Sermon Tone Analysis

Greeting:

Leviticus 16:11-22: The Imperfect and the Perfect Sacrifice

Main Point: Jesus Christ has provided the only sufficient sacrifice, so trust him and turn from the sin that put him on the cross.

Read Leviticus 16:11-22

1.

A Sacrifice for the Sins of the Priest and the Holy Place (11-19)

EXEGETICAL LIFTING (11-14) Before Aaron is able to enter God’s presence, cleanse the tabernacle, and especially before he can act as a mediator between God and Israel, he must first be cleansed.

God explains Aaron has to present the bull as an offering for himself.

After verses 1-10 where the sacrificial goat is chosen, Aaron takes a bull and sacrifices it on the altar of burnt offering outside of the tabernacle.

This altar is the furthest altar from the holy of holies where the Ark of the Covenant resides.

Aaron begins this sacrificial process from the edge of the courtyard and he is going to step by step work his way in until he enters the holy of holies.

After this sacrificial bull for himself, he is commanded in verse 12 to take a bucket of coals of fire and incense into the holy of holies.

He puts the incense over the fire so that it is going to create a type of smoke or vapor.

If you look down in your bibles  to the end of verse 13, God says Aaron is to make this smoke so that Aaron does not die.

If you have followed along you should have the following image in your mind right now: after sacrificing a bull for his own sins, Aaron has entered into the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant is and has created a smoke that separates Aaron from the Ark of the Covenant.

Then while Aaron is in there he takes blood from the bull and sprinkles it on the east side of the mercy seat, and then sprinkles it on top of the mercy seat seven times.

The mercy seat is the lid or top of the Ark of the Covenant.

Does this seem odd to you yet?

Are you thinking, now that is why I have not read Leviticus in years.

It is just so random.

Bulls, altars, and smoke?

This sounds more like some pagan ritual.

Well friend, if that is what you are thinking this morning I hope after we put all these seemingly random pieces together you will want to start reading this book for your next devotional.

Now, let’s try to understand what is going on.

We have to begin by asking why does Aaron begin by sacrificing the bull for himself?

In fact, Moses, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, notes three times just in verse 11 Aaron is making a sin offering for himself.

Moses does not want us to brush over the sacrifice of this bull.

In verse 11, the sacrifice for Aaron is a sin offering, meaning Aaron though holy compared to other Israelites, is a sinner.

But, let’s think about what is Aaron trying to ultimately accomplish through the Day of Atonement?

He is ultimately attempting to  cleanse Israel of their sins.

Really what you have then is a sinner trying to cleanse the sins of other sinners.

It is illogical and does not make sense.

Imagine a similar scenario as receiving driving lessons from someone without a license, or swim lessons from someone who cannot swim.

So since Aaron is an imperfect priest, he himself has sinned, and thus his sins need to be atoned for, he must sacrifice this bull before he makes a sacrifice for the people.

Once Aaron is temporarily cleansed from the punishment for his sins, he enters God’s presence and must take the smoke or he will die.

Likely, Moses is alluding to the fact that man cannot see God without dying.

Normally, man can not be in God’s presence without dying, but God has created these certain stipulations that allow one man to be in God’s presence once a year.

But even then, Aaron cannot see God lest he dies.

Then when Aaron is in the holy of holies he takes blood from the bull and sprinkles it on top of the Ark to cleanse the holy of holies since he, a sinner, has entered.

Now we must look at what role the  Ark of the Covenant plays.

There are three items inside the Ark of the Covenant and all three of them demonstrate Israel’s unfaithfulness.

The ten commandments are commands in which they cannot keep, the manna portrays Israel’s desirous heart and unbelief in the Lord, then Aaron’s rod was used to lead the Israelites out of wilderness which they entered in because of their sin.

These are the items inside of the Ark, but what is on top?

What is the Mercy Seat?

It is two cherubim, which are winged type creatures.

Cherubim are often present as a consequence of Israel’s sin, it was a Cherubim God placed to watch over the Garden of Eden after Israel sinned.

Now, it is two Cherubim who day and night watch over three items that portray Israel’s sin.

Now though, this one day, the Cherubim look down and see blood on the Ark, showing that Israel’s unfaithfulness has been paid for by a substitutionary death.

