themselves, repent and confess their sin to the Lamb of God…

It is their sin that has been taken away.

Don’t assume Jesus blood has been counted for you, if you have not reached out to him yet in faith and in repentance.

But know that if you have been woken up to your sin tonight, and realise your desperate situation and your need to be saved,

Reach out and believe, receive forgiveness of your si

That Jesus has opened u

That you can be saved.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, trust in Him and turn to Him in a life of faith and repentance, and God says that ALL your sin will be forgiven

and just as far as the east is from the west, so far will he remove your sin from you and he will remember them no more.