In our particular verses, we are told of an imperfect priest.

Aaron, and the rest of his lineage as they continue to serve as priests are always going to have to make a bull sacrifice to enter God’s presence because of their sin.

Aaron is unable to be a perfect mediator between God and man because of his sin.

Imagine yourself as an Israelite on this Day of Atonement.

You are one of the thousands of Israelites watching Aaron make the bull sacrifice, you see him take the fire and incense in and you just wait outside of the courtyard of the Tabernacle until Aaron comes out.

Likely, you would not even enter the courtyard of the Tabernacle.

Your sin is paid for though, that is, until you sin again.

Next year Aaron will have to go back and you have to hope that he and his lineage will remain faithful since they too are sinners.

Did you notice that Aaron made a sacrifice for him and his house?

This means those priests who are to come after him.

Maybe this would give you confidence in this sacrificial system, saying “we can trust in the Old Covenant because Aaron’s line will keep producing priests.”

We will look more at this thought a little later on.

Then in our text looking to verse 15-19: after Aaron has made the sacrifice for himself and his line, he cleanses the holy of holies, the tabernacle, and the altar.

He takes the goat as he did with the bull and sacrifices it on the altar outside of the tabernacle.

He sprinkles the blood of the goat  on the mercy seat where the eyes of the cherubim remain looking down.

By doing this he cleanses the Holy of Holies, the tabernacle, and the sins of Israel.

The Holy of Holies itself needed to be clean because of the sins of Israel and because one of these sinners, Aaron, entered into it.

It is the same with the tabernacle, because it was in the midsts of sinners it must be cleansed.

Then he went out to the altar outside of the tabernacle and sprinkled blood on it to cleanse it from the sins of Israel.

Three places have to be cleansed simply because of Israel’s presence in them.

The mercy seat, the tabernacle, and the altar in the courtyard.

Specifically, the altar in the courtyard must be cleaned because Israel used this altar at other times throughout the year to make sacrifices.

So through these sacrifices, the altar must be cleansed from Israel’s sin.

Also though, simply because of Israel’s presence, they defiled the altar.

Then, according to verse 19 these places are consecrated from Israel, meaning they are separated from, made holy, from Israel and consequently their sin.

2. A Sacrifice for the Sins of Israel (20-22)

(Read 20-22)

Now we come to the pinnacle of the entire Pentateuch.

All of the first five books of the bible hinge on the next three verses we are going to read.

Why is this you may ask?

It is because the sin of the people is being transferred off of them and onto another.

Read Leviticus 16: 20-22.

If you have been paying close attention you will have notice three animals: one bull for the sins of Aaron and two goats for the sins of Israel.

One goat was mentioned in verse 15 as the sacrificial goat which would serve as a purification offering to cleanse the Holy Place of Israel’s sin because of their presence.

The sacrifical goat took on the punishment intended for Israel.

Then now, we come to the live goat.

Aaron brings the live goat into the presence of God, and places both of his hands on the goat then confesses the sins of Israel.

Likely Aaron places two hands on the goat instead of one to symbolize the goat is taking on the sins of all the people, not just one individual.

In this, all the sins of Israel are transferred onto this goat.

The goat acts as a substitute for Israel in taking on their sins.

Since the consequence of sin is death, and this goat is taking on all of Israel’s sin, we see in verse 21 that the goat is sent away into the wilderness.

There it will likely perish, but it will never be able to return into the camp.

Verse 22: the goat will carry on itself ALL THEIR SINS to a remote place and the man shall release it in the wilderness”.

Verse 30 then gives us a description of Israel after these sacrifices: Leviticus 16:30 “For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you.

You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins.”

Praise the Lord!

Through these certain stipulations that the Lord has forgiven Israel, they are cleansed from their sins.

And friends, Leviticus 16:30 would likely be the end of the entire bible, if Romans 3:23 was not true.

It reads:“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

There are two main reasons why this sacrificial system cannot ultimately forgive Israel of their sins: the priest himself is a sinner and the Israelites continue to sin.

The Israelites were forgiven from their sins, but like you and me, they continued to sin.

And since they had an imperfect priest, a sinner priest, like a swimming instructor who cannot swim, their sins are not eternally forgiven.

Friends, all that we have studied and examined thus far is imperfect